Leaving Your Print on a New Method to Prevent Art Forgeries

Artist Hiro Yamagata, who became a victim of art fraud last year when he discovered forgeries of his own paintings hanging in a Beverly Hills gallery, held a press conference last week to demonstrate a new process of identifying original artworks.

“This way, you can find out right away if a work is original or not,” said Yamagata of the process, in which original artworks are imprinted with an invisible fingerprint. “In the future it will be good for all artists, not only for me.”

Yamagata said that from now on, he plans to use the process on all of his artworks, especially his canvases. Next month, for instance, he is releasing between 300-500 prints of his new serigraph “Boat Parade.” He will put his invisible fingerprint on each, he said.

“Especially for original canvases--this is important,” said Yamagata, who works out of his Malibu studio. “I hope this will help stop forgery and be good for young artists just starting out.

The authentication process was developed by the Marina Del Rey-based Art Guard, a division of the Print-Lock Corp., which deals in high tech fingerprint technology. According to the company, works that are fingerprinted can be verified through a secret system in which the prints will show up under specific wavelengths of light.

Yamagata was not the only one to praise the system. Said Charles Koczka, a retired special agent for the Department of the Treasury. “During my 14 years as special agent in art investigations and in the $6 million of stolen property I have seized, not one piece had a traceable mark of identification,” Koczka said. “During this time all we heard of were the problems. For once we can now see a solution.”

GRANTS: The Art for Rail Transit program of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission on Feb. 28 will receive a $40,000 grant from Pacific Enterprises to help fund a major art work for the transit program’s Metro Blue Line, which runs from downtown Long Beach to downtown Los Angeles. The artwork, a light sculpture for the line’s Flower Street Tunnel, will be commissioned through a national competition to be announced in March. The Blue Line is scheduled to begin service in mid July.

DONATIONS: Film maker and art collector Billy Wilder has donated three important works from his collection to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The works are a bronze portrait of George Bernard Shaw by Jacob Epstein, a self-portrait by Ben Shahn and a still life called “Kandinsky at Tea” by Gabriele Munter. The later was painted in 1910, during the time when Munter and Wassily Kandinsky painted, traveled, exhibited and lived together. According to the museum, the painting fills a gap in its collection of early 20th Century art and will compliment the existing collection of later works by Kandinsky, who at one time was also Munter’s teacher. .

ARTISTS’ TIPS: A half-day seminar to help artists prepare their taxes will be held Saturday from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at Loyola Law School (1441 W. Olympic Blvd.). Presented by the California Lawyers for the Arts, “Relax With Tax” will be taught by accountants and tax lawyers. Participants will receive a copy of the publication, “The Art of Deduction.” Pre-registration fees are $35; entrance at the door is $40. Information: (213) 623-8311. . . . On Thursday, two lectures, “Pricing Your Work,” and “How to Have Your Art Shown in Local Galleries,” will be held at the San Diego Art Institute (1449 El Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego). The first program, taught by artist Michael Wheelden, begins at 7 p.m. and the second, taught by local art consultant Nanci Ann Hill, begins immediately following at about 7:45. Both lectures are free. Information: (619) 234-5946.

CALL FOR ENTRIES: The Woman’s Building is seeking proposals for site-specific works to be mounted on the building’s exterior walls. Organizers plan to commission three women artists to create new works to be a “self-portrait” of the Woman’s Building, showing how the gallery “sees herself” in relationship to her downtown neighbors. Each commissioned artist will receive a $500 artist’s fee and an additional $900 for materials. All proposals, which will be juried by graphic design artist Sheila de Bretteville and assemblage artist Betye Saar, must be received by March 2. The project completion date is set for May 18. For information and a prospectus, call (213) 221-6161. . . . The Long Beach Museum of Art is seeking applicants for its sixth annual Open Channels Television Production Grant Program. Through the program, several $2,000 cash grants will be awarded to video artists and independent producers, who will also receive a supply of videotape stock, technical support and access to participating cable operators’ post-production facilities. The application deadline is March 1. Information: (213) 439-2119).

NOTES: A one-day UCLA Extension course analyzing the role of various Renaissance popes in commissioning the work of such artists as Raphael and Michelangelo will be held Saturday in room 3273 of UCLA’s Dickson Art Center. The $75 course, which will meet from 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., will touch on commissions ranging from simple frescoes to such spectacular sites as the Sistine Chapel, The Louvre, Saint Peter’s and the Vatican Palace. Information: (213) 206-8503. . . . A film portrait covering the work of artist Claes Oldenburg from his early Pop Art days to his current projects will be screened on Tuesday at 2 p.m. at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art (700 Prospect St., La Jolla, (619) 454-3541). The screening is free. Information (619) 454-3541. . . . A panel discussion on the social and political issues raised by the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s cancellation last summer of the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition will be held Friday in San Francisco. Presented by the Archives of American Art, the program will be moderated by Patterson Sims, curator of modern art and associate director for collections and exhibitions at the Seattle Art Museum. Scheduled panelists are Los Angeles City Councilman and Museum of Contemporary Art trustee Joel Wachs, art historian Robert Rosenblum, artist Faith Ringgold, and Christine Grumm, vice president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. Admission to the event, which will be held from 4-6 p.m. at the Concourse at Showplace Square (corner of 8th and Brannan streets), is $10 per person. Information: (415) 556-2530.