Barenaked Ladies Kevin Hearn Doc ‘There Are No Fakes’ Gets August UK Premiere Date On Sky Arts
If you’ve been following the site for a while, you’ll know how we are massive fans of Canadian group Barenaked Ladies. So imagine my surprise when scrolling through the upcoming shows to find ‘There Are No Fakes’, a documentary featuring BNL’s Kevin Hearn, and… art fraud?
So, a rockstar wanders into a gallery…. in this case, Kevin Hearn of the Barenaked Ladies (perhaps best known generally for the ‘Big Bang Theory’ theme, and the single ‘One Week’). He buys a painting by the world’s first Indigenous art star: Norval Morrisseau the self-taught, self-destructive Native Canadian genius Chagall once dubbed “The Picasso Of The North,’ creator of the Woodland School, one of three major strains of Indigenous art.
However, when Hearn begins to doubt his painting’s authenticity, he decides to sue the gallery that sold it to him… But suddenly finds himself in the middle of two darkly comical feuding factions: all white people, each claiming to be the true defenders of this Native artist’s legacy.
The film traces the official provenance of Hearn’s painting, representative of this disputed species, finding only suspiciously dead ends. Then, as Hearn’s court case proceeds, an almost-unbelievable new tale emerges about the origin of the paintings, turning the story several shades darker than art fraud.
‘There Are No Fakes’ premieres Wednesday, 19th August 2020 on Sky Arts & NOW TV.
