[Exclusive] Watch A Clip From "Art And Craft," A Documentary On One Of America's Most Prolific Art Forgers

Before the film opens in select theaters, take a sneak peek at how Mark Landis, the art fraud in focus, replicates famous paintings.

by Zach Sokol

September 18, 2014, 2:45pm

All images courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories

Mark Landis has been called one of the most prolific art forgers in American history. For 30-plus years, he successfully convinced over 40 museums that his reproductions of artwork from the likes of Picasso, Dr. Seuss, and many others were real-deal donations. Opening in select theaters this Friday, September 19th, Art and Craft is a new documentary directed by Sam Cullman, Jennifer Grausman, and Mark Becker that gives viewers an inside look into the life of Landis, including the cat and mouse story of one victimized art registrar who became obsessed with stopping the art fraud.

What sets Landis apart from dyed-in-the-wool criminals is that he isn't in it for the money—he doesn't sell his replicas, and thus has never been prosecuted. His motivations, though, were never totally clear. "Was Landis a failed artist trying to get back at the art world that had rejected him?" ask the directors in a press release. "Was he a kind of Robin Hood for the arts with dreams of bringing great works to the masses? Or was he some kind of a performance artist, intent on questioning notions of originality and authorship?" The doc, acquired by Oscilloscope in advance of its Tribeca Film Festival premiere last April, attempts to answer these questions by following the eccentric life of Landis and his art registrar rival, painting a portrait of a man who has one of those you can't make this stuff up lives.

Today, The Creators Project is premiering an exclusive clip from the doc, detailing Landis' specialized cloning process. Though he calls it a basic "memory trick," his skill at mimicking a variety of artists and styles makes the phrase sound like a gross understatement—just ask any of the art experts he fooled over the years.

Art and Craft opens in select theaters this Friday, September 19th. For more on the film, visit its website here. And below, see some original paintings, juxtaposed with Landis' forgeries.

Photo by Sam Cullman, Courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories

'Three Women' (1894) by Charles Courtney Curran

'Three Women' forgery by Mark Landis

Note from Filmmakers: Known institutions that have Landis’ fakes of this piece: Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum, University of Louisiana at Lafayette