POSTER FOR FAKE! SHOW 2004, BURLINGTON VT

FAKE! PAINTINGS BY LIZA PICASSO, LIZA LEGER, LIZA MATISSE ETC.

The series made its debut at Art Space 150 in Burlington Vermont in May of 2004, with another showing at pine street art works in December of 2005. The following text if from those shows:



Fake implies not real. No longer immediately assumed to be fraudulent, fake flowers, faux finishes, costume jewelry, fun fur and even fake art all have their place in our post pop, post modernist aesthetic.

Forgeries (real fakes that is, not fake fakes like mine) intend to deceive. The more they achieve this goal, the more valuable they are. The process of copying is not transparent, not supposed to be a part of the work itself. Forgery works when the forger becomes invisible, and the viewer/buyer is fooled. (view the paintings)

Art about art is fakery exposed and manipulated on purpose by the artist. It takes art as the subject of the work itself. The original appears as if in quotations. It is the interplay of the primary and secondary levels that makes the work �original.� Think about a Roy Lichtenstein painting, or a Cindy Sherman photograph.

Several years ago I made a copy of a painting by Fernand Leger because I wanted a Leger of my own, and it looked easy enough to do, given the limitations of painting on glass. Every time I have exhibited this piece people have wanted to buy it. I couldn�t give up my very own Leger, but I was intrigued that people responded to it as enthusiastically as I did.

In the fall of 2003 I used a painting by Leonardo Da Vinci as a source for a series of paintings about Leda and the Swan. Although less obvious (i.e. more transformed) than the paintings in my FAKE! series, the process of copying Da Vinci led me to the question of fakery and originality, and I began the FAKE! series.

The paintings in this collection started with a book or magazine reproduction of paintings by Picasso, Leger et al. In some, I play on this notion by copying them in black and white. I have changed the colors of some of the pieces, and frequently eliminated some details. I changed the scale or framing. I put paintings from my own studio wall in one in one, and added characters in another.

I chose to focus on Modernists in general, and on Leger, Picasso and Matisse in particular because they are so iconic, so beautiful, and frankly, so doable. There were other artists I wanted to do but they resisted me. Kandinsky fascinates me, but he absolutely refused to participate. He maintains I�m not good enough yet.

The original of the works I copied were all, or for the most part, done in oil paint on canvas. I chose to work in a folk tradition of paint on glass. Painting on glass is done in many cultures in Europe, India and Africa. I use old windows for several reasons. I enjoy transforming discarded objects into art (a popular modernist idea as well.) They are plentiful, beautiful, cheap (if not free) and require no framing.

Painting on glass is a thrilling but often difficult process. Glass is an unforgiving ground for paint. The image must be conceived in reverse. The foreground is laid down first. The first layer of dried paint often slips when another layer goes over it. Mistakes cannot be concealed with a fresh layer of paint because each successive layer goes, in effect, behind the last one. On the other hand, because glass is transparent it begs to mimic anything placed behind it, making it easy to reproduce images.

The paintings on mirrors are not tracings and are done in the usual order of a painting. Background to foreground. The beauty of painting on mirrors is that it allows a moving image to become part of the work. The reflection changes with movement and light, and the work is never seen exactly the same way twice.

These paintings are not for sale from this website.


To see an interview of me discussing the FAKE! series, and to see me painting, click on this link.

» video interview about FAKE! with Liza

REVERSE PAINTING ON WINDOW
1,500

LIZA PICASSO - MARIE THERESE WALTER

Marie Therese Walter, Picasso's young mistress and mother of their daughter Maya, was his muse for many years. I find the Marie Therese paintings among the most joyful of the Picasso oeuvre. The original of this painting was made in 1937.

Here is an amusing story from that time period:

"During the nineteen-thirties, when the fabrication of counterfiet Picassos was at its height - his works being the most often countereited because they rated the hightest prices - an old journalist friend took a small Picasso painting belonging to some poor devil of an artist to Picasso himself for authenification, so the inmpoverished artist could sell it. "Its false," Picasso said. The friend took him another little Picasso, from a different source, and then a third. "Its false," Picasso said each time. "Now listen, Pablo," the friend said. "I watched you paint this last picture with my own eyes. "I can paint false Picassos just as well as anybody," Picasso replied. He then bought the first Picasso at four times the price the poor artist might have hoped it would fetch"
Janet Flanner
Janet Flanner's World: Uncollected Writings 1932-1975

acrylic on mirror.
private collection

LIZA PICASSO -JACQUELINE IN TURKISH COSTUME

Jacqueline Roque was Pablo's last mistress and wife. She came in after Francoise Gilot left Picasso. Jacqueline never wrote a memoir, at least none has been published. But two of Pablo's other mistresses did. Fernande Olivier and Francioise Gilot wrote very gossipy, spicy and artisitcally insightful books about their lives with Pablo. Both well worth reading, and both in print.

This FAKE! of Jacqueline in Turkish Costume was done on an old mirror that I found in a junk shop. I painted the frame black and added plastic jewels for panache.

acrylic on stretched canvas.
private collection

LIZA PICASSO CERAMIC

Picasso's ceramics were underappreciated until quite recently. I was lucky to see a wonderful exhibit of them at the Musee National des Beaux-Arts Du Quebec in the summer of 2004. They are sensuous, daring, funny, and well, just Picassoesque.This is a painting of one vase that was not in the exhibit but I saw a photograph of it in one of the hundreds of books on Picasso.

acrylic on canvas, framed
1,500

THE BLUE RIDER

This painting is one of the last I did for my show. I used the color scheme from the Picasso painting,"Child With A Dove" (1901) as well as one of his horses from a bullfight picture. The fact that the horse looks also startlingly like a Allen Hershell carousel horse, well, what can I say? I didn't realize it until I hung this picture next to a painting I had done years ago of a Hershell horse.

The human figure is from my imagination, but I had a kind of broody theme going by this time, and I stuck with it. Its amazing what a mood you can create by having someone look out of the corners of their eyes.

I call this painting "The Blue Rider" in homage to the group of artists with that name, whose members included Wassily Kandinsky and Gabrielle Munter.

acrylic paint on window
sold

LIZA LEGER, WOMAN WITH VASE

The necklace and the yellow spots on the vase are translucent. The vase is painted with interference paint to give it a jewel - like sparkle.

giclee on watercolor paper
$150

LIZA LEGER, WOMAN WITH VASE

I've always loved Fernand Leger for his massive forms and cartoony black outlines. In this painting on canvas, I've morphed a few elements of Woman with a Vase. The vase itself has the same shape but a different design. The dress is a different color and the flowers, while maintaining their Legeresque petals, look more like limp electrical wires and plugs. Leger, who glorified the machine, would probably have enjoyed that.

The broody background is all mine.

I have made beautiful limited edition prints of this painting, giclee on watercolor paper. @$150

acrylic on paper
private collection

LIZA LEGER, WOMAN AND CHICKEN, RED BACKGROUND

This picture is done with paint on watercolor paper. It is a somewhat faithful rendition of the original. Do you think that R. Crumb was influenced by Leger? I do.

REVERSE PAINTING ON WINDOW
sold

LIZA MATISSE, WOMAN IN FRONT OF A FIREPLACE

I copied this from a color reproduction in an art book. I didn't particularly like Matisse's choice of colors, which is an unusual reaction since I usually love his colors. Anyway, I decided to render it in black and white, as an homage to text book reproduction. I loved doing the figure in the painting on the wall, and the flowers were particularly satisfying. This is done in acrylic paint on glass, The paint was flowing well that day, and I felt quite free to become Matisse, rather than to copy him.

ACRYLIC ON LOOSE CANVAS
1,200

LIZA MATISSE, PURPLE AND YELLOW PORTRAIT

I love the grey/purple and yellows of this image, and its quiet calming presence. It is done in acrylic paint on canvas.

REVERSE PAINTING ON WINDOW
1,500

LIZA MATISSE: THE ROUMANIAN BLOUSE

Henri really loved this shirt. It shows up in dozens of his paintings. I changed the colors of everything, and added the free form leaf patterns on the back. The leaves are scratched out of a still wet painted base, a technique I use quite a lot.

REVERSE PAINTING ON WINDOW
sold

LIZA MATISSE: THE ROUMANIAN BLOUSE -(GREEN)

Its a similar shirt. I made up the colors on this one, too. I've done this image several times now, once in black and white and another color one. Most of the FAKES ! I produced during the winter of 2004 were on windows with no mullions - crosspieces. I like that this one is divided into quarters.

acrylic on glass
sold

THE ROUMANIAN BLOUSE, VERSION 2

I painted this while I was being filmed for "ART EXPRESS" in May of '04. It was pretty nerve wracking, but I had fun anyway. I couldn't see a thing I was doing because of the way I had to tilt the window for the camera. I changed the background after the filming. You can compare the two if you look at the video, which you can see if you go to "Media" on the masthead or click the link here.

» view "ART EXPRESS" video interview with Liza

REVERSE PAINTING ON 8X10 GLASS, FRAMED
private collection

LIZA WOMAN RAY

I have loved Man Ray since I was a teenager, when my readings on the Dada Movement got me thinking about art movements and their relationship to their historical times. Man Ray was so wonderfully inventive and adaptable. He did everything. His fashion photographs and portraits of the artists of his generation have captured an era for us. His inventions, like rayographs and his use of solarization helped redefine the art of photography. . Oh, and he died on the same day as my parents, which I think is a nifty little piece of karma.

This little piece, which is only 8x10 inches, is my homage to Man, and his love of shadows.