Shining a light on cultural harms caused by forgeries

Holding its world première tonight at Prairie Theatre Exchange, The Undeniable Accusations of Red Cadmium Light is a Drew Hayden Taylor original — he swears.

It’s something the writer from Ontario’s Curve Lake First Nation never thought he’d have to specify. After all, who would try to pass off their own work as his?

But in the era of artificial intelligence, when large language models are trained to mimic the tone, phrasing and paragraph patterns of successful authors such as Taylor, it isn’t just visual artists and musicians who risk getting their work ripped off by lazy imitators or shady profiteers.

“I was interviewed by CBC’s The National a year-and-a-half ago, and they were doing a piece on ( AI writing), so they asked the AI to write a short story in the style of Drew Hayden Taylor,” says the playwright, humourist, TV host and author of more than 30 books.

“I was astounded at the familiarity of the style, and it sort of sent a cold chill down my spine.”

It was only an experiment in authenticity, but it gave Taylor a brief, sympathetic glimmer at the grim realities of art fraud and forgery, topics he explores with his signature wit in The Undeniable Accusations of Red Cadmium Light, a play inspired by the ongoing challenges to the artistic legacy of Anishinaabe painter Norval Morrisseau, a leading figure of the Woodland art movement.

One of the most revered artists in Canadian history, Morrisseau became in 2006 the first contemporary Indigenous artist to receive a retrospective at Ottawa’s National Gallery of Canada.

Remarkably prolific and exceedingly generous in sharing his art, Morrisseau did not keep records of most of his works, which made his ouevre the target of forgers and fraudsters during his life. As Tracey Nepinak writes in her director’s note, Morrisseau looked the other way when friends or family passed their own work off as his.

Since Morrisseau’s death in 2007 from complications of Parkinson’s disease, experts have identified thousands of forgeries of work by Morrisseau, considered by many to be the Mishomis, or grandfather, of contemporary Indigenous art in Canada.

The legal battle to bring those who benefited from the forgeries to justice is vast and ongoing: last week, a sentencing hearing began for Niagara’s Jeff Cowan, who has been found guilty on four counts of fraud related to producing and distributing Morrisseau forgeries. Last year, Jim White and David Paul Bremner were both convicted in Ontario for their involvement in a forgery ring.

For Taylor, who has been an appreciator of Morrisseau’s work for decades, that landscape of fakery felt like fertile ground for a revealing art-world thriller. The Undeniable Accusations of Red Cadmium Light stars Vinnie Alberto as a reporter investigating Morrisseau frauds, Charlene Van Buekenhout as an expert gallerist and Calla Adubofour-Poku as her daughter, a rising star in the world of Indigenous education.

“One of the things I get into in the play is the fact that art, in whatever form, whether visual or literary, is like a window into our soul. How we paint, the stories we tell, they’re a manifestation of our culture, of how we were raised, the stories we were told and the visions we were given,” says the playwright.

“So when somebody comes in and appropriates those visions and those stories, it’s an assault on us as individuals and as a people. They’re taking our voice, they’re taking our imagery and they’re pretending to be us for a profit.”

In writing the play, Taylor got in touch with authentication authorities at Art Experts Canada. Formerly known as Morrisseau Art Consulting Inc., the firm adopted a new name last year because it was dealing increasingly with forgeries of the work of Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis.

“Lewis’s style is similar to Morrisseau in that it isn’t as technical as one could be, which makes it easier to replicate if you’re looking to make a forgery, though our experts would be able to tell the difference,” says Art Experts COO John Zemanovich, an artist, collector and expert on Morrisseau.

Through conversations with Zemanovich, Taylor learned about a few authentication tricks used to verify a true Morrisseau from a fake, including his tendency to use the titular paint colour to shade in his subject’s skin.

“Authenticators look for a synthesis of stylistic consistency and historical accuracy,” Zemanovich says. “While pigments like red cadmium light have been available since the 1950s, an expert might look at how Morrisseau’s specific application of that colour changed as his career progressed.”

Taylor’s fascination with visual art is derived at least in part by his admitted ineptitude in the field.

“I have a friend who’s a visual artist, and I remember being so envious of his talent, so I sat down with a pen, thinking, ‘If he can do it, so can I,’” says Taylor, who tried and failed to draw a credible turtle.

“And I realized I have many talents, but that is not one of them. That, and karaoke.”

His words, not ours.

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