Quanne, Michael: Triangular Garden
23.5in. x 19.5in.
acrylic painting
HGH comments: Michael was a profesional forger, which landed him in jail from time to time. He produced his paintings only when in jail. The artist was bored to tears and everyday he had to himself in jail and he decided what he could do best is probably paint.
The painting shows Picasso amongst others, including the judge who incarcerated him [Quanne]. One of the figures is the artist himself. I can recognize Picasso, he is the bald one. The judge who is believed to be a Mr. Murphy is the last man in the queue. I think the painting is a riot. Michael Quanne’s subjects were always people in his life, his painting were all a kind of portrait. For example, it is believed that there was a stocky person involved in the court cases against him and that person appears in Triangular Garden.
Forgery has nothing to do with training, you would think. This you can see right away is a naïve. The decisive question you have to answer is whether the artist is trained or self taught. That is why there is no naïve “style”. He may have been trained to do forgeries. There is a big difference between a forgery and an original creation, here he did not copy anything. That was the kind of painting I was looking for.