The use of AI to create a 21st century knockoff/original painting by Rembrandt poses some challenging questions concerning authorship. Meditating on this new cooked up work forces one to consider some of the things that may not be assimilated by a machine program. For example does the new work have soul? Yes, the more I look at it the more it seems to have an inner life. Does the new work have any hint of the struggle, both intellectual and emotional, the artist may have had in the process of finishing a work? These clues left by the hand may be concealed and may or may not add to the work in an obvious manner. AI has held a high rez mirror up to reflect the artists vision and the trademark technique and it offers a compelling argument for the facsimile to be deemed legitimate long after Rembrandt himself ceased to exist. The thing is that AI on its own could not have created this superbly original expression. A human technician has had to press the ON button. Rembrandt’s expression grew organically out of a complex interplay of elements or conditions from his day to day existence on a macro and micro level. For example one has to consider the element of chance or that which cannot be foreseen in a life.
The artist was very conscious of his own mortality and the passage of time and his brilliant attempts to capture a moment so convincingly and make it eternal is the height of poetic endeavour. That AI can mimick this so well serves to pay homage to Rembrandt’s particular creative genius more than anything else.
Sadly, the film Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery is no longer on Netflix. In the film, a stunned and rather rancorous art historian interviews the, by then, convict forger about who he could copy. “I could paint anything.” Vermeer? “Him too.” Rembrandt? “Any of his.” Leonardo? “Of course, He is easy.” This is because Beltracchi is a painter, not an artist. He knows the craft inside out. Kind of makes the expense, organization and energy that went into the AI project look somewhat silly. Just get a skilled painter. Done.
What the project pays no attention to is that whatever Rembrandt achieved cannot be separated from the historical context in which he produced his work. This is what distinguishes him. Similarly, what distinguishes this AI project is not the “New Rembrandt”, it is marshalling of some remarkable, contemporary tech and talent to produce, ironically, something so insignificant. It expresses both some of the most creative and banal impulses and features of the age.
Later in the film, the same pissed off art historian asks about an original forgery: “How do you feel when someone says it is one of the best Campendonk?” [sic] Beltracchi blithely responds, “He’s right.”