{"id":23227,"date":"2017-10-24T18:38:37","date_gmt":"2017-10-24T18:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artzealous.com\/?p=23227"},"modified":"2017-10-24T18:39:53","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T18:39:53","slug":"christies-kicks-off-prints-and-multiples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/christies-kicks-off-prints-and-multiples\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking Down Christie’s Prints & Multiples Auction"},"content":{"rendered":"
Many young people who are looking to start their art collection or add to it, typically find auction houses intimidating. Visions of paddles and fancy furs in a room filled with millionaires can sometimes an scary thought for new, young buyers. So when Christie’s<\/a> announced its Prints & Multiples<\/em><\/a> live auction and a complementing online sale Screen Star: Alexander Heinrici, Master Printer<\/em><\/a>, we were quite happy to find out that there were plenty of lots under $2k! The world of prints and printmaking is a topic we wanted to learn more about so we enlisted the help of Lindsay Griffith, Specialist and Head of Sale, Prints & Multiples at Christie’s. She’s breaking down facts, myths, and ways to get involved in an auction at Christie’s.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n AZ: Is a\u00a0print is more than just a copy of an original?<\/strong><\/p>\n Lindsay Griffith:<\/strong> Although printmaking involves reproducing an image, a print is more than just a copy of an original. Fine art prints are something else entirely, resulting from a close collaboration between the artist and the print studio. Printers \u2014 the people who work with the artist to produce an edition \u2014 are highly skilled technicians, and are often artists in their own right.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Prints are not made in large production runs intended solely for commercial sale. A limited number (known as an edition) are produced, with prescribed routes for initial sale \u2014 either through the artist, a commercial gallery or a publisher. As a result, they are true works of art, and as important to the artist as drawings or other works on paper. A print is any work of art made in multiple iterations, created through a transfer process. There are many different types of prints, and the process is constantly evolving, but the four best-known techniques are etching, lithography, screen print and woodcut.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n AZ: So why do artists make prints?<\/strong><\/p>\n LG<\/strong>: Artists make prints for a variety of reasons. They might be drawn to the collaborative nature of the print studio, or the potential for innovation the medium offers, or for a print\u2019s potential to document each stage of a creative process. Prints can offer a completely different creative outlet to the artist\u2019s primary working method.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lucian Freud<\/a>\u00a0would create etchings only in black and white following his days in the painting studio, while\u00a0Ellsworth Kelly<\/a>\u00a0applied the same fastidious understanding of color and form to his editioned work. Some artists consistently make prints for their entire career \u2014 Jasper Johns and Pablo Picasso are famously prolific examples \u2014while others come to printmaking in bursts of activity, such as\u00a0Barnett Newman<\/a>. Typically these periods can be aligned to working with a particular print workshop.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n AZ: What’s with the fraction?<\/strong><\/p>\n LG:<\/strong> An \u2018original\u2019 print is technically a unique work given it is generally produced as a limited number of impressions (collectively known as an edition), and each print is given an edition number, typically written as a fraction \u2014 for example, 24\/50. The number to the right of the slash indicates the edition size (in this case, 50), while the figure to the left is the individual print\u2019s number.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n An artist may also produce a limited number of artist\u2019s proofs, often marked A\/P, that are identical in nature to the standard edition. Here again, fractions may be used to indicate the total number of proofs, and the print number (e.g., A\/P 1\/4). Other proofs may be made at an earlier stage, as the artist and printer develop an image or test different compositions. These are known as state proofs, trial proofs or color proofs. These can be unique, with differences in color combinations, paper types or size. Andy Warhol started to sell his trial proofs as unique color-combinations separate from the edition, and they\u2019re now some of the most coveted works in his print market.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When the image is perfected, a proof is made and signed B.A.T. (an abbreviation of the French\u00a0bon \u00e0 tirer<\/em>, or \u2018ready to print\u2019). The rest of the edition is matched to this image, which is unique and traditionally kept by the printer.<\/p>\n