Gallery
Focus:
The Original Print
What, exactly, is an original print? This
question frequently causes confusion and sparks debate amongst present-day art
lovers, collectors, dealers, and even artists themselves.
Commercial art reproductions based on
photographic processes have been around for well over a century. The most
common publishing method, offset lithography, has been joined recently by
giclee—digitally reproduced images printed with inkjet—and these methods are
well suited to posters, book illustration and advertising art. Unfortunately,
the art markets have been flooded in the last thirty years or so with costly,
yet ultimately worthless reproductions posing as limited edition prints.
This confusion has been created by certain
art publishers, investors, and ambitious artists with an eye to making large
profits from an uninformed public—a public who are under the impression that if
it is signed and numbered and comes with a certificate, it is not only worth
paying a high price for, but will appreciate in value as well. In many cases,
artists themselves—particularly those without a background in the methods of
traditional printmaking—have been led to believe this as well.
Yet true printmaking, in its various forms,
is as legitimate and exciting a visual art form as any other original medium
such as painting, drawing and sculpture. And, as with other art forms, the
history of printmaking is rich with accidental discovery, experimentation,
improvement, and mastery of technique.
The goal of Harris House Fine Art is to help alleviate the confusion and
perhaps introduce some would-be collectors to the incredibly diverse forms and
styles of printmaking. Our collection features examples of all the major
printing methods—relief (such as woodblock and linocut), intaglio (such as
etching, aquatint and drypoint), planographic (lithography and
chromolithography) and serigraph (silkscreen)—by a growing list of well
documented and historically significant artists.
For further reading on the fraudulent practice of
selling art reproductions as valuable prints, an excellent article
“The
For more information, and for those interested in
contemporary artists involved in traditional printmaking techniques
it is well worth while visiting The World Printmakers
sites:
http://www.worldprintmakers.com
http://printworkshopcentral.com
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