E. M. Washington

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Earl Marshawn Washington (born 1962) is an American entrepreneur, printmaker, and engraver.

Contents

Activities

Beginning in 1998, woodcut prints from Washington began appearing on eBay and elsewhere; Washington claiming variously that the woodcuts were originals by famous artists, that they had been made by a great-grandfather whom he identified as named “Earl Mack Washington” and as having lived from 1862 until 1952, or that this alleged great-grandfather had rescued the associated blocks from a fire-bombed Manhattan print shop in the 1880s. [1] [2] E.M. Washington is an African American artist and reported his great-grandfather as such, which led to increased interest in the work. It was estimated by September 2004 that as many as 60,000 prints had been sold, at prices ranging from $20 to a $350. [1] (Washington himself has since admitted to “creating over 1700 wood engravings”.)

Discovery

In 1999, not long after Washington's work began being sold, a Canadian collector and lawyer, Kenneth Martens, found that Washington had counterfeited work by Eric Gill. Unable to get eBay or other authorities to act, Martens created a website, “Washington Unmasked”, which began assembling and presenting evidence that Washington's work was counterfeit. [1] The M.C. Escher Co. found that Washington was forging the work of M. C. Escher, [3] pressed eBay into promising that it would forbid listing of these, and filed a complaint of criminal fraud in California, as prints were being handled there by stripper Stacy Ortiz (who would later become Washington's wife). [1] Another collector was unable to find any census record for Earl Mack Washington; others failed to find corresponding Social Security records, or evidence in the records of artists with whom Earl Mack Washington had supposedly associated. [1] An expert in art deco identified one of the images, duplicating work by Rockwell Kent, as necessarily dated more than twenty years after the supposed death of the supposed Earl Mack Washington. [1]

A special exhibition of the work, scheduled for October 2004 at the Mid America Council Conference in Lincoln, Nebraska, was cancelled by the Amity Art Foundation after Washington both failed to produce proof that the work was other than his own and was discovered using advertisement for the exhibition to persuade others of the legitimacy of the work. [1]

A criminal complaint was filed in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, by the owners of Prairie Home Antiques, who had purchased 82 prints from Washington for $1,640 on 17 June 2004. [1]

One of Washington's former girlfriends, hairdresser Terra Zavala, provided Martens with a signed statement that she had witnessed Washington creating some of the woodcuts, and that Earl Marshawn Washington had admitted to her not knowing even the name of his great-grandfather. [1]

By 2004, Washington admitted to creating some of the images, but insisted that he had not invented Earl Mack Washington. Some of Washington's more recent listings on eBay, however, declare

African American Artist Earl M. Washington gained worldwide recognition as a wood engraver by faking his death and creating over 1700 wood engravings and offering them to the art buying public at extremely affordable prices. [4]

Virtually all of the images appear to be copies of the work of other artists, available from books or other reprints, traced onto blocks. Some images have no significant modifications; in other cases the modifications result in absurdities, such as incongruous reflections and German words turned into nonsense. [5] Many of Washington's M.C. Escher forgeries are strikingly similar to the originals but are the wrong size. These include the works Lute, Man with Cuboid, Six Birds, Thirteen Flying Fish, Letter H, Letter A, Spherical Self Portrait, Retreat, Candle, Frog, Dice, Scales, Anvil, Watering Can, Devil Vignette, and Fish and Frogs. [6]

Related Research Articles

M. C. Escher Dutch graphic artist (1898–1972)

Maurits Cornelis Escher was a Dutch graphic artist who made mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints. Despite wide popular interest, Escher was for most of his life neglected in the art world, even in his native Netherlands. He was 70 before a retrospective exhibition was held. In the late twentieth century, he became more widely appreciated, and in the twenty-first century he has been celebrated in exhibitions around the world.

Printmaking Process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper

Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed technique, rather than a photographic reproduction of a visual artwork which would be printed using an electronic machine ; however, there is some cross-over between traditional and digital printmaking, including risograph. Except in the case of monotyping, all printmaking processes have the capacity to produce identical multiples of the same artwork, which is called a print. Each print produced is considered an "original" work of art, and is correctly referred to as an "impression", not a "copy". However, impressions can vary considerably, whether intentionally or not. Master printmakers are technicians who are capable of printing identical "impressions" by hand. Historically, many printed images were created as a preparatory study, such as a drawing. A print that copies another work of art, especially a painting, is known as a "reproductive print".

Woodcut Relief printing technique

Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that the artist cuts away carry no ink, while characters or images at surface level carry the ink to produce the print. The block is cut along the wood grain. The surface is covered with ink by rolling over the surface with an ink-covered roller (brayer), leaving ink upon the flat surface but not in the non-printing areas.

Linocut Printmaking technique

Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum is used for a relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum surface with a sharp knife, V-shaped chisel or gouge, with the raised (uncarved) areas representing a reversal of the parts to show printed. The linoleum sheet is inked with a roller, and then impressed onto paper or fabric. The actual printing can be done by hand or with a printing press.

<i>Dolphins</i> (M. C. Escher)

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<i>Regular Division of the Plane</i>

Regular Division of the Plane is a series of drawings by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher which began in 1936. These images are based on the principle of tessellation, irregular shapes or combinations of shapes that interlock completely to cover a surface or plane.

<i>Still Life and Street</i> Xylograph by M.C. Escher

Still Life and Street is an unusual woodcut print by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher which was first printed in March, 1937. It was his first print of an impossible reality. In this artwork there are two distinctly recognizable realities bound together in a natural yet impossible way. Looked at from the window, the houses make book-rests between which tiny dolls are set up. Looked at from the street, the books stand yards high and a gigantic tobacco jar stands at the crossroads.

Metamorphosis I is a woodcut print by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher which was first printed in May, 1937. This piece measures 19.5 cm × 90.8 cm and is printed on two sheets.

<i>Metamorphosis II</i> Woodcut print by M. C. Escher

Metamorphosis II is a woodcut print by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher. It was created between November, 1939 and March, 1940. The print measures 19.2 by 389.5 centimetres and was printed from 20 blocks on 3 combined sheets. Metamorphosis II is a long, horizontal piece which depicts animals and other forms gradually transforming into each other.

<i>Puddle</i> (M. C. Escher)

Puddle is a woodcut print by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher, first printed in February 1952.

<i>Relativity</i> (M. C. Escher) Print by M. C. Escher

Relativity is a lithograph print by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher, first printed in December 1953. The first version of this work was a woodcut made earlier that same year.

<i>Metamorphosis III</i> Woodcut print by M. C. Escher

Metamorphosis III is a woodcut print by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher created during 1967 and 1968. Measuring 19 cm × 680 cm, it is Escher's largest print. It was printed on thirty-three blocks on six combined sheets, mounted on canvas, and partly coloured by hand. Metamorphosis III is an expanded version of Metamorphosis II, a piece which Escher had executed earlier in his career.

<i>Snakes</i> (M. C. Escher)

Snakes is a woodcut print by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher. The work was first printed in July 1969, and was Escher's last print before his death.

<i>Stars</i> (M. C. Escher) Wood engraving print by M. C. Escher

Stars is a wood engraving print created by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher in 1948, depicting two chameleons in a polyhedral cage floating through space.

Intaglio (printmaking) Family of printing and printmaking techniques

Intaglio is the family of printing and printmaking techniques in which the image is incised into a surface and the incised line or sunken area holds the ink. It is the direct opposite of a relief print where the parts of the matrix that make the image stand above the main surface.

Escher in the Palace Art, prints, drawing museum in The Hague, Netherlands

Escher in Het Paleis is a museum in The Hague, Netherlands, featuring the works of the Dutch graphical artist M. C. Escher. It is housed in the Lange Voorhout Palace since November 2002.

Old master print Work of art made printing on paper in the West

An old master print is a work of art produced by a printing process within the Western tradition. The term remains current in the art trade, and there is no easy alternative in English to distinguish the works of "fine art" produced in printmaking from the vast range of decorative, utilitarian and popular prints that grew rapidly alongside the artistic print from the 15th century onwards. Fifteenth-century prints are sufficiently rare that they are classed as old master prints even if they are of crude or merely workmanlike artistic quality. A date of about 1830 is usually taken as marking the end of the period whose prints are covered by this term.

Wordless novel Sequences of pictures used to tell a story

The wordless novel is a narrative genre that uses sequences of captionless pictures to tell a story. As artists have often made such books using woodcut and other relief printing techniques, the terms woodcut novel or novel in woodcuts are also used. The genre flourished primarily in the 1920s and 1930s and was most popular in Germany.

<i>Gods Man</i> 1929 wordless novel by Lynd Ward

Gods' Man is a wordless novel by American artist Lynd Ward (1905–1985) published in 1929. In 139 captionless woodblock prints, it tells the Faustian story of an artist who signs away his soul for a magic paintbrush. Gods' Man was the very first American wordless novel, and is considered a precursor of the graphic novel, whose development it influenced.

<i>Circle Limit III</i>

Circle Limit III is a woodcut made in 1959 by Dutch artist M. C. Escher, in which "strings of fish shoot up like rockets from infinitely far away" and then "fall back again whence they came".

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Abrams, Alan E.; "Catch Me If You Can". Forbes . 20 September 2004. Archived from the original on March 9, 2005.
  2. ↑ Martens, Kenneth. "? ?Earl M. Washington (1862 - 1952)? ?". earlmwashington.com. Archived from the original on 31 August 2006. Retrieved 19 December 2010.
  3. ↑ Veldhuysen, Mar. "Warning! False M.C. Escher prints are being offered for sale!". mcescher.com. Archived from the original on 17 December 2010. Retrieved 19 December 2010.
  4. ↑ "?".[ dead link ]
  5. ↑ Martens, Kenneth. "Inexact Copies". earlmwashington.com. Archived from the original on 31 August 2006. Retrieved 19 December 2010.
  6. ↑ "MC Escher Fakes 4". eschersite.com. Archived from the original on 2018-12-10. Retrieved 2018-12-09.

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