Announcement: Lecture by Mark Forgy, longtime friend of art forger Elmyr de Hory
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"Elmyr de Hory, the Man, the Myth, the Artist: A Personal View"
On Sunday, March 21, 3:30 pm, the Hillstrom Museum of Art presents a public lecture by Mark Forgy, longtime friend of notorious art faker Elmyr de Hory. The lecture, titled "Elmyr de Hory, the Man, the Myth, the Artist: A Personal View," is presented in conjunction with the Museum's current exhibition Elmyr de Hory, Artist and Faker (see below) and is supported with funds from the Lecture Series of Gustavus Adolphus College and the Carl and Verna Schmidt Foundation.
Drawing from his recently written memoirs, titled The Forger's Apprentice: Life with the World's Most Notorious Artist, Forgy will discuss de Hory, considered by many as one of the most successful and infamous art forgers ever. Forgy formed a close friendship with de Hory in the final years of his life. After a chance meeting in 1969, Forgy became an assistant and friend to the artist, living with him in his home on the Spanish island of Ibiza until his death by suicide in 1976.
The lecture is free and open to the public. The Hillstrom Museum of Art will be open following the lecture.
Current exhibition:
World-famous art forger Elmyr de Hory featured in new Hillstrom Museum of Art exhibit:
Elmyr de Hory, Artist and Faker is on view at the Hillstrom Museum of Art from February 15 through April 18, 2010. It features works by one of the most notorious art fakers of modern times, Elmyr de Hory (1906-1976), who is believed to have created hundreds of fakes of modern masters such as Henri Matisse (1869-1954) or Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) that were accepted into museums and prominent collections in the U.S. and abroad. Mark Forgy, who formed a close friendship with de Hory in the final years of his life, will lend works that the artist gave or bequeathed to him. Some of these were done in the style of other artists but signed with de Hory's own name, while others were in the artist's own style.
Forgy is collaborating with filmmaker Jeff Oppenheim to create a documentary, to be released in 2011 and titled Chasing Elmyr, on de Hory, who has been the subject of earlier significant biographies that include a 1969 study titled Fake! The Story of Elmyr de Hory, the Greatest Art Forger of Our Time, written by Clifford Irving (just before his own forgery, the spurious biography of Howard Hughes). Film studies on de Hory include Orson Welles' F for Fake (1972), a BBC documentary titled Elmyr, the True Picture? (1970), and a recent film by Norwegian Knut Jorfald titled Masterpiece or Forgery? The Story of Elmyr de Hory (1997).
In addition to around seventy paintings, drawings and prints by de Hory from Forgy's collection, the exhibition will also include a large portrait of de Hory and his brother Stephen as young children, painted by Hungarian Philip de L??szl?? (1869-1937), the highly popular portraitist whose other clients included Pope Leo XIII and many European royals and aristocrats. Also on view will be genuine works by two of the artists de Hory frequently forged (Matisse and Modigliani), lent by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, plus a fake Matisse from the collection of the Saint Louis Art Museum, to which it was donated for study purposes as a recognized de Hory forgery. The exhibition is supported with a generous grant from the Carl and Verna Schmidt Foundation.
All events and programs are free and open to the public. Additional information on the Hillstrom Museum of Art can be found at the website at www.gustavus.edu/finearts/hill