Afro-Dit
An Authentic Fake, with Provenance
by Steve Price
Let me start with some background. My home is near Richmond, Virginia, and for a long while a prominent collector of African art - particularly Yoruba - and contemporary American painting and sculpture lived here, too. He was rumored to have commissioned fake African art and donated it to nonprofit organizations for the tax writeoff. I don't know whether that rumor is true, although I suspect that it is.
He was murdered several years ago, and I attended the auction sale of his estate, hoping to find some excellent African pieces for my collection. The African tribal art at the sale included so many pieces that were very obviously fake that I didn't bid on any. However, there was some excellent modern painting that generated a lot of interest among the dealers who were present, and a few pieces of modern sculpture. I bought this one.
It is a large, beautifully sculpted piece signed by a local well known sculptor, Baxter Rains (he now lives in Florida). I knew Baxter and his work, and this was unlike anything I was accustomed to seeing. Most of his sculptures were large assemblages of massive wooden pieces that were mainly rectangular in shape. So I called Baxter and asked about this piece.
He told me that there was a very prominent 20th century French sculptor, Etienne-Martin, who died around 1991. The late Richmond collector visited Baxter with photos of some of Etienne-Martin's work. He told Baxter that he didn't want a copy, but something in the same style as Etienne-Martin's, and added that it should look old, it should be made of a wood that occurs in Europe, and it should not be signed. Baxter told me that he signed it anyway, to ensure that there would be no future confusion about who made it. Baxter added that since making this piece, all of his work has been figural rather than geometric, so he was very glad to have done the job.
Oh, yes, the African connection. Etienne-Martin was very much influenced by African tribal art, as many French artists were. Here is a Tellem figure that appeared at Sotheby's 1993 sale in London, and I think it is easy to see the relationship Baxter Rains' sculpture has to it.
So, there you have it. A contemporary sculpture that was commissioned as a fake. I have its complete provenance, and the history comes straight from the sculptor's mouth. And, I should add, I think it's marvelous, fake or not. Your comments on the sculpture or on the general issues of fakery, authentication and provenance, are invited.