ASEBL Journal – Volume 11 Issue 2, Spring 2015
(2012)). The reasons why the work of some forgers like Elmyr de Hory is coveted
by some collectors, is simply fascination with someone who has been able to deceive, as well as probably a good artist in his own right. As artification has evolved
around an interrelationship between performer and viewer, the same interrelationship exists when viewing a forger’s work. Because of the problems forgery creates,
a good forger like Elmyr de Hory is probably of interest because de Hory could
deceive so well. Evolutionarily, being able to detect a cheater would have been
important for survival, so cheater detection consists of a degree of interest in how a
cheater operates. Hence, the reason for interest in forger’s work is the same as fascination with those who cheat in other fields, such as Lance Armstrong, or the Watergate scandal.
What evolution tells us about artistic forgery can illuminate the concept of New
Zealandism because it informs us of an importance of a frequent connection with
the artist in appreciation of an artwork. An interest in other peoples is innate, for
fairly obvious reasons. Evolutionarily, we possess a desire to learn about other
people and cultures for the same reasons that theory of mind, the ability for people
to appreciate the thoughts and interests of others, has evolved (e.g. Whiten 1991),
or why around two thirds of our daily conversations are, on average, gossip that
enables us to interact socially with our peers (Dunbar 1996). In art, this manifests
in intense desires to know not only the art in artists we like best, but about the artist’s life, what others have to say about the artist, and how we can square what we
know about the character and life with what we see in the work. This is visible in
the horror felt when discoveri