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Against Truth : The Authenticity Of A Propaganda Painting
Paperback Edition: 1
In 2012 a watercolour and pen and ink work entitled 'Against Truth' was put on display in the Natrional Library Building in Wellington. The picture was listed in the exhibition as being by the early nineteenth-century artist Augustus Earle, and according to the accompanying notes, was said to have been painted around 1830.
'Paul Moon suggests an art hoax. Its all about a painting by Augustus Earle. Or is it by Earle? This is a hoax without a clearly known villain. It is as though the person or persons that committed or are said to have committed the hoax are anonymous. And that is the mystery from one point of view. Was there and is there still a silent conspiracy against Earle. Why is this? There is the question that Earle does not seem to be liked on his travels in New Zealand and Moon notes this . . . But Paul Moon is asking questions with answers that appear and then as soon as you grasp them they give way to another answer or apparition thereof."
Dr Paul Moon is Professor of History at Auckland University of Technology, and is the author of several acclaimed books on aspects of New Zealand history. He specialises in the philosophies of British colonisation during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and is currently working on a major biography of James Busby, the British Resident to New Zealand in the 1830s.
These sly ghosts of the canvass might be forever receding into the mists or art and time but Moon is asking questions of galleries, of cultural experts and the standard of art inspection -- right down to the signature -- in New Zealand, United Kingdom and elsewhere. If Earle got scammed what about the same thing happening to other artists? Did Moon just stumble upon this or are we paying Curators and Art Experts for nothing much at all? Have we all been had?
Featured in the 13 May 2019 New Zealand newsletter.
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Pages : 52
Publisher : Campus Press, Palmerston North
Publication date : 2019-05-01
Subjects: Non-fiction, Published in New Zealand, New Zealand, NZ History, NZ Art & Artists