In John Myatt’s latest collection these audacious and often astounding artistic traits are thrown into sharp focus.The collection, aptly titled ‘Fake’, is Myatt’s most ambitious yet, casting his determined gaze and practised paintbrush across decades of artworks. In stark contrast with much darker times when the artist would paint – quite literally – for his livelihood in a dilapidated farmhouse in rural Staffordshire, today Myatt makes art work on the right side of the law, utilising the rich and varied array of resources available to him in our increasingly digitized contemporary world. Exposure to new techniques, materials and research is instantly possible; a development which Myatt feels has only inspired him to push his practice further. Such progress is evident in the sheer ambition of this collection, which features for the first time a Roy Lichtenstein inspired piece, entitled ‘Genuine Fake,’ a gently humorous, knowing nod to his fraudulent past, but also a daring glance to Myatt’s future as an artist. Whether or not John Myatt’s copies challenge perceived ideas of what ‘real’ works of art are, they certainly challenge many of the assumptions that underlie the theory and practice of connoisseurship.Traditionally, the value and
authenticity of an artwork lies safely and resolutely in the hands of the critic, the auction house or the professor. In so famously duping these so called ‘experts’ Myatt has not only added another dimension to the increasingly indistinct boundary between the real and its copy, but stripped the purpose of painting back to its purest form: a visual example of talent and beauty. It is certainly no coincidence that back in the Middle Ages, the notion of art fraud was non-existent. Artwork during this earliest of times served a function, of miraculous beauty and power – something so often lost in the modern world of the art market.With ‘Fake’, Myatt provides the everyday viewer with the power and the choice to enjoy great artwork so often confined and concealed in private collections.This collection therefore becomes less a question of a chancer or conman, real or copy, and instead provides a celebration of art, of artists and beauty in their purest form.
Sarah Reeve Castle Fine Art
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