With art, what is said can be misleading....

Hey Art Tribe- Hope your long weekend has been wonderful.

There is a very accurate adage in the world of art that goes "looking at the back of an image can often give you more information than looking at the front". So true. However, you cannot always trust everything on a piece, as the full honest truth. Sometimes people are doing their best with limited information and do not intend to deceive or be fraudulent in any way. Other times, motives may be a bit less pious. For some, selling art, is a business pursuit, and the goal in business is to end the year in the black.

Today I am going to share the beginning of story of the questionable James Boren image. ContreLeMur has a business model "We travel the country's back roads to find forgotten

art and then share those pieces with you!" Since we do not directly represent artists and we are not a traditional gallery, we have to find those pieces by going to them. However, occasionally an art piece finds us. This was the case with the James Boren image. An art gallery called us to ask if we would be interested in a bulk purchase of art that they had not been successful in reselling. Normally we do not purchase art in this manner, but heading out to look was certainly in order, as there might be pieces that we could help to rescue and rehome. We found three works in this lot which fit our criteria and that we visually enjoyed, and as part of the offer we did bring the J. Boren home as an additional piece. Almost immediately after the purchase we packed all of our inventory up and moved across the country, which meant the piece just hung out in a shipping box until earlier in 2022.

When we unboxed and started carefully looking at the rather disheveled Boren piece, the first order of business was to re-mat, and re-back the piece before it was damaged. This is also a chance to see any "hidden clues" from the artist. We looked for writing on the back of either the image, frame or dust cover. Potentially a completely different piece of art on the back (we've found them before), canvas makers embossing, or paper watermarks. These clues can share an idea of who, what, where and when the art was created. If there is a stated provenance or family story with the art these hidden clues can also support or cast doubt on that story. With the Boren there was no "hidden clue" only a large piece of printed paper taped onto the back of the tattered dust cover. See it in the image above.

Looking at the front of the piece it was a western themed piece with the signature J. Boren in the bottom right corner. Under magnification it did not show the printer pattern of a lithograph or giclee' print, nor were there visible brush marks anywhere on the image. When the image had been out of the frame, a check for any printer's markings or identification also turned up nothing.

Since the image wasn't helping tell its own story, the first question became was the signature like that of the artist James Boren? Now we move from looking at the image to looking at the available information. When looking at a piece of art "purported" to be by a specific artist, you start asking very specific questions, such as:

• Was it possible for the artist to have made the piece at all? Pieces made before and after the life of the artist should raise a few questions, and perhaps suggest a supernatural medium intervention is in order.

• Does it make sense that the artist would or could have used the materials used in the work? This again is a question of plausibility, if the materials didn't exist at all, or the artist isn't known for using the materials, this is a reason for serious review.

• Did the artist work in this medium or subject matter? Sure, everyone steps out of their comfort zone and tries new things, but if it's a real departure, real research should be used before attributing it to an artist.

• Finally, does it look like other things the artist has done? Does it fit with the style and composition of the artists other works? If it's a form of paint, do the brush strokes, the color blocking and how the image is positioned and relates to other items (these are a few elements of composition), look familiar to other works they have created? If not, this may be a red flag.

In the case of this J Boren piece, it became immediately apparent that the signature is very different from what James Boren (a very well established American Western artist) used. Further comparison of the works style, how the buildings were composed we also very different from that of James Borens other works.

Since its unlikely this piece is from James Boren, what happens now is that deeper research will happen to find potential artist matches for this piece. Much of this is book and leg work involving a lot of hunting and asking questions. But if ContreLeMur and Clifford had taken the documentation of this piece at its word, we would have extended sharing inaccurate information that James Boren is the artist. This is unfair to James Boren, to J Boren and to the forever home that this piece will eventually join. Sometimes we can't tell a piece's story, and it's a better ethical choice to acknowledge this. The moral of the story? An art gallery did its best to tell the history of this piece and sometimes, what the painting tells you will contradict what the painting itself tells you. Always listen to the story before your eyes and be prepared to be surprised by the journey and end story.

Until our next chat, smooches to all.

#CliffordsPicks #artforall #contrelemur #contrelemurart #artwork #westernart #cowboyart #watercolor #foreverwalls #doginfluencer #mysteryartist #vintageart #doginthesweater #orphanart #arttribe #pictureoftheday #whocreatedme