Part 1. The Weird & Wonderful World Of Signatures.
Goodbye Wet Signatures— Hello Keys.
Funny things signatures. Everyone has one. Some are worth more than others. How much is yours worth?
Andy Warhol in 1964 set up a groundbreaking art exhibition at Paul Bianchini’s Gallery called The American Supermarket. And Hey Presto! Pop art was born.
What’s interesting here is that paintings of Campbell’s Soup sold for $1500. But signed cans were sold for $6. Not pictures of cans. Just cans. With a signature. $6.
The paintings were not popular at the time, but have since been sold for up to $11.8M at auction. As for the cans. Those cans are now worth up to $3500. For a can. With a signature. Best Before 1978.
To remind you an unsigned can of chicken soup in Tesco today is £1. Best Before 2025. I’m honestly thinking of going into the counterfeit-Warhol-signed-can business. How hard can it be?
Sketchy Bills
Picasso famously paid for meals in restaurants by signing a napkin, sometimes with a sketch, sometimes without. More amazingly, In 2005 the French car company Citroen paid an undisclosed sum to the estate of Picasso to use his signature on a very average, very grey, middle of the road car; The Citroen Picasso.
There is a link from Picasso to Citroen but a very very tenuous one as reported by Graham Keeley in 2005. In 1955, Picasso while in California, had a visit by an exile, from the Spanish Civil War, Manuel Mejido, now living in Mexico.
Picasso painted an outline drawing on a Citroen he borrowed from a friend. The painting became known as ‘The Wreaths of Peace”. By special request — Picasso even signed the wheel arch.
Mejido promptly bought the car from his friend and then sold it. The car has since been lost, perhaps even crushed into a junkyard metal cube. And that’s it. Picasso’s contact with Citroen in a nutshell.
28,000 Pieces of Art
Picasso was a rule breaker, a maverick, a true pioneer in sculpture, paint and mixed media. Don’t forget Picasso created over 28,000 pieces of art in his career. He did a lot of sketches, some really bad art and a lot of good art. Some even great. All I’m saying is that I don’t think the Wreaths of Peace was his best.
Can You Inherit A Signature? Yes, You Can.
In 1973 Picasso died and his five family heirs inherited his life’s work of art. They also, according to their lawyer, inherited ‘the right to exploit the Picasso brand name’. Which Claude Ruiz Picasso promptly did.
On the flip side of the ‘brand exploiting’ arrangement is the Citroen spokeswoman Myrthe Debore who claims the;
“Picasso car associates the genius of Picasso with the inventiveness of our company founder Andre Citroen”.
If you listen hard, I believe you can hear both Andre and Pablo spinning in their graves.
If there was one phrase to describe Picasso it would not be ‘middle of the road’.
And I find it very hard to believe he would have ever designed and signed such a boring and all round grey car as the Citroen Picasso.
If you don’t believe this is a real Picasso then remember he has signed every single one, thereby proving both origination and authenticity.
Of course, the reality is that even though it has Pablo Picasso’s signature on it — he clearly did not sign it. Just what the hell is going on?
The whole sorry Picasso car episode is so strange that car buffs have even parodied the whole situation. Andy Saunders is certain that IF (and that’s a big if) Picasso were to design and sign a car and IF it had to be a Citroen it would surely be inspired by his muse Dora Maar and look more like this.
Why The Signed Da Vinci Is A Fake
Just as some ‘work’ is signed (but not always signed by the owner of the signature ) so other work is simply not signed or even deliberately unsigned.
This happens more often than you’d think and has caused major headaches throughout history. Especially art history.
In 1451 Leonardo Da Vinci was widely recognized as the polymath renaissance genius of the day. With his mild ADHD, he rarely finished a project, veering from paintings, landscaping, architecture, military weapons, autopsies and back to sketches and paintings.
It is said he only finished 20 paintings in his lifetime. These are known in the art world as ‘Autograph’. The others are a team effort of apprentices and other artists which are known collectively as ‘Studio’ efforts.
The strange thing about Da Vinci is that even if it was an autograph painting — he never signed his work.
Does this matter? Ask the House of Saud. And the Louvre in Paris who are currently engaged in a Da Vinci — ‘signature-off’.
If the recently discovered and restored ‘Last Da Vinci’ known as the Salvatore Mundi is autograph then it’s worth the $450M they paid at Christies Auction in 2018.
The Saudi’s want to display it as ‘Autograph’ — authenticated by an oracle of experts. The Louvre wants to borrow it and display it as ‘Studio’.
IF (and that’s another big if) it’s ‘Studio’ then it drops a little in value to a little north of $1.5 Million. You can read the full story in the fantastic book ‘The Last Da Vinci — by Ben Lewis here.
Kettles Yard : Artist Unknown.
The bigger question is whether the absence of a signature means that the artwork in question is any the less artistic?
To this end in July 2019 a consortium of galleries in Cambridge have created an exhibition at The Kettles Yard Gallery entitled; Artist Unknown. Among the artifacts exhibited are some of the 23,000 unsigned, anonymous sculptures and pieces of art from the Fitzwilliam Museum.
The exhibition raises important questions about skill and attribution. Rembrandt is believed to have created between 50 to 700 pieces of work — and arguments rage as to whether a Rembrandt is original or not; but does a signature make it a better piece of art?
Art journalist Rachel Campbell-Johnston argues that we are all seeking a ‘feeling of authenticity, we need to feel that we are experiencing the ‘real thing’. A copy, a fake or a second rate artist will simply not do. To make matters worse — today's cultural fashions and cults of celebrity artists means that a Jeff Koons shiny metal poodle or Damien Hirst dot paintings are widely acknowledged to be the works of studios — and yet are signed by the artist. Originality trumps skill. Has the world gone mad?
The Many Problems of Wet Signatures
Since the age of about 10, I’ve been able to forge my sister’s signature. I don’t think I’m alone. I’m not even particularly good at it but I get by. Wet signatures with pen and ink are lame in the extreme.
Quite apart from the fact that just about anyone can copy a signature with a bit of practice — the problem with paper-based signatures are that they get lost, blow away, catch fire and smudge with water.
If you’re in the business of forging old documents diaries or artwork — here are some signatures for you to practice…
Fade To Grey?
Whenever and where ever you sign -it’s also worth thinking about what you are signing with. As often ink fades to nothing, especially when exposed to sunlight.
For example — When registering a marriage at a Registry office in the UK, the registrar insists that you use their special signing pen with a special unfading ink. (If you are a survivalist heading for the hills and you feel the need to sign things — you can get your own Diamine ink here.)
From Citroen to FIAT.
Some signatures are more important than others — this much we know to be true. Picasso signed the wheel arch of a Citroen DS. But perhaps the most important British signature in general circulation is that of the Chief Cashier of the Bank of England — after all, he ‘signs’ every English banknote in circulation — the FIAT currency — with the ‘Promise to Pay the Bearer’… And apparently — only he can do that….
But how does the Chief Cashier sign my online banking digital transfer?
Wet Ink simply won’t do… Wet ink signatures like coinage and notes will soon be consigned to museums and history books — and not before time.
This is Part 1 of 2.
Read Part 2 of Goodbye Wet Signatures, Hello Keys Next
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