Azeem [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> I'm watching an extraordinary programme on TV about identity (part of a
> series on Channel 4 called "identity crisis"), and it's pretty mind-blowing.
Unfortunately I missed this episode, but I saw the first in the
series which concentrated on people who create a totally
false identity for themselves.
It included a feature on an art forger (whose name I forget),
renowned for his forgeries of Matisse and Picasso drawings.
Asked who he was forging at the moment, he said he was
working on a series of drawings by New York artist "Nat Tate",
but was finding it particularly hard to find any of his originals
to copy.
This feature was then followed by an interview with author
William Boyd, whose biography of Nat Tate was published
on 1st April (!!) 1998.
see http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/19980411/10150314.html
Nat Tate was an orphan, who according to his
biographer was an abstract-impressionist,
"notionally of the New York School''; a friend of
Picasso's and Braque's and a lover, albeit short-
lived, of Peggy Guggenheim.
At 31, having first destroyed all his work, Nat Tate
bought a ticket for the Staten Island Ferry, walked to
the stern, climbed on the rail and threw himself off.
His body was never found.
David Bowie, one of the publishers, read an extract
from the book at the launch. The literary editor of (UK
Newspaper) The Independent, who was at the New York
launch, said that no one he spoke to claimed to know
Tate well, but no one claimed *not* to have heard of him.
Nat Tate, however, never existed outside Boyd's mind.
Some of his paintings, included in the book, were made
by Boyd and the pictures of Nat Tate that feature in the
"biography'' are of unknown people that he happened to
pick up in different places.
Lister (of The Independent) says that he sniffed something
fishy, since he appeared to be the only person in a room
that included, artists, collectors, art historian, art dealers,
New York based writers like Paul Auster and editors of
literary journals, who had never heard of Tate.
His suspicions were confirmed when he discovered that
none of the galleries mentioned in the book existed. Boyd's
publisher, Karen Wright, admitted to Lister that she and the
other publishers of the book, who include David Bowie, had
been aware that it was a scam, that was "never meant
maliciously''.
She said, "There is a willingness not to appear foolish.
No one wants to admit they've never heard of him. No one
can have heard of every artist. But critics are too proud''.
Boyd told The Independent, "It's a little fable now and for
any time... I think its particularly relevant now when, almost
overnight, people are becoming art celebrities''.
PaulC
PS Boyd chose the name from two London galleries ie
The National Gallery and The Tate.
"Critics of all expression
Judges in black and white
Saying it's wrong, saying it's right
Compelled by prescribed standards
Or some ideals we fight
For wrong, wrong and right"
Joni Mitchell - Shadows & Light
