ML - Vegas Magazine

2013 - Issue 4 - Summer

Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.

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ART FULL Study by Candlelight, circa 1888, attributed to Vincent van Gogh. van gogh or faux? W hen Hollywood producer William Goetz hung Study by Candlelight over a fireplace in his home, he had no idea of the firestorm it was igniting. In 1948, Goetz had paid $50,000 to a reputable art dealer for the newly discovered van Gogh self-portrait, which had been authenticated. Yet over in the Netherlands, something was brewing. A museum director in Amsterdam declared the painting inauthentic, as did van Gogh's nephew. Later that year, in conjunction with a van Gogh exhibit, a jury of American art professionals convened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to settle the question and concluded that the painting was not a true van Gogh. Now Reno's Nevada Museum of Art is reviving the saga in an exhibit, "A Real Van Gogh? An Unsolved Art World Mystery," complete with news clippings, photographs—and the portrait itself. The museum's executive director and CEO, David Walker, "is a longtime friend of one of the Goetz family heirs," says Ann Wolfe, the museum's senior curator and deputy director. "Given the long and controversial history of the painting, the family were only willing to work with a museum and director who they felt would present the story of the painting in a balanced way." 56 The museum takes no stance on the work's authenticity, aiming only to tell the story, using notes, letters, artifacts from the Goetz family estate, and other documents. The exhibit also delves into the scientific techniques used to determine the density and strata of an artwork's paint, its brush strokes, and its restoration history—all of which help in the authentication process. Among the items on display is a Life magazine article about the painting's postwar discoverer, art-print pioneer Reeves Lewenthal, who eventually recanted his story of how he found the painting in a Paris bistro. Most important, of course, there is the painting: a seemingly unfinished but signed portrait, with dense, textured brush strokes forming a halo of light behind the subject. The lapel, top button, and shoulders of the Dutch artist's coat are filled in with green paint, leaving the bottom unfinished and revealing an ink drawing of a Kabuki figure (van Gogh had an interest in Japanese art). Still lingering, however, is the question of who painted it. Like many good art-world mysteries, Study by Candlelight generates more questions than it answers. Through August 25 at the Nevada Museum of Art, 160 W. Liberty St., Reno, 775-329-3333; nevadaart.org V IMAGE COURTESY OF THE NEVADA MUSEUM OF ART A 1940S ART-WORLD CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING A SUPPOSED SELF-PORTRAIT BY VINCENT VAN GOGH COMES TO LIGHT AT THE NEVADA MUSEUM OF ART. BY KRISTEN PETERSON VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 056_V_SC_Artfull_Sum13.indd 56 6/17/13 11:49 AM

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