Forgery inspired by father
Mangaweka was the place to be for art buffs at the weekend as the township hosted the biannual Fakes and Forgeries competition and exhibition at the Rangitıkei town’s Yellow Art Gallery.
Artists from across the country submitted their takes on famous artworks, but almost all with a unique twist.
The show was created as a tribute to Mangaweka-born Karl Sim, New Zealand’s only convicted art forger who died in 2013.
He infamously changed his name to Carl Feodor Goldie so he could legally sign his takes on
C F Goldie’s work the same way.
Bailee Dorrian won the 16 and under section, turning Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night into Starry Night over the Rangitıkei.
The twist involved replacing the town beneath the sky in van Gogh’s original with the Mangaweka Bridge above the Rangitıkei River.
The three takes on Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer’s famous piece Girl with a Pearl Earring showed the spirit of Saturday’s show best.
One was Girl with a Teddy Bear Earring, another a tribute to Dame Valerie Adams as Girl with a Silver Ball Earring, while the third was Girl with a Pounamu Erring.
The creator of the third, Viv Millward, said she only started painting again recently, having not picked up a brush since school.
Her family are from Holland and her father painted a faithful recreation of Vermeer’s piece in the 1980s, hence the inspiration for her entry.
Replacing the pearl earring with pounamu, an idea that came to her at 3am one day, was a way of placing the 500-year-old Dutch piece in the place where she painted her version.
‘‘It’s bridging history and bridging cultures.’’
The winning piece was created by the artist Willow, who did a watercolour recreation of van Gogh’s Sunflowers.
Yellow Church Gallery owner and competition judge Richard Aslett said the pieces with a twist on the original were the ones that most caught the judge’s eyes.
People can view and buy the pieces at the Yellow Church Gallery, 6360 State Highway 1, Mangaweka.