What Hesham Malik, an artist, has to say about fake art
Hesham Malik is an Indian artist who was born in Bahrain and raised in Dubai and India, among other places. He is internally known as a “philosophical artist” and his works range from those inspired by tribal people and their relationship with the earth to colourful and emotive abstract works. He is also known for his philanthropy, and has held workshops for children around the world, including at Dubai’s Rashid Centre for the Disabled.
An upcoming exhibition entitled Women of Our World is planned for Dubai later this year. Fakes are works by other artists that are passed off as works by more important artists, while forgeries are works made deliberately to resemble the real thing. According to Malik, there are many more fakes than forgeries. > Many experts warn that as much of half of all art being sold internationally is forged or fake. > In many cases, art buyers who have been informed that a work of art they own is fake go on to sell it to another buyer as genuine. > Experts note that the hardest fakes to detect are ones created during the same time frame and era as the original, as the paint, canvas, and techniques would be very similar. > Eric Potsma, an expert on Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh, in the past estimated that 99 per cent of the Van Gogh paintings in worldwide circulation are fake or misattributed. > The most forged artist in history is thought to be French landscape artist Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (1796-1875). French writer Rene Huyghe once famously joked that “Corot painted 3,000 canvases, ten thousand of which have been sold in America.”