E. M. Washington

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Earl Marshawn Washington (b. 1962) is an American entrepreneur, printmaker, engraver, and counterfeiter. He has manufactured or arranged for the manufacture of a large number of woodcuts which he has most frequently represented as the work of a great-grandfather, whose name he gave as “Earl Mack Washington” and whom Earl Marshawn Washington reported as having lived from 1862 to 1952, but whose real name and about whose life Earl Marshawn Washington has elsewhere confessed not to know. Virtually all of the images appear to be copies of the work of other artists, available from books or other reprints, traced onto blocks. Some images have no significant modifications; in other cases the modifications result in absurdities, such as incongruous reflections and German words turned into nonsense. Many of these images are in violation of copyright. Artists whose work Washington has copied include M. C. Escher, Eric Gill, and Charles Evers Whyte. E.M. Washington is an African American artist and reported his grandfather as such, which led to increased interest in the work.

[edit] External links

• “Catch Me If You Can” by Alan Abrams in Forbes 20 September 2004
• Washington Unmasked
• Images of the woodblocks
• “Warning! False M.C. Escher prints are being offered for sale!” at MCEscher.com