Sleight of Hand September 25–November 27, 2015

Visua l A rts, K e tchu m

Lect ureS

The visual arts exhibition presents works made by artists who use the history of art as a lens through which to consider the idea of the copy. Conrad Bakker makes carved and painted sculptures of everyday objects that he places into consumer ­contexts and ­exhibitions. The ­exhibition features ­UNTITLED: ­Subscription, replicas of Artforum magazine issues from 1969–1970. Several of Mark ­Landis’s ­artworks, ­including copies of ­paintings by Charles Courtney Curran (1861–1942) and Lionel Walden (1861–1933) alongside the originals, are part of the exhibition. The Center’s ­Project Room is filled with a portion of Richard McMahan’s Mini Museum, his decades-long project documenting the ­history of art through miniature reproductions of both masterworks and lesser-known artworks from ancient Egypt to the present. Works from well-known artist Vik Muniz’s Verso series replicate the backs of famous ­paintings, from Leonardo da Vinci’s La ­Gioconda (Mona Lisa) to Pablo Picasso’s ­Woman ­Ironing. Made over the course of six years of visits to ­museums to see the backs of these paintings in ­person, the works are covered with stickers and markings that ­offer commentary on the role of p ­ rovenance in ­establishing authenticity. ­William Powhida, whose text-based paintings are sardonic ­reflections on the contemporary art world, ­recently commissioned a series of ­reproductions of his works from a company in Shenzhen, China—one of many that employ painters to reproduce famous masterpieces and family photos in oil paint. A selection of these copies of Powhida’s works hangs alongside some of photographer Michael Wolf’s images of the painters who work for these companies with their copies of well-known originals. The Center has commissioned the same company to reproduce three iconic paintings from the history of art. Come see if you recognize them and whether you think they measure up to the originals!

Erik Larson Thu, Oct 8, 6:30pm Church of the Big Wood, Ketchum $30 / $40 nonmember Erik Larson, best-selling author of In the Garden of Beasts, Devil in the White City and many other books, will speak about authenticity and embellishment in narrative nonfiction.

Evening Exhibition Tours Thu, Oct 1* & Thu, Nov 5, 5:30pm

Free at The Center, Ketchum Enjoy a glass of wine as you tour the exhibition with The Center’s curators and gallery guides.

*Inge-Lise Eckmann Lane, a renowned

­ onservator and former Director of ­Curatorial c Affairs and Deputy Director at SFMOMA, will join us for the October 1 tour to share her insights on the role of the conservator in the preservation of the history of art.

Gallery Walk

Generously sponsored by Don and Marcia Liebich. The 2015–2016 Lecture Series is ­sponsored by Jane P. Watkins. Wood River High School student lecture series tickets have been made possible with support from Robin Leavitt and Terry Friedlander. ART HISTORY LECTURE: The History of Modernism in Three: Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (1917), René Magritte’s The Treachery of Images (1929) and Meret Oppenheim’s Object (Le Déjeuner en fourrure) (1936), with Kristin Poole Thu, Oct 15, 5:30–7pm The Center, Ketchum $10 / $12 nonmember The lecture will explore three works of art that illustrate the challenges modernism posed to tradition and how each of these works shifted the conversation about what a work of art is and what it should be.

The atre

Cl asses

Company of Fools presents a reading of Mauritius by Theresa Rebeck

CREATIVE JUMP IN: Faking Picasso

Fri & Sat, Oct 23 & 24, 6:30pm The Center, Ketchum $10 / $12 nonmember After their mother’s death, two estranged ­half-sisters discover a book of rare stamps that may include the crown jewel for collectors. One sister tries to collect on the windfall, while the other resists for sentimental reasons. In this gripping tale, a seemingly simple sale becomes dangerous when three seedy, high-stakes collectors enter the sisters’ world, willing to do anything to claim the rare find as their own. Under John Glenn’s direction, the cast features Scott Creighton, David Janeski, Joel Vilinsky and Aly Wepplo.

Fri, Nov 27, 5–7pm Free at The Center, Ketchum Start your Gallery Walk at The Center!

FILMs Art and Craft Thu, Nov 5, 7pm Magic Lantern Cinemas, Ketchum $10 / $12 nonmember Mark Landis has been called one of the most prolific art forgers in US history. Art and Craft starts out as a cat-and-mouse art caper, rooted in questions of authorship and authenticity—but what emerges is an intimate story of ­obsession and the universal need for ­community, ­appreciation and purpose.

Tim’s Vermeer Thu, Nov 19, 7pm Magic Lantern Cinemas, Ketchum $10 / $12 nonmember Tim Jenison, a Texas-based inventor, ­attempts to solve one of the greatest m ­ ysteries in art: How did 17th-century Dutch Master ­Johannes Vermeer manage to paint so photo-­ realistically—150 years before the invention of photography? The epic research project ­Jenison embarks on to test his theory is as extraordinary as what he discovers.

Thu, Oct 22, 5:30–8:30pm The Center, Hailey $40 / $45 nonmember Join beloved local art teacher Bob Dix for an evening of art history and painting. Participants will receive a brief art history lesson on the infamous artist Pablo Picasso, while ­enjoying a glass of wine and light snacks. Students will then have the opportunity create their own ­Picasso by following an easy step by step ­painting process guided by Dix.

Family Day: Sleight of Hand with Company of Fools Sat, Nov 7, 3–5pm Free at The Center, Ketchum Explore the exhibition with actors from ­Company of Fools and take the Center stage by playing with fact and fiction through theatre games led by the Fools! images top to bottom: William Powhida, Auction Proposal (republication), 2014, oil on canvas (unique), courtesy the artist and Platform Gallery, Seattle; Conrad Bakker, UNTITLED: Subscription [Artforum International 1969–1970], 2009–2010, carved and painted wood, courtesy the artist Michael Wolf, Real Fake Art #35, Magritte, $19.52, chromogenic print, from an edition of 9 plus 2 APs, ©Michael Wolf, courtesy Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco Richard McMahan, The Garden of Earthly Delights ­after ­Hieronymous Bosch, from the Mini Museum, 1990–present, courtesy the artist, photo courtesy: laird/blac palm inc. cover panel: Mark Landis, The Old Violinist, in the style of Charles Courtney Curran (American, 1861–1942), oil on canvas, collection of Colette Loll, image courtesy of Laila Abdul-Hadi Jadallah mailer panel: Jack Seiller, The Great Wave over Nighthawks, 2015, courtesy the artist

Sun Valley Center for the Arts sunvalleycenter.org

Sleight of Hand September 25–November 27, 2015 Sun Valley Center for the Arts The art world has exploded with ­stories about forgeries over the last two ­decades. In 1994, Dutch painter Geert Jan ­Jansen was arrested on a French farm with 1600 fake paintings, including works that ­appeared to be by Matisse, Miró and Picasso. In the ­mid-2000s, the ­esteemed New York dealer Knoedler & Co. sold (perhaps unknowingly) forty paintings ­purported to be lost works by ­internationally-famous Abstract ­Expressionist artists like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, but allegedly made by an underpaid forger. The recently released documentary, Art and Craft, tells the story of Mark Landis, a forger motivated by philanthropic rather than financial desires. Landis spent decades making p ­ aintings in a variety of styles, from Renaissance to Cubist, and then donated them as authentic works to museums around the country before being caught. Other ­artists have made a career painting ­copies of ­masterpieces, selling them under their own names to those who love an ­image but have neither the means nor the ­opportunity to purchase the ­original. In 2013, Blake Gopnik wrote an essay for The New York Times titled “In Praise of Art Forgeries” that celebrated forgers’ contributions to the art world both aesthetically and conceptually—­forgers force us to ask hard questions about authorship, authenticity and value. These

questions are not new; they r­everberate through German philosopher Walter Benjamin’s 1936 essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” In the essay, he introduced the concept of “aura,” the idea that a work of art holds an intrinsic value based both on its uniqueness and its history. What ­happens to the idea of aura, he asked, when ­photography and film threaten the very idea of the unique object? For Benjamin, the ­mechanical reproduction of an image meant that art could begin to move away from the idea of a pure artwork, of “art for art’s sake,” toward an art that embraced its social and historical moment. Nearly 80 years later, Benjamin’s essay continues to inspire debate about what defines an “authentic” work of art. This Big Idea project takes Benjamin’s ideas about authenticity and aura as a starting point. What is real and what is illusion? Who gets to decide? How do we assign value to objects that may or may not be what they seem? What’s the difference between a fake, a forgery and a copy? How do copies of famous artworks help us better understand the history of art? The Center presents this project as a conversation about artifice and illusion, authenticity and authorship. Vik Muniz, Verso (Woman Ironing), 2008, mixed media object, AP 2/2, courtesy the artist and Sikkema Jenkns & Co., New York

Join us for an opening celebration on Thursday, October 22, from 5–6:30pm! 208.578.9122 110 N. Main Street, Hailey, Idaho

Sun Valley Center for the Arts P.O. Box 656, Sun Valley, ID 83353 208.726.9491 sunvalleycenter.org

Oct 22–Nov 19 The Center, Hailey Last year, Wood River High School art teacher Betty Ervin asked her students to research three artists and to incorporate elements of each ­artist’s work into a single painting. The resulting artworks exceeded all her ­expectations. This ­exhibition features the students’ reimagining of their favorite artists’ imagery as original artworks.

Redesigning Art History

Visual Arts, Haile y

Center hours & location in Hailey: Thu 2–5pm, Oct 22–Nov 19 314 Second Ave. South, Hailey, Idaho Center hours & location in Ketchum: Mon–Fri 9am–5pm, 191 Fifth Street East, Ketchum, Idaho

A B ig Id e a Proj ect of t h e Su n Va l l e y C en t er fo r t h e a rts PERMIT NO. 679

Sun Valley Center for the Arts P O Box 656 Sun Valley, ID 83353

BOISE ID

PAID U S POSTAGE NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION

S l ei g h t of Hand