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Print or original?
Actually, says one one expert, prints are ''multiple originals,'' and they take much creativity and technical skill to make.
By Times staff
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 18, 2002
Riverdance by Ludner Confident
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As you stroll through an art show, a striking image catches your eye. On closer examination, you see that it is not a painting, drawing or photograph; it is a print. But what is that, exactly?
Prints are perhaps the most perplexing and intimidating choices for many art show visitors and potential buyers.
"Prints are multiple originals in limited editions," says Margaret Miller, director of the Contemporary Art Museum and Graphicstudio at the University of South Florida, and an expert on the subject of prints. "At Graphicstudio, (our editions) can be as small as 10 (prints), and they're never more than 65. Of course, some editions can be huge."
So, yes, posters are prints, though they are produced in mass quantities, usually with no involvement from the original artist. They seldom are intended to appreciate in value. Then again, remember Toulouse-Lautrec and his unforgettable posters -- lithographs, specifically, that pioneered color printing techniques -- of the Moulin Rouge, now worth millions.
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Prints can be original works of art, created entirely by the artist using high levels of both technical skill and creativity. Fine art prints are numbered. At the bottom, you will see two numbers separated by a slash mark. The first figure is the number of that particular print in the series; the second is the total number in the edition. A small edition usually indicates that the artist has supervised every work as it is pulled from the press, rejecting those that might be slightly off register or otherwise not quite right.
Four common examples of prints are block, etching, lithograph and silk-screen. Depending on the technique and the number of times the paper is imprinted, the images produced can be stark and monochromatic or a complex layering of color and texture.
Oil/acrylic #1 by Christine Peloquin
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Photographic prints work on the same principle of multiple originals. They have traditionally been created in darkrooms. More and more, though, artists are using digital cameras and computer-generated prints, which some buyers are suspicious of.
"It's just another medium," says Miller. "They can still be signed and numbered editions. In the past, some of the inks in the printers were not archival, but that's getting to be a moot point."
If you are interested in a print, ask questions; most artists are happy to explain their techniques.
Miller says, "You're not buying museum quality art at a sidewalk art show. It's an opportunity to buy something because you love it. But if you're really thinking about it as an investment, better questions to ask are about the artist's background -- education, what collections his work is in, where the work has been shown."
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