There were several cases this year where award-winning art and photography works have been discovered to be plagiarized. Today VietnamNet reports the latest embarrassment. It was discovered that the painting above by artist Luong Van Trung was for all purposes identical to a painting nearly a quarter century earlier by Russian artist M.C. Ombus-Cuznhexov. The forgery was awarded a bronze-medal at the National Fine Art Exhibition 2005 in Hanoi earlier this month. It was also discovered that the gold-medal winning submission was in fact resubmitted under a different title after winning a cash prize in the earlier Philip Morris competition.
The disgrace is not only upon the forger. All pieces were first juried. And as with all exhibited work in Vietnam, artwork must first be submitted to the Ministry of Culture for approval and permission. Of course, there is always a chance that a forged work may pass as original on occassion. No one expects anyone to have a photographic memory. But in Vietnam, such embarrassments are happen regularly.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it
Clearly, the above is one of the worst case examples. We're not talking about obscure Russian work done 25 years earlier. The original photograph won national acclaim only 6 years earlier. From VietnamNet this summer:
In 1999, photographer Tran The Long won many domestic and international prizes for his photos, among them, “The kiss of wind”. The photo shows a girl, face upturned in optimism, with a yellow scarf.
Then, in 2005, organisers of the propaganda painting contest to celebrate the 70th birthday of the Vietnam Communist Party presented the first prize for a painting named “The Party is my life” by Nguyen Trung Kien, a student from the Hanoi Open University Institute.
Problem is, the painting is exactly like “The kiss of wind”. Only the colour of the girl’s scarf and the addition of a hammer and sickle distinguish the painting from the photo.(Tran) The Long has in turn asked some newspapers to investigate the case, asking how such an obvious case of piracy can occur for a painting that wins a national competition judged by artists from the Vietnam Arts Association under and the Ministry of Culture and Information? The Ministry had once even awarded Mr Long a certificate for the quality of his photo at the first national photo exhibition 1996-2000 as well as the prize for outstanding photo in 1999.
Of the Board of Examiners’ mistake, Le Duc Canh of the Grassroots Culture and Information Agency said that the board only includes managers and painting experts who could not have know about the photo.
Play it again, Sam
The visual arts and literature are hard to compete for public attention when paired with popular music or entertainment. So, when news breaks that some composer of someone's favorite boyband or diva has done an unoriginal original, the media is in a frenzy. Such is the case last year when the famous Japanese jazz composer Keiko Matsui contacted Vietnamese authorities with concerns that composer Bao Chan has passed off her composition, Frontiers, as his own.
No Comment
The dishonesty is not limited to the arts. Last year, the first prize in a software development contest was retroactively revoked not necessarily because the authors used open source code, but that they claimed they wrote it, which of course, is clear violation of the open source movement. You give credit where credit is due, often through a process called 'commenting' in the source code itself.
Do you Copy?
These embarrassments point to larger social problems that extend beyond the particulars of individual acts of dishonesty. Until we can assist artists, designers and musicians to develop their own creativity, this trend will likely continue. Particularly as Vietnamese are now beginning to have access to contemporary arts information, the tendency is to want to emulate at the cost of the natural process of learning and understanding. There's a rush to go down on record as being the first to do something. In a developing nation, everything from products to concepts are branded as "new". People are quick to forget their influences or our sources. The causes can be found in poorly stocked libraries, inadequately prepared teachers, and
Sources
[art, music, design, technology contest cheating]
VietnamNet. Copy wins art show in growing problem
Thanh Nien News. IT contest winners revoked of first prize
Thanh Nien News. HCMC Musician Association vows more probes on plagiarism
VietnamNet. Piracy hits award-winning poster
TuoiTre. Không chỉ là chuyện của "Nụ hôn của gió"
Posted by on December 20, 2005 4:39 PM | Permalink
Interesting stuff, thanks for highlighting it. I've often wondered about the concept of shame in Vietnam. Whether it exists or not.
You would think, in the cases you describe, that the risk of being found out to be a blatant copyist, a liar and totally unimaginative would completely outweigh any chance of short term glory, cash or prizes. Anywhere else, being branded a copyist kinda kills any artistic career stone dead.
And these cases... It's not just that they copied. They didn't even make the slightest attempt to adapt or be original. I guess you've got to give the 'artists' credit for having the balls to do this. It's kinda indicative of the wider culture here though. I doubt Vietnamese people would be shocked by any of this. I imagine most automatically assume awards winners either cheated, copied, paid someone off, are the son or daughter of someone with a modicum of power or are shagging the head of the jury. I never thought like myself, before I started living in Vina-la-la-land, but now it's my automatic repsonse :)))
As you mentioned, you can only wonder at the artistic knowledge of the jury :) Which then makes you wonder, do award systems like this have any meaning in Vietnam? Any meaning at all for 'serious artists'? What do they think of Vina-award systems?
I fear you could apply the same logic to beauty contests and hotel star rating systems - Ever stayed in a Vietnamese 4 star hotel? :)))
Hi Anna,
How is "art fraud" different from appropriation? It sure happens in the US alot, do you or your readers have a problem with appropriation. I'd love to talk to you about this sometime...over a cup of coffee of course. all best, frank
Good point Frank. There are likely as many works that fall under appropriation as there are forgeries. The distinction will not always be clear. For me, as a first response to your question, would be that the more recent work must comment on the original work, either critically or conceptually. Examples of this type of work are not hard to find, for example, Duchamp and Da Vinci. However, when the copy is positioned as the original idea/work with the intent of misleading the viewer, then the dishonesty renders the work a forgery, as in the cases I've provided of recent Vietnamese work. Of course, if the artist can conceptually posit the work as the "original" in some Baudrillard-esque twist, then the conceptual switch becomes the artwork. In the examples in this post, the painter simply took an existing painting, made a few modifications in an attempt to make it seem like an original and to pass off the work of another as ones own.
I am the first to acknowledge artistic inspiration. I have many. In the recent Performa 2005, well known artists have attempted to re-enact critical performance pieces of the past. Original interpretations of original works. This happens. But one is careful to be transparent, providing others with historical references.
That's my knee-jerk response. Would be happy to hear what you think.
In 1975 I was invited to participate in a group show at the SF Museum of Art (now SFMOMA). About 2 weeks prior to the opening, my studio was burglarized and 150 pieces/work in progress was stolen. In 1997, I discovered who has my work. My research illustrates how the other artist deconstructed and recontextualized my stolen work. I have placed 50 images of my work side by side with images by the other artist. Hey, it matches up! Who cares, nobody! Curators, art historians, people are afraid to do anything because he is a prominent American artist. Is it appropriation, plagiarism? Doesn't matter. He has my work and he will not give it back. Who cares about art fraud in Asia. Check out your local museum, art fraud is hidden in plain sight.