Critical summary of Alfred Lessing’s ‘What is Wrong with a Forgery?’ and Denis Dutton’s ‘Artistic Crimes’

Artistic Crimes and the Ills of Forgery

The originality of an art is always important, it ensures that art lovers are not defrauded and given forged artwork. The artwork is relatively expensive; an individual is therefore required to determine whether a piece of art is indeed authentic or forged. In this argumentative essay, different aspects relating forgery of art as well as criminal cases of forgery is vastly described. The essay considers different cases to which individuals have been caught in the act of forging art or handling forged artwork. The case study book is a good descriptive research article on the ways to which an artist is required to uphold professional ethics that will enable this artist to adhere to the laws and regulations governing art. This adherence will enable an individual to keep his or herself free from criminal activities related to art and creation of artistic objects.

According to Alfred Lessing, people have different perspectives on whether forgery is wrong or right. The authors in detail describe his rationale referring to ancient philosophers definition and description of forgery, the influence to which this act of forgery has to the authentic art done by a particular individual. An artwork should be at all cost required not to be replicated if the initial artist is unaware; this brings us to the ethical issues to which an artist should carefully consider when practicing in his or her field of specialization. The question stated is analyzed to ensure it is relevant, how reasonable the assumption made about the question is.

The assumption made contemplates forgery and how this term is defined with a detailed reference to phenomena that seeks to highlight the similarities as well as the difference to which the perception of an artwork being genuine considers. A forged art is always negated or made to be viewed as wrong due to the presence of a particular negation value; the value describes this existent forged artwork as being wrong and against art ethics.

Forgery is viewed inferior because of the negative impression to which the negation value has to the forged artwork; the forgery is made far much not relevant if the forger of art fails to capture particular signature to which the initial artist of an authentic artwork captured on his or her art.

Ethics in art is the prescribed code of conduct to which a particular individual is required to uphold according to the ethical provisions of his or her profession. The ethical issues to which an artist is required to adhere to are described in this essay and the significance to which these prescribed code of conduct has to both the artist as well as the consumer of artwork. These professional ethics of art has a major role to ensure that artists do not involve themselves in activities that would likely lead to crime.

Respect is a very important attribute to which an artist should have; an artist should treat his or her fellow artist with respect irrespective of the difference they might have had in the past and the adverse effects to which this difference had to each of their artwork. An artist should also be selfless; he should share what he or she has to his or her fellow artist, sharing enables artists to create more advanced artwork. It is very important for an artist to stick to what belongs to him or her, an artist is not required to take advantage of another artist presentation for his or her good without informing the organizer of the event about his or her intentions in the event.

Integrity plays an important role in art; if an artist is honest, his or her artwork will receive the respect as well as gaining the dignity it deserves. An artist is required not to use another artist’s image without his or her consent; a copied image is a forged one. An artist’s lack of consent will discredit an authentic art the credit it deserves. Stealing is evil; it is against the moral conduct to which artists are required to uphold, an artist is therefore not required to steal another artist’s ideas with an aim of benefiting from them.

An artist should always keep his or her word; he or she should dignify his or her integrity, the declaration that he or she will fulfill a particular aspect of art he or she should do it as stated. An artist is required to remain calm despite the adverse effects a forged art has had on his or her artwork. The artist should not be bitter about this; he or she is required not to complain about forgeries since it not only makes them unproductive but also affects their health. Criticism and rejection play a major role in determining the art to which an artist will produce in the future; criticism should build an artist and enable him or her improve his or her work.

Continuous criticism means that an artist is not applying enough and producing the quality products to which these critiques want. The audience should be kept safe from an artist’s presentation paraphernalia; materials used should not harm the audience. An artist before presenting his or her work should consider informing his or her audience the presence of graphic images in his or her work. The images presented should be at all costs be considerate of the age limit of an artist’s audience.

According to Lessing, forgery as a problem deals with relatively more complex, this is the inadequate authenticity to which a particular artwork has. The forged piece of art has no originality and will make the initial artwork will, therefore, be susceptible to branding as the product of forgery. This susceptibility is evident by the bizarre case of Van Meegeren’s image of the Disciples at Emmaus, which has been susceptible to forgery. The negation values in the products of forgery are insufficient to make the images justifiable products of forgery. To solve or minimize the negativities to which forgery has had to the talent as well as productivity of artist, law enforcement agencies should come up with reliable strategies that would not only protect artists and their talents but also prosecute perpetrators of forgery.

Denis Dutton’s book, Artistic Crime describes the idea of forgery as a benchmark of criticism. The presence of forged artwork as well the way to which authentic artwork is accepted, but these have though been ignored in the criticism theory since an artist can ridicule a particular critic. This criticism is ridiculed by the forger’s ability to create a relatively authentic artwork. Critics always receive heaps of praise but for incorrect reasons, this is because the appealing object as alleged and is similar after being stated that it is a product of forgery. The inference to be made is that initially has been analytically treasured for the reason that it was believed that it was an admired artist’s work.
Denis describes an example that relates to Lessing’s assertion that forgery as a concept only deal with the art of creation and not the art that involves performance. The dissimilarity between the art of performance and the art of creation has specific uses; this will, therefore, enable the consumer of the artwork to understand easily the roles played by each of the artists involved in creating and communicating the arts intended message. The distinction made enables us to know the writer and actor accurately, it also identify the creator as well as the performer of a particular art, as well differentiating a dancer from a dance choreographer.

According to the author of Artistic Crimes, the distinction created to which the creator of art is separated from the performer of this art is likely to make us who are the consumers of the art to lose the prospect that in particular artwork that are correlative as well as creative are all seen as performing arts. This a good example to which the author creates is a relevant description that will enable us to understand the wrongness of forgeries. This description is very important in solving the arguments that tend not to find solutions because of the insightful inference and analysis of music, painting and symphony to have components of performance.

The discussion and analysis of performance according to Denis Dutton is that we always have a human mind and perspective that are autonomous and complete in the way they are presented. The performance if a particular individual is always obtained by the art of presentation to which an individual’s level of performance is analyzed, these presentations include; the scores obtained in examinations by students, the quality of leadership provided by a particular leader as well as the level of returns made by a particular business company. The analytical basis of the performance indicators may necessarily not be art, but it does provide a good evaluative platform to which a performance indicator’s performance is evaluated.

These indicators of performance prior their involvement in the fields they operate in had particular objectives that motivated them to involve in these sectors. The examples given by Denis Dutton on the performance of art relates to the performance of the chosen indicators, the performances witnessed are always concluded to have a sense of achieving a particular objective. Furthermore, the author describes the difference to which art has between each other; this is in veneration to the actual perception of art at the moment it was created and the difference to which the art’s performance make in relevance to the whole concept of art to which the consumer of art has.