Faux Real

DAAP Galleries, University of Cincinnati

Through May 20

Mark Landis is undoubtedly “one of the most prolific art forgers in America,” said Randy Kennedy in NYTimes.com. During the last 25 years, this reclusive Mississippi resident has painted and donated more than 100 phony works to museums across the country. Dressed as a priest, or driving the red Cadillac of an eccentric, wealthy benefactor, he shows up at the doorsteps of small museums, each time bearing a forgery or two that he’s copied from a catalog or computer image. Of the 90 gathered and displayed here, some are pretty good, said Jackie Demaline in The Cincinnati Enquirer. But others “are so not good that it’s hard to believe museum directors, curators, and registrars were taken in.” Still, this unconventional exhibit tells “a remarkable story” about a scam that might be undetected still but for the suspicions of one of the curators.

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You have to wonder if the show should even exist, said Steven Rosen in Cincinnati CityBeat. The curators say they want to educate the public about forgery and the challenges museums face, but couldn’t the exhibit be seen as an honor for Landis? Since he didn’t sell these works or claim the gifts as tax deductions, he’s never been charged with a crime, but he’s not necessarily done passing forgeries. “It’s all pretty weird,” especially when, just past the faux Pablo Picasso and phony Honoré Daumier, you come across Landis’s renderings of Pebbles from The Flintstones, and learn that Landis loaned the gallery most of the work. The artist appears to mean no harm, said Jonah Ogles in Cincinnati magazine. He simply wants to honor his late mother, and donates paintings in her name to memorialize her. Many of them are convincing, even once you know they’re fakes. Still, Landis’s “greatest work may not be a painting at all.” In the world of art, he’s one of a kind.