Art and Craft

Art and Craft is a fascinating 2014 documentary that exhibits the peculiar world of art forgeries. The film intriguingly delves into the life and escapades of the notorious art imitator, Mark A. Landis. The dynamic duo behind the camera, Sam Cullman and Jennifer Grausman, with co-director Mark Becker, masterfully introduces us to Landis who has become infamous not for selling forgeries, but for donating them to the country’s most esteemed institutions for almost three decades.

The film follows an eccentric and yet endearing protagonist, Landis, who is elegantly portrayed in a manner that does not villainize or idolize him but rather embraces his peculiarity. The elderly and ostensibly frail man, often seen wearing his deceased mother's cardigan and a charming Buddy Holly-style trilby, has spent the better part of 30 years imitating the works of Picasso, Walt Disney, Charles Schulz and many others, and donating these forgeries to midsized museums and galleries throughout the United States. What sets Landis apart from the typical miscreant is his lack of any discernible ulterior motive: he does not sell these imitated works he produces for financial gain, but rather gifts them, seemingly propelled by a desire to appear philanthropic and to enjoy the associated attention and gratitude that comes with such large donations.

Throughout Art and Craft, we gain insight into the duplicities of Landis's life and mind, providing a captivating case study on the nature of art, authenticity, mental health, and the perceived boundaries of ethical behavior. Filmmakers Cullman and Grausman, along with Becker, ingeniously showcase Landis's skills at mimicking artworks and also how he brilliantly manages to masquerade as a high-profile donor using various pseudonyms like Father Arthur Scott, a Jesuit priest or philanthropist Steven Gardiner, all the while keeping museum officials under his charm with his gentle demeanor and seemingly generous gestures.

The bane of Landis's distinctive operation comes in the form of Mr. Lester Sullivan, a tenacious registrar for the Oklahoma City Museum of Art who plays the unlikely hero. When Sullivan identifies a dubious donation made by Landis, he leads a personal crusade to expose Landis’s deceiving donations to unsuspecting institutes. This sets up the ingredients for a subtle cat-and-mouse game that spans across geographic states and the realms of moral and ethical debates over Landis's operations.

Another key figure in the narrative is art conservationist and former professional forger turned educator, Irwin Lakov. Lakov’s insightful input offers a thought-provoking perspective to the storyline. He explains the intricacy of the forgery process, the characteristics of a professional forger, and the elements that make a piece of art genuine or inauthentic.

Art and Craft uniquely explores the dynamic between authenticity and duplicity in the world of art, raising fundamental questions about where creativity meets imitation and how originality is defined in the present-day art world. Notably, the filmmakers skillfully handle Landis’s mental health issues without falling into exploitation. Landis’s diagnosis with schizophrenia is gently alluded to and serves more as an additional layer to his complex character rather than as an attempted explanation or justification for his actions.

The masterful cinematography, complemented by the engaging narration, immerses the audience in the intensity and allure of the contemporary art world. It is neither a true-crime film nor a psychological study. Instead, the documentary sits comfortably in this ambiguous middle ground, much like Landis himself.

Whether you're a fan of art, psychology, or documentaries in general, Art and Craft is a compelling watch. It is an exploration into a fascinating character and a small corner of the art world people rarely get to see. It throws light on an obscure facet of art, questions its authenticity, standards of ethics, and the interplay of mental health, while also providing a captivating narrative of an extraordinary, and peculiarly benevolent, forger.