New Drew Hayden Taylor play investigates Indigenous art fraud – and a fraught mother-daughter relationship

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Ever wonder how experts spot a counterfeit painting? There are a number of methods that cross-reference brushstroke styles and signatures to find discrepancies; some professionals prefer to analyze pigments’ molecular composition, testing to see if the materials used to make the fake match those that would have been available at the time of a piece’s creation.

In the case of Norval Morrisseau, a prominent member of the so-called “Indian Group of Seven,” one type of paint in particular is crucial to giving away a fake: red cadmium light, first produced in 1982. While Morrisseau often used the pigment in his later work, counterfeits of his earlier paintings sometimes use the colour, too, providing irrefutable evidence that a given work is, in fact, a fraud.

Ojibwa writer Drew Hayden Taylor’s newest play, The Undeniable Accusations of Red Cadmium Light, explores the relationship between a mother and daughter using Indigenous art fraud as a backdrop. The show, directed by Tracey Nepinak, runs at Winnipeg’s Prairie Theatre Exchange until March 8.

The Globe and Mail sat down with Taylor – himself a freelance columnist for The Globe – to discuss the play and its roots in counterfeit art.

What did research for The Undeniable Accusations of Red Cadmium Light look like? Were you already particularly knowledgeable about art fraud?

There was a large gallery on my reserve, where I grew up surrounded by native art; this stuff has always been sort of bouncing around in my head. The whole thing about Morrisseau, and the fakes associated with him – I thought there was a story there to be dramatized that I found interesting.

In your opinion, having researched this issue for your play, why do you think Morrisseau’s work has been especially susceptible to forgery?

His work has some of the highest resale value of any Indigenous artist in Canada, so that’s always going to be tasty and juicy for forgers. His stuff isn’t simplistic, that’s the wrong word, but he has a very basic way of approaching his art – it’s a little easier to fake, maybe, than other types of art. I think forgers felt that they could have greater success with his work than with other artists’.

What’s notable about the red cadmium light paint you reference in the title?

Morrisseau really liked to use that colour for skin. He used it constantly after the paint first came out in 1982, meaning any painting prior to then which allegedly used that colour was fake. I liked that idea as a concept for the play – when I wrote it, I then used the paint issue to explore the contentious relationship between a mother and a daughter.

In my decades as a writer, I’ve discovered that you can sink your teeth into a social or political event, but that’ll only give you a quarter – or maybe half – of the story you want to tell. The mother and daughter are really who the play is about.

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Can you tell me a little more about them?

Their relationship is really the heart of the piece. The mother is an expert in Indigenous art, and specifically the works of Morrisseau. She’s frequently called to authenticate paintings – that’s her superpower, shall we say.

A young reporter soon shows up to do a story about her, and stuff comes out in that interview that begins to disintegrate the relationship between the mom and her daughter.

I don’t want to give away the ending – I want people to be surprised.

As a journalist yourself, it seems notable that a journalist character sets the play into motion. How did your experience as a journalist shape the way you built this world?

Well, it’s all storytelling, whether it’s a journalism piece, a play, a TV show, a documentary, whatever. It’s all taking your audience on a journey to a place they haven’t been before. I went to college for radio and television broadcasting before I went into theatre – for me, the different outlets are just a change in a piece’s structure and form.

In journalism, you usually start a story with the climax, then you go back and add details and exposition later on. With a play, you start with that exposition, and the climax doesn’t come until near the end of the story. It’s all storytelling: It’s just how you tell the story that differs.

This interview has been edited and condensed.