Review of Art and Craft (2014) by Tony B — 03 Apr 2015

This is a remarkable documentary in which we learn about an artist / forger not through spoken narrative or interviews but through the camera following Mark Landis - at his care worker's office, at the supermarket, painting in his cramped apartment.

The final product is one of such keen but humane observation that it's impossible to feel the kind of ill-feeling that seems to fire arrogant former Cincinnati museum worker Matt Leininger. It becomes, over a period of five years, Matt's obsessive goal to expose Landis and get him to stop.

I kept asking myself why he wanted this. Even the art crime detective admitted that Landis had not committed any crime because he didn't ask for nor accept money for his "philanthropic" gifts.

Mark admits that what he does gives him happiness - to be able to give something and be loved for it. He has obviously suffered from the loss of, first, his father and years later, his mother. You see a few mementos of their travels, their wedding photos.

How does this lonely man cope? He does so through art. I sure hope Matt Leininger has left him alone and discovered compassionate understanding and focusses on his family. I also hope that Mark Landis will do what others at his exhibition suggested - that he should sell his work under his own name, but he needs support of the arts community.

I was deeply touched by Mark's talent and his mischievous passion.