The Market: The Artists Speak

Now that New York City has become the art-market place of the world, it would seem time to draw up some rules and regulations. At least, so thinks State Attorney General Louis J. Lefkowitz. To find out how to protect the public from art forgeries and fakes, he decided to call in the artists themselves for suggestions. Upshot of the hearing: the artists need protection, or so they seemed to say.

Sculptor Jason Seley said that the market was flooded with fakes: “Some sculptures are simply taken off a Victorian lamp base.” But he was one of the few to stick to the subject of forgery. Abstract Expressionist Adolph Gottlieb blasted at the public, in general and dealers in particular, saying, “Society doesn’t seem to be interested in protecting the artist.” Painter Theodoros Stamos lambasted dealers who “hold a picture for two years before they send it back, so you forget what the hell it looks like.” Then added, “I don’t give a damn about the public. They’ve done nothing but buy a name.”

Most vocal was 74-year-old Sculptor Jacques Lipchitz. “It seems to me,” said he, “that the artist in this country is not protected at all. Nobody takes care of him. He’s a kind of black sheep.” In the U.S., if a painting clashes with the wallpaper, anybody can paint over it, “even a Cézanne.” If the hearing wound up more voluble than valuable, Lipchitz contributed at least one astute observation on why his colleagues feel pushed around. “You have to count with the nature of the artist,” said the sculptor. “We are all more or less schlemiels.”