Why Have There Been No Great Female Art Forgers? A Survey of Art Forgery as a Gendered Phenomenon

Abstract

Why are there no female art forgers? This paradoxical mystery can be attributed not only to prevailing patriarchal conceptions of art production and artists, but also to the very conceptual foundation of art forgery itself. In considering the conceptual framework that has developed in order to give way to our contemporary notion of art forgery and analyzing case studies where such conceptions are present, we can begin to understand the ways in which notions of authorship and authenticity affect artwork. These notions become apparent when addressing artwork and art products associated with technical and digital reproduction, as the conceptual framework begins to breakdown when art is facilitated by these means. As this work addresses topics concerning the digital, a website will be used in order to disseminate the scholarly work and engage the wider public in the topic of art forgery.