|
Editorial Note: The first in this Fakes series is here, and the second is here:
Once
again in New York,
in 1987, I visited
the famous Hutton
gallery, which
Leonard's wife
Ingrid was carrying
on with after
Leonard's death.
Continuing with
German
Expressionism, she
also included the
Russian avant-garde.
"Here is the
new catalog, have a
look. I'm busy
in the next
room." And she
left me alone. Yes,
a fine, large
catalog with a
particularly pretty
cover of a work
which did seem, at
brief glance, to be
by Mikhail Larionov.
And with a long text
by the expert Andrei
Nakov, illustrated
with Larionov's
typical little
drawings: fresh,
naughty, typical for
this rebellious
innovator. All well
known. So I turned
to the luxurious
colored part with
lots of "newly
found" pastel
drawings. Before
long I couldn't
help bursting out
laughing, so loudly
that Ingrid
returned.
"These are
fakes, all of them!
They are too pretty,
too
decorative!"
And Ingrid answered:
"Yes, I know. I
was offered some of
them and became
suspicious, just as
the people at MOMA
did. So we analyzed
the pastels, which
is more difficult
than with oil
paintings. Result:
recent fakes! And
imagine: a lot of
them have already
been shown in
Swedish and German
museums!
Sold to galleries
and collectors, and
their next stop will
be the Museum Rath
in Geneva."
What an interesting coincidence: The international Congress,
"Art and
Law," with all
the big names among
museum directors,
people from
Sotheby's,
Christie's and
so on, would take
place in Geneva,
where my husband,
professor of Law,
was invited. And of
course I would join
him. In fact, the
Congress announced,
as a highlight of
the evening program,
a guided tour of
that exhibition in
the renowned Museum
Rath. Unbelievable
to me. So I read
Nakov's text,
all perfect as usual
for this expert,
till in the middle
of those almost 100
pages a very short
passage of
explanation:
Recently a whole
heap of
Larionov's
pastel drawings has
been found in
Russia, never before
shown, therefore so
well preserved! And
the usual secrets
surrounding the
Russian family who
had the pastels ...
So, sorry, no more
information, just
that this treasure
somehow made it to
the West.
A Fake Larionov
Am I a Larionov expert? No. I have just seen a lot of those tiny
booklets with his typical naughty drawings and the usual oil
paintings in museums and catalogs, never yet a pastel drawing.
Wouldn't museum directors and curators have at least the same
knowledge before agreeing to mount a "sensational exhibition"?
Private collectors might care less; one even published a book
"From Russia with Doubt," with assurances that he simply loves
those works and does not care if they are fakes.
My main source of information is Kandinsky. His long
relationship with Larionov—and with Larionov’s partner and
future wife, the gifted (and very beautiful) artist Natalia
Goncharova)—was rather complicated, to say the least. Fifteen
years younger than Kandinsky, it can be assumed that Larionov
looked up to Kandinsky. Fact is that he was eager to collaborate
with him, to be invited to show in the exhibitions in Munich, and
that he immediately gave Kandinsky one of his paintings as a gift.
Kandinsky's first mention of Larionov is found in a letter to his
partner, Gabriele Muenter. On Oct. 23, 1910 he wrote her from
Moscow about a discussion concerning Russian composer
Scriabin's music: "I quarreled a lot about this with Larionov."
Three days later he reports that he has been invited, with his best
friend, composer Thomas de Hartmann, to visit the couple
Larionov/Goncharova. And, something he never said about
Larionov's art, but only about Goncharova's works: "Very talented
things, with a lot of feeling, in a word very interesting ...". Two
more meetings followed, which included other young artists,
before it was decided on Nov. 1, 1910 to include all Munich
painters that Kandinsky had suggested for inclusion in the
December exhibition, “Jack of Diamonds," in Moscow. Ten days
later, again to Muenter: "Larionov is the theoretician and the
thinker here, and he does not want to be eclipsed. A bit like
Marianne (Werefkin), but much more interesting and brighter."
What a compliment to a young, upcoming artist, since Werefikin,
the oldest of the Munich group, was known to be both, interesting
and bright. Two years later, Nov. 27, 1912, again to Muenter:
"Larionov + Goncharova send you their regards. Both of them are
full of life and beauty."
Also a Larionov Fake
How long would that friendship last, since Larionov had become
the leader of a belligerent protest, walking in the streets of
Moscow with his face painted and the like? Always the
gentleman, Kandinsky did not appreciate the publication of the
Russian Futurist manifesto, "A Slap in the Face of Public Taste,"
with its exaggerated, coarse tone and intolerant dismissal of all
previous art. Those young Moscow artists were definitely too
radical for his taste. Yet he wanted them to be included in
Herwarth Walden's Berlin exhibition: "I just don't want to invite
those people personally, as their style of promoting art has
become extremely unappealing to me over time," he writes on
May 10, 1913 and gives their addresses to Walden, starting with
Larionov and Goncharova’s "same address" in Moscow. The next
day he complains to Walden: "All the latest news I get from
Russia shows me very vividly how readily and systematically my
case had been silenced there lately."
By then Larionov, always in close collaboration with Goncharova,
had invented "Luchism" ("Rayonism"). Sun rays, through
branches of trees, often form a fascinating pattern. So these
observations led to the birth of another form of abstract art,
tending more to the geometric. This innovation made him and his
wife more and more famous, but not yet, and rather with those
rare lovers of new tendencies in art, such as Herwarth Walden in
Berlin and Nikolai Kulbin in St.Petersburg. So Larionov was not
able to sell much for quite some time, and would have been crazy
to sit down and draw, in addition to his oil paintings, a series of
400 to 600 small pastels. For whom? As usual, the exact number
of faked works is never given, since they include too many
extremely close variations. So only after informing all victims, the
juridical police gradually came up with the number of fakes, at
least of those that had become known. Typically, each one of
them was signed M.L. That would make it easier to sell, and the
fact that they were so decorative, so utterly alien to the rebellious
innovator Larionov, renders the works more acceptable for
buyers.
Another Fake Larionov
Well, the announced guided tour by the "Art and Law" Congress
was cancelled. But we went to see the original fakes, before the
exhibition was shut and a really huge, very long criminal lawsuit
started in Switzerland and Germany. One heard that certain
pastel works were brought by a fine official car from the Russian
embassy to a German gallery; and much later that the talented
faker had been found: a theatre designer the "executing hand."
He most probably went to prison, but not the head of the project
who had had the idea that increasing Larionov's fame would
make this clever enterprise worthwhile. He once again got away
with the help of very capable lawyers. He even published a short
text that he was "cleared" and that false experts had made false
analyses, and so on. But no word that the pastels were authentic.
But Geneva immediately offered another sensation, probably
organized hastily after the rumors of the Larionov scandal had
spread: An art fair for "Honest fakes": all sorts of van Goghs,
Picassos and what all, more or less well imitated, but with a clear
remark on the back side: "Fake!"
*
Editorial Note: The Kandinsky quotations above are drawn from Kandinsky: A Life in Letters 1889–1944, edited by Jelena Hahl
-Fontaine, pub. Hirmer, March 29, 2024
|
