Artist’s Tips

Agustin Rolando Rojas

Some tips you should know when you buy Original pulled prints

It is our intention to provide you with as much information as possible regarding original prints. Consider reading this and keeping it with your records. You may wish to invite others to view your purchased print along with the warranty that comes with it. Remember that information is a powerful tool. You have become a private collector and art is an investment.

Original Prints vs. Reproductions:

There is generally some confusion distinguishing between original prints and reproductions. An original print is unique. It is a work of art that is intended to exist as a multiple. A print that is just a copy of an already existing work of art (usually in another medium) is considered to be a reproduction and therefore, not an original print. This is an important distinction as there is a great deal of creative effort involved in the development of an original print.

Creating an original Print:

Before the image making process begins, the artist selects the specific materials that will best express his or her ideas and also allow for the generation of multiple impressions. The artist then prepares the surface of the matrix (the source used to produce the print). When the matrix is finished, it is used to create the desired number of impressions. The skill of the person doing the printing, the complexity of the image, the number of impressions required, the durability of the matrix, and the wishes of the artist all contribute to create the final image.

Two things determine the originality of these works: 1) maintaining the original concept of the artist; and 2) returning to the original matrix for each impression (allowing for individual variations from one impression to the next). An original print can be summed up as a work of art created and printed by hand.

This is done either by the artist or by a professional assistant (often called an artisan), from a plate, block, stone, or stencil that has been hand rendered by the artist for the sole purpose of producing the desired image. The plates or stencils used for printing bear no resemblance to the finished work of art, which indicates that it is not a copy or a reproduction of anything. In fact, in all print media, with the exception of two, the image on the matrix is a mirror image or the reverse of what the finished work of art.

As the image reverses in the printing process, the artist is forced to think and draw backwards.

Although produced as signed and numbered multiples, each print is technically an exclusive work of art. The actual term for this is a monoprint. The original print is usually produced as a limited number of impressions (prints). The term for this group of prints is an edition. Although an edition consists of a number of the same images, each print is an individual part of the whole - the whole being the edition. As such, an original print is actually one piece in an edition of multiple original works of art.

Edition Number:

Original prints are traditionally signed in pencil by the artist. They are numbered to indicate how many prints there are in the edition and to identify the sequence of each individual print. This number appears written as a fraction, for example: 34 / 75. This is called the edition number. The number to the right of the slash (in this example, 75) indicates the size of the edition: 75 prints have been produced. The number to the left is the actual number of the print. This number reads: “print number thirty four of seventy five”. There are other types of identifying marks as well. The artist traditionally keeps a separate group of prints aside from the edition marked as artist’s proofs, normally about ten or less. These are marked A / P, sometimes with an edition number after (such as: A / P 2 / 5) to indicate how many A / P’s there are.

Limited Edition:

What is a limited edition print? Keeping in mind that many print collectors are confused by the terms “original print” and “limited edition print” remember that the two are not synonymous. The term “original print” is a specific term; “limited edition” is a general term. An original print is almost always a limited edition print simply because the edition is limited to the actual number of prints that can be safely “pulled” or printed from the original plates before they begin to wear down and break up from the physical wear and tear of the printing process.

However, a limited edition print may or may not be an original work of art. It can be a photo mechanical reproduction of a painting, photograph, drawing, etc., in other words, no more than a commercial poster. The edition may be extended to an arbitrary number of 500, 1000 - often more - and is sometimes actually signed in pencil by the artist. It is not, however, printed by the artist.

The term “limited edition” is vague. When purchasing a work of art it’s a good idea to know whether or not you’re buying the “real thing”. There is a reason why such reproductions and posters exist in the print collectors’ market; a reproduction sells for hundreds or even thousands of dollars less than an original work by the same artist. It is affordable to the mass consumer.

New Technologies

There are new technologies in printmaking that are blurring the differences between Original Prints and reproductions, the Mylar Transfer process in lithography for one, and the Giclee for another.

Technically speaking, Mylar prints are drawn by hand by the artist, which in one sense classifies them as original prints, but then they are photographically copied onto the plate or screen at which point they are mass produced on mechanical presses. Some artists are creating hand drawn offset lithographs in small, limited editions while other artists are experimenting with hand manipulated and modified color copies to be used as original prints. Giclee’s are digital ink jet prints of a digital image file on a computer or CD. Technically, they are copies, though some artists have used this process to produce beautiful one-of-a-kind images on paper.

In this ongoing debate one school of thought contends that an original print must be entirely produced by hand by the artist, which combines a considerable degree of skill, artistic ability, and technical knowledge. Another group states that the choice of whatever type of press, process, or medium is used is simply a choice that is made between the different artistic tools.

Purists don’t always agree that the above techniques are acceptable for producing original prints since there is far less physical work, and - at times - no technical knowledge involved in producing an edition. The image may be hand drawn, but it may not be hand printed. There are just as many printmaker purists out there as there are experimental ones. However, the element of the artist’s direct control and manipulation of the medium is probably the key as to whether a print is regarded as an Original Print or not.