{"id":997,"date":"2015-04-30T23:26:29","date_gmt":"2015-04-30T23:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/art-history-concepts.webspace.wheatoncollege.edu\/?page_id=997"},"modified":"2015-05-11T15:29:11","modified_gmt":"2015-05-11T15:29:11","slug":"authenticity","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/art-history-concepts.webspace.wheatoncollege.edu\/?page_id=997","title":{"rendered":"Authenticity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sarah M. Estrela<\/h3>\n
\""Colored<\/a>

Figure 1. Ai Weiwei, Colored Vases (2014) with Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995) in the background. Installation view, Perez Art Museum Miami.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The authenticity of a work of art potentially means a variety of things, depending on a viewer\u2019s assumptions and prerogatives. \u00a0Some viewers prioritize the accurate\u00a0dating of a work and\/or establishing attribution (i.e., an \u201cauthentic Jackson Pollock”). \u00a0Others may be more concerned with cultural authenticity, which maintains that a work can only be considered \u201cauthentic\u201d if it was created in the same setting in which the formal and technical traditions informing it originated (or created by a native artist who preserves the same traditions). \u00a0For example, in order for a Fang sculpture to be deemed authentic, the attribution would have to assume its artist followed traditional models protected from Western influence, and that it originated in Gabon, Cameroon, or Equatorial Guinea. \u00a0Both notions of authenticity are valid and are not mutually exclusive. While the cultural traditions that inform a work of art have an origin, the standards by which authenticity is determined are in constant flux (like tradition itself) and cannot always be strictly determined.<\/p>\n

The concept of originality often overlaps with authenticity. \u00a0As Richard Shiff writes, \u201cOriginality implies some sense of coming first or doing first, a priority or lack of precedent; it therefore cannot be divorced from considerations of chronology and historical sequence. \u00a0It is also linked to issues of class, a kind of social priority or lineage (one inherits class status and property, just as one does an artistic tradition).\u201d<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> \u00a0Thus, authenticity is ultimately determined by a set of factors that may become divorced from the jurisdiction of the artist: whether the work follows an originary model or is the only one of its kind in the world, the standards for establishing authenticity depend on context and are ultimately subjective.<\/p>\n

The cultural impact\u00a0and financial worth of a work of art both depend on its perceived authenticity. \u00a0The contemporary Chinese artist\/activist Ai Weiwei often appropriates<\/a> traditional Chinese art, transforming pieces that would normally be preserved for historical posterity into new works that generate\u00a0additional meanings, quite separate from those given by its initial creator. \u00a0Ai\u2019s Colored Vase<\/i>s (2006\u20132012), consists of 5,000 year-old traditional Chinese Han Dynasty vases dipped in vibrantly colored paint, valued at approximately one million dollars each on the basis of their authenticity [Figure 1]. \u00a0They were displayed as part of an installation for the exhibition \u201cAi Weiwei: According to What?\u201d at the P\u00e9rez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) from December 2013 to March 2014. \u00a0The vases were displayed directly in front of a well-known photographic triptych, Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn<\/i> (1995) which is a frame-by-frame capture of the artist dropping a traditional Chinese urn, which smashes into tiny, unrecognizable fragments [Figure 2]. \u00a0His work, a conceptual attack on the sacredness with which works of art are imbued over time, is authentically his. \u00a0Although the urns were not physically created by Ai, his idea to transform them into something else is a work of performance art. \u00a0The urns themselves embody the sacredness of tradition and age, while his photograph of their destruction conveys the importance of breaking from tradition. \u00a0The vases and the triptych displayed behind them validate the notion that this figurative (and literal) break is an authentic reaction equally worthy of preservation.<\/p>\n

\"Ai<\/a>

Figure 2. Ai Weiwei, Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995), Triptych of three gelatin silver prints, 49 5\/8\u201d x 39 1\/4\u201d each, Private collection, United States.<\/p><\/div>\n

This installation was at the center of an enormous controversy when it was displayed at the PAMM. \u00a0On February 16, 2014, a local artist named Maximo Caminero picked up a peach and green vase and smashed it on the floor, re-performing<\/a> the act captured in Ai\u2019s photograph displayed just a few feet away. \u00a0According to reports, Caminero deliberately smashed the vases to protest what he saw as the PAMM’s prominent preference for international work over\u00a0than that of local artists. \u00a0A New York Times<\/i> article revealed that Caminero believed \u201chis destruction of the vase was \u2018an act of solidarity with Mr. Ai\u2019 to draw attention to his difficulties as a dissident with Chinese authorities who have barred him from traveling abroad.\u201d<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> \u00a0He elaborated further in a personal e-mail to Ai, stating that \u201che shared the Chinese artist\u2019s battles \u2018as though they were my own.\u2019\u201d This incident draws special attention to the issue of establishing authenticity: while Ai Weiwei is celebrated by the art world for this break from tradition and consistent institutional critique-turned-protest, Caminero is seen as a vandalizing criminal. \u00a0Intention<\/a>, technique, and context are thus put to the forefront of a larger debate about originality and legitimacy. \u00a0Caminero\u2019s subsequent arrest and conviction of criminal mischief essentially declares that Ai\u2019s status as an internationally recognized artist allows him a wider degree of freedom than a local, Miami-based artist.<\/p>\n

This case raised several complex questions about the notion of authenticity. Authenticity of provenance is, of course, crucial to the proper identification of a work of art; likewise, cultural authenticity can be seen as a pandora\u2019s box that brings forth questions of geographic origin, validity of attribution based on racial\/ethnic\/religious identity, and artistic intent. \u00a0The destruction of Colored Vases<\/i> brings up an often overlooked question of what can be considered \u201cauthentic art.\u201d \u00a0Is it determined by the artist\u2019s fame? \u00a0Is it the ways in which something is made or the context of creation? \u00a0When trying to determine the authenticity of a work, it is crucial to consider all of these questions. \u00a0Most importantly, however, it is crucial to determine what biases factor into this determination of authenticity in the first place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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