Page 48 - Eye of the beholder

The ProbleM of fakeS in benGal School
In the genre of Modern Indian art, most of the early doyens belonged to the Bengal school. The bengal school was also the first formally recognised Indian art movement. From an art historical point of view, it's importance is also accentuated by virtue of its association with, and contribution to the Indian art movement. In the "National Art Heritage" list that the government of India compiled in 197X, a majority of the artists hail from the Bengal school.
The term "Bengal School" today refers loosely to any art by a bengali artist. By this definition, this includes artists such as Rabindranath Tagore whose style and ideology were different from the bengal school. It also includes artists such as Hemendranath Majumdar, whose artistic ideology and philosophy were at odds with that of the bengal school.
Many artists of the bengal school rose to fame far and wide quite early. They also hailed from a time when the market for Indian art was non-existent, and there was no formal record keeping. Gallery reciepts, certificates and formal provenance documents are therefore almost non existent for Bengal school paintings. A combination of these factors colluded together to facilitate a market for fake paintings of Bengal school artists.
Today, the value and importance of bengal school paintings has not faded. Seasoned collectors still vie for good works, though other genres and school of Indian art have become popular. However, the abundance of fakes in the market has dampened the enthusiasm and also the bouyancy of the market in terms of prices.
Fakes are often executed by duplicitous dealers conniving with art school graduates. These fakes are then given a false provenance and passed on through galleries, middlemen and auctions. Fake paintings on paper are particularly difficult to detect. Watercolor paintings executed on 'aged' paper, and made to go through an 'accelerated ageing' process are very difficult to tell apart from the real ones. The fact that many bengal school artists used paper as a medium makes it easy to fake them.
Oil paintings on the other hand are easier to scrutinize for fakes. Over a period of time, the paint layer develops a unique fingerprint of a network of cracks called 'craquelere'. This craquelere is difficult to faithfully replicate artificially, and any amateurish attempt to do so is relativey easily detected by an experienced eye.
Other factors by which a fake can be told apart from the original are good knowledge of the choice of subjects of the artist, choice of colors, brush strokes etc.
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