The Hillstrom Museum of Art at Gustavus Adolphus College will host the exhibition Elmyr de Hory, Artist and Faker from Feb. 15 through April 18. An opening reception will take place Monday, Feb. 15 from 7 to 9 p.m.
Elmyr De Hory is one of the most notorious art fakers of modern times and is believed to have created hundreds of fakes of modern masters such as Henri Matisse and Amedeo Modigliani that were accepted into museums and prominent collections in the United States and abroad.
Mark Forgy, who formed a close friendship with de Hory in the final years of his life, will lend the Hillstrom Museum works that the artist gave or bequeathed to him. In addition to over 70 paintings, drawings, and prints by de Hory from Forgy’s collection, the exhibition will also include genuine works by some of the artists de Hory frequently forged, lent by the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Forgy, who is currently collaborating with filmmaker Jeff Oppenheim to create a documentary on de Hory, will present a public lecture at Gustavus at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, March 21 in the Wallenberg Auditorium, located in the Alfred Nobel Hall of Science.
In addition, Jonathan Lopez, author of the bestseller The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van Meegeren, will lecture at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 28 in Wallenberg Auditorium. Lopez will discuss van Meegeren, who ranks with de Hory as one of the most infamous forgers of art.
The Elmyr de Hory, Artist and Faker exhibition is supported by a generous grant from the Carl and Verna Schmidt Foundation.
The Museum will also present another of its FOCUS IN/ON projects, in which a single work from the Hillstrom Collection is analyzed in depth in collaboration with a colleague from across the curriculum. Henry Schnakenberg’s Dominoes will be presented along with an essay co-written by Carolyn Pillers Dobler, Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, which will consider the artist and his career, and the elements of pattern and chance that can be discerned in the painting.
The Hillstrom Museum of Art is located on the lower level of the College’s C. Charles Jackson Campus Center. Regular museum hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays and 1-5 p.m. on weekends. The museum is free and open to the public.
For more information about this exhibition or the Hillstrom Museum of Art, go online to gustavus.edu/finearts/hillstrom or call 507-933-7200.
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