Conservators have an uneasy relationship with forgery. Often knee-jerk reactions arise: outrage,indignation, feelings of being duped, and sometimes a closet admiration of a particular craftskill. While certainly valid, and generally true, they can be somewhat of a conversation stopper.Deep down, I find myself a bit envious that forgers get so much media attention, and that thisattention is generally overwhelmingly sympathetic. Conservation is just as interesting, right?

The movie Art and Craft tells the story of Mark Landis, a contemporary forger. It is anentirely enjoyable film, the directors allow Landis to show and tell his story with littleinterference. The film clearly articulates his reasons and motivations for forgery while notbecoming overly romantic. Landis, a diagnosed schizophrenic, is shown visiting his therapists andat home, generally watching tv and copying pictures from art books at the same time. He is quitelikely more a victim of "the system" more than someone taking advantage of it. A couple of times heis shown engaging in quotidian activities; eating a dinner of melba toast dipped into a containerof margarine, for example.

Early on, the film reveals his primary motivation for creating forgeries: he wants to be aphilanthropist. But he realizes quite quickly it is hard to be a philanthropist without money orart to give away; he had to create the art in order to distribute it. Also, he liked being treatedlike a philanthropist, and he admits becoming addicted to it. Who wouldn't? So he keeps making moreforgeries. The film delves into his personality, much of which seems to be strongly influenced by atv that always seemed to be on. He is self-aware of these influences, and tells others of theirsource. For example, he started smoking because he saw characters in 1940's movies smoking to calmdown, so he thought it would help calm his nerves, and curb his compulsion to pace.

The film emphasizes the naturalness, almost an innocence, of his desire to copy works of art.The motivations behind many forgers (which are generally not pecuniary by the way) are oftenegotistically motivated: proving oneself equal to the great artists or "getting even" with the artexperts by exposing their ignorance. In addition to his philanthropic desires, Landis also simplylikes to copy things, again because it calms him down. Repetitive hand motions and using hand-eyecoordination is comforting to him. Sound familiar?

The antagonist in this film is a Matthew Leininger, a museum registrar, who originally noticed anumber of identical paintings in numerous museums, and over the years slowly closed in on Landis.When seeing some of the paintings, the audience wonders how they could have fooled anyone. Many arenot of Eric Hebborn or Elmyr de Hory caliber, though Landis is certainly capable of finely craftedwork. Many of his forgeries are a color photocopy of a work with acrylic medium smeared on thesurface, to resemble brushstrokes. The materials he uses are all standard off the shelf artsupplies from Michaels, and the frames from Home Depot, though he slightly antiques them. He oftenphotocopies a certificate of sale from a major auction house or defunct gallery to aid inestablishing provenance and adheres this to the back.

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TheMovie "Art and Craft": A Conservator's Perspective(www.conservators-converse.org/2014/10/the-movie-art-and-craft-a-conservators-perspective/)