Provenance of a painting

Provenance of a painting
By: Luke Galutia
Posted 2014-04-29
Galutia Gallery ( www.galutia.com )

It has been a long time since I have written an artist blog. Those who know me, know I have tons of projects that I work on whenever I have free time - which is not that often. In that time I not only have running art projects, but science projects as well. So I thought it was about time to re-post my old blogs to the home of my new site on www.fineartamerica.com which hosts www.galutia.com.

This post I wanted to cover the topic of provenance. Provenance comes from the french word “provenir”, which means "to come from". It is the forensics and paper trail that a painting leaves throughout time and history. I have recently become addicted to watching episodes of BBC programs on youtube such as, “Fake or Fortune” and “The Forgers Masterclass”. I started getting interested in how mastermind art forgers were able to get their works into high level galleries and the paintings would sell for millions of dollars under the guise of another famous artist. What I was wondering was, what tools did they use in order to get their paintings in through all the red tape and safety measures that the art collector market world has in place. Maybe I thought I can use some of their technique to work for my art. Of course, not to pose as another artist, but to get my own name out there and get recognised. A way to “Hack” the art world so to speak.

It was through this research that I stumbled upon something profound about the art market that they never teach you in any of the art classes I have taken… When it comes to famous paintings, the paper trail the painting leaves, is in fact more important than the actual painting itself! During my youtube research, I saw many episodes where someone had a legitimate painting by someone like Monet which was worth millions of dollars, only to be turned down as worthless. This was due to some organizations at the top of the art food chain who controls “What is and isn’t a legitimate work of art” by the artist. This is mostly determined by a group called The Wildenstein Institute, who produce volumes of books on famous artists, called “Catalogue Raisonné - Critical Catalogue”. These books are prepared by people who specialize on a specific artist. If this group says that, if a painting is not an original work by a famous artist, the painting becomes completely worthless. From what I have seen in my research of youtube videos, there can even be compelling evidence that the painting did originated from the artist, but if it was deemed not authentic by an older member, they will not go against the original position on the artwork, or even accept new evidence to the contrary, which is astounding to me.

Along with the paper trail, there are many other tools which is used in the field of art forensics to determine the pigment of paint and binder (such as linseed oil), to see if it lines up historically to when the painting would have been created. Especially in the case of older artworks, they will look for traces of prussian blue to see if it was painted within the 20th century - which would mean its a fake, or lapis lusi to see if it was painted earlier - which would mean its authentic. Due to the fact that the artist previous to modern times, hand ground their own pigments from such things as lapis which sold pound for pound with gold in price, or cyanide which was used for the color vermilion, or led for white which was used a lot with underpainting. The use of these toxic chemicals, as you can guess, affected the health of many artist back in the day. The painting is take to someone who is specialised in art restoration and handling of old art, who helps to take a small sample of paint, canvas, paper or ink from the work in question. This sample is then taken to a chemical lab for analysis. They can determine luminance value of the pigment, or expose it to radiation and come up with the chemical composition of what elements make up the paint, or ink. They can also do a carbon date test to see when the paint was made.

Art forgers who are masters of deception, have even gone as far as to burn up old paper which dates to the time frame they are forging. They will mix the ask of the old paper with hand ground ink, in order to create a master forgery. they will use this technique to throw off the carbon dating. They also take blank paper from old books dating from the same time period they were trying to forge, to make the forgery look even more authentic. In one famous case in England, the mastermind of the art scam “social engineered” his way into a famous London art museum, where he had access to all the original documents of famous art works. He then began rewriting the art history of lesser known pieces of art, and doctored them to look like the forgeries he was trying to sell as legitimate works. In essence he was creating a fake provenance for the forgeries.

With all this taken to heart, my question becomes, what can we as artist do in order to validate our art for future generations, who may look back on our body of work, to see if its authentic? Here are some suggestions:

1) Take pictures of ALL your works of art:
Due to the fact that I live in a MAJOR tornado zone in Oklahoma City, I take photos of all my artworks. This way I have something to hand to the insurance company if we get hit by a tornado. Also it has the added benefit of allowing me to offer prints of my artwork at a cheaper, more affordable price on my website. By having a collection of pictures it can help to assure future generations that the works are legitimate.

2) Document EVERYTHING about the painting:
It would be best to keep a written diary of the artwork, what it looks like, what its made out of, time it was made, art statements, new clips about the artwork, press releases, who it was sold to and for how much, etc. This helps to establish the paper trail for the artwork which will later become its provenance. Think of it this way, some future art historian will be grateful to your time, effort, diligence, and dedication for protecting your own art.

3) Keep digital backups in multiple locations:
If you live in a dangerous weather zone like I do, then it is a smart idea to create a burnt dvd copy of the pictures and documents of your artwork. A bad example can be taken from many of the businesses in New Orleans when hurricane Katrina hit. Most of their computer backups were in the business office across the street from their server farms. Alot of those companies lost valuable data because their backup was “on site”. You should find a relative you trust, that you can send copies of your digital backups to. You might also look into cloud storage, however it is a good idea to have a physical backup in place.

4) Keep great business records:
Having one central account for your business records is a good thing to have. Both printed and digital copies. In the event like a hurricane, tornado, or earthquake, and even a fire and flood, anything paper will be burnt up, torn to shreds, or turned to pulp. Having a digital backup will preserve it forever… theoretically.

5) Take videos:
Taking videos of your artwork. Having a video journal on someplace like youtube, not only helps to inspire other artist, it can be a future way to verify a painting you are working on in the video. It can also give future art historians key insights into the way you work. If you think that this is a bit out there, just look at the artist Andy Warhol. He video taped and audio recorded EVERYTHING. Every moment of his life was recorded on to a reel to reel tape deck. He even recorded the moment he found out his mother died. These are now kept in the Andy Warhol museum in pittsburgh in “Time capsules”. He is one of the most well documented artist of the 20th century.

6) Use acid free museum quality sketchbooks and journals:
If you do preliminary sketches of your artwork, you might have a sketchpad or journal book on hand in which you do your drawings. Make sure when you purchase these from the art store that the label says “Museum quality acid free”. The same goes for writing implements, pens, pencils, markers etc. The reason why is, paper which has any acid on it will deteriorate quicker over time. Often times in order to authenticate an artwork, art historians will go the the existing body of work of the artist. This includes sketches of the painting. A good example would be leonardo's sketch books. By using journals which are acid free, it ensures that they will last for a longer amount of time.

What you can take away from this article is this: Make a history for yourself. Don’t leave it up to art historians to guess about who you are, what you meant, or what paintings you actually did. Take control of your own history now. Future art historians will thank you later. So will the owners of your prestigious original works.



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Luke Galutia has been in the fine arts since 1989, and has won awards for
his art. His artwork has been recognized as being cutting-edge Optical
Illusion Art, and is hosted as part of a permanent collection in the
Washington State Governor's Art Collection in the Olympia Capitol
Building.

Email: lgalutia@gmail.com
Website portfolio: www.galutia.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/galutiagallery
Google+:https://google.com/+LukeGalutia
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lgalutia
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Tumblr: http://lgalutia.tumblr.com/
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/LukeGalutia/

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External links:
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1) Wildenstein Institute Catalogue Raisonné Critical Catalogue
http://www.wildenstein-institute.fr/spip.php?page=wildenstein-catalogue-raisonne-catalogue-critique&lang=en

2) Wikipedia article on Provenance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provenance#Researching_the_provenance_of_paintings

3) Art business article on Provenance
http://www.artbusiness.com/provwarn.html


4) Getty Research Institute Database
http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/provenance/faq.html


5) BBC Your paintings - site hosted by the BBC for researching lost paintings
in order to establish their provenance.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/



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