Art in America reports—but doesn’t fully explain how it happened—that Yoshitomo Nara has informed the world that his recently published catalogues raisonné contains two forgeries:
Nara, whose influential faux-naive style has earned him countless museum and gallery exhibitions around the world, has produced over 5,000 paintings, drawings and installations since his university days in the ’80s through to the present, the sum of which is documented in the books.
Most likely the error occurred because of the open submission policy the publishers (Bijutsu Shuppan-Sha in Japan, Chronicle Books in the U.S.) used to track down the thousands of works that are dispersed around the globe. Collectors were encouraged to send in information about their pieces and advised, “The artist himself, Nara Yoshimoto, will be responsible for determining the authenticity of any works.”
What Art in America doesn’t say is whether Nara reviewed the works and approved the entire catalogue mistaking these two works or did the artist simply fail to vet the catalogue thoroughly which might mean other works included in the catalogue are not genuine. Hardly the desired outcome of the process.
Yoshitomo Nara Says Works in His Catalogue Raisonne are Forgeries (Art in America)
