Mark Landis

http://www.theavantgardediaries.com/en/article/265/MARK+LANDIS/257 1-14-2013Standing next to 57-year-old Mississippi native Mark Landis in the watercolors aisle of a local art store, the words “master art forger” are the least likely to come to mind. Bald, stooped, and slight of voice, Landis looks more the part of a paint-by-the-numbers hobbyist. And yet for the better part of thirty years, this unassuming figure managed to dupe nearly fifty art institutions in over twenty states into accepting forged art works. Many still don’t know they’ve been tricked. Referring to himself strictly as a philanthropist, Landis never profited from this particular compulsion since he always “donated” the works in honor of his deceased parents or a distant relative. His ruse was also abetted by the unassuming appearance of the man himself – which he habitually refined by dressing as a Jesuit priest. By the mid-2000s, Landis had set up a veritable assembly-line production of forgeries that he created from the comfort of his dim bedroom. In a process that was, no pun intended, deceivingly simple, Landis picked a painting from a museum catalog, made a color copy at an office supply store, affixed it to a small piece of wood, and then drew over it with a mixture of color pencils, paint, and even magic marker. While large institutions usually sniff out such forgeries in seconds, Landis donated to small, regional museums that usually accept such at face value. His works are often copies of little known, nineteenth-century American impressionists, and why on Earth would someone make fakes of such a thing? He is clearly not your average high-stakes forger, which is exactly the kind of cover he thrived upon. The life and journey of Mark Landis is one of the weirder tales that The Avant/Garde Diaries has profiled, and yet it is also one of the most intriguing. A Rain Man-esque character, Landis might not have the most calibrated moral barometer, but through a singularly bizarre creative will and a notable penchant for theatrics, he will likely be remembered more than the iconic painters he made a career of forging.Directed by Terri Timely / Produced by Brady Welch & Sophie Harris / Edited by Amanda Larson / Photography Direction by Donavan Sell / Sound Design by Rich Bologna / Music by Keith Kenniff / Production Coordination by Ayesha Janmohamed / Transcription by Simone Tolmie / Audio clip provided by Local 12 WKRC-TV / With special thanks to John Gapperhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_A._Landis 1-14-2013Mark A. Landis (born in Norfolk, Virginia, March 10, 1955) is an American painter and forger. He has painted a large number of faux, which he successfully donated to American art museums.His grandfather, Arthur Landis, was a director at the now defunct Auburn Automobile company.[1] His father, an officer of the US Navy, was assigned to NATO in Europe, and lived with his family in London, Paris and Brussels. At 17, Mark Landis was deeply struck by the loss of his father. He was treated for 18 months in a Kansas hospital, diagnosed as schizophrenic. He attended art courses at the Art Institute of Chicago then in San Francisco, where he subsequently worked in the commerce of art; among other things, he worked on the maintenance of damaged paintings.[2][3] He bought an art gallery but it was not successful. Broke at 30, he decided to return to live with his mother. Beforehand, he wished to make a gesture that would please his mother and honour the memory of his father: donate a copy of a Maynard Dixon to a California museum; this first successful attempt convinced him to repeat the feat.[4] For more than 20 years, he donated all kinds of faux pieces of art to institutions in the U.S., including more than 50 museums.[5] He chose preferably small sized-museums, which did not have the powerful means of analysis of the larger ones. While not all institutions were duped, the whole process went fairly unnoticed, and unstopped, for more than 20 years, in spite of the large number of dispersed forgeries. Landis even donated several times the faux of a same work to different museums. During this period, Landis also produced original work; some are sold through Narsad Artworks. As of 2012, it was still possible to buy stationery bearing the Magnolias by Landis.[6] He moved often, having lived at more than 15 different addresses between 1985 and 2000. Patsy Hollister, Narsad co-founder, believes Landis probably is more bipolar than schizophrenic, with an ability to paint extremely fast. Says Landis, talking about icons: "I gave to hundreds of churches."[4] Landis also is said to have worked in animation and advertisement.[7] Landis' success derives not so much from the perfection of his faux (sometimes a basic test exposes the forgery) as from his ability to copy all kinds of styles, helped by a strong sense of deception and a strange and soft approach which obfuscates specialists. [edit] Investigation In 2007, Landis offered several works to the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, among them a watercolour by Louis Valtat, a harbor scene by Paul Signac, a self-portrait by Marie Laurencin, an oil painting by Stanislas Lépine, a nude and a drawing by Daumier.[8] The registrar, Matthew Leininger, had the pieces investigated by his team. They discovered a very similar Signac has been offered to the SCAD Museum of Art. A press release even signaled the donation of the same Signac, Avery and Laurencin.[9] It also provided Mark Landis real name. Leininger investigated further, and discovered Landis tripped more than 45 museums in 19 different cities. He warned museums, providing available photos of Landis. At this stage, the investigation remained confidential. In September 2010, Landis went to the Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum in Lafayette, Louisiana, under the identity of a jesuit priest, Father Arthur Scott. He donated a painting by Charles Courtney Curran, under the pretext of the loss of his mother. The director Mark Tullos asked registrar Joyce Penn to check out the painting. Penn checked the painting under blacklight, and the colors glowed suspiciously. A microscope observation then showed a dot-matrix pattern, hinting that a mere photocopy of the original had been projected on the board and then painted over. Joyce Penn digged deeper and linked up with Leininger's investigation. In November 2010, The Art Newspaper published a complete paper on the matter,[8] inspiring other publishers such as FT.[2] The last known attempt by Landis took place in November 2010, again under the Father Arthur Scott identity, at the Ackland Art Museum, with a French academy drawing.[10] [edit] Law infrigement It is not clear that Mark Landis has actually broken any law, especially in view of the fact that no action has been opened against him (2012), and no court decision has ever been made. The fact that he drew no revenue from his actions certainly eliminates a number of possible accusations; also, he mainly addressed his donations to people who are actual specialists, and normally geared to eliminate such pranks on a routine basis. [edit] Exhibition Both Tullos and Leininger wished to put an end to Landis' forger career. Matthew Leininger and Aaron Cowan set up an exhibition wishing to address the general matter of forgery in art, and specifically Landis' works. The curators collected some 90 pieces by Landis, who provided his "jesuit father" costume and some of his art books. Named "Faux Real", it takes place from April first to May 20, 2012 at the Dorothy W. and C. Lawson Reed Jr. Gallery, Cincinnati.[5][11][12][13] The organizers set up a short video featuring Landis' most relevant paintings.[14] They say Landis is invited. [edit] Painters and authors copied Hans von Aachen [15] Milton Clark Avery William-Adolphe Bouguereau [15] Charles Courtney Curran Daumier Walt Disney Maynard Dixon[3] Thomas Jefferson (letter) John Hancock (letter) [2] Marie Laurencin Stanislas Lépine (Terrassiers au Trocadero)[16] · [17] Abraham Lincoln (electoral tract) Alfred Jacob Miller (Head of a Sioux)[2] Picasso Everett Shinn Paul Signac (Le Trieux) [16] · [17] Louis Valtat Watteau icons