Print Week in New York is in full swing, with each the thirty fourth iteration of the Worldwide Superb Print Sellers Affiliation (IFPDA) Honest and the inaugural Brooklyn Superb Artwork Print Honest open to the general public via the weekend. The reveals draw a combination of seasoned collectors and newfound fans, because the medium is commonly seen as an accessible “gateway” for buying artwork as a result of its lower cost level.
“Not to say that [prints] are cheap, but they’re certainly much more affordable than a unique work of art,” defined Madeleine Viljoen, curator of prints on the New York Public Library (NYPL). “People who can’t afford to have a painting by Kara Walker may be able to purchase a print by her.”
So what ought to a first-time purchaser maintain an eye fixed out for on the festivals this week?
“I always suggest that collectors look for prints that are an extension of an artist’s practice, rather than a reproduction of it,” stated Elleree Erdos, director of prints and editions at David Zwirner. “The strongest prints are identifiable as the work of the artist who made them, while also leaning into the strengths and possibilities of the medium.”
“The medium is also seen by artists as a way to experiment and introduce new ideas and concepts into their practice,” Erdos continued, including that print initiatives continuously give artists “a fresh outlook on ideas of seriality, reversal, and the effects of pressure or compression on an image.”
Left: Valerie Hammond, “The Great Memory” (2006) (© Valerie Hammond, courtesy NYPL)Proper: Delita Martin, “Two Moons” (2022) (© Delita Martin, courtesy NYPL)
The relative affordability of prints is partially as a result of they’re continuously produced in editions. Created by drawing or carving a picture onto a matrix, which might include a woodblock, metallic plate, stone, or different materials, prints are impressions produced when the matrix is inked and utilized to a floor akin to paper. Editions, or units, are a sure variety of impressions created with the matrix. The variety of impressions created for an version is usually proven by way of a quantity written in pencil on the nook or fringe of a print work.
Jazmine Catasus, inventive director of the Elizabeth Basis for the Arts’s Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, informed Hyperallergic that she retains her eyes peeled for non-editioned prints, or works produced by an artist that aren’t a part of a set of multiples.
“Printmaking is often associated with the multiple, so when there is a work created in the medium of prints, but there’s only one, it’s always exciting to see,” Catasus stated.
Artist’s proofs, typically sought-after by collectors at festivals, are additionally works outdoors of an version, created throughout proofing periods when the artist continues to be engaged on creating the management print, Catasus defined.
Screenprints, lithographs, and etchings are typically among the hottest varieties of prints. Amongst Catasus’s favorites are intaglios, or prints created with a metal-plate printmaking approach during which the design is recessed into the matrix’s floor. It’s the direct reverse of a reduction print, which is created when the matrix’s floor is minimize away in order that the picture is created via the raised remnants.
Hayley Barker, “Orb Weaver, Late Summer” (2024) (picture courtesy the artist and David Zwirner)
Like Erdos, Viljoen famous that she tends to search for works by printmakers who’re trying to problem the medium by incorporating different supplies and disciplines. For instance, she cited mixed-media prints involving a mixture of textile and embroidery practices that have been featured within the exhibition Line & Thread: Prints and Textiles from the 1600s to the Current on the NYPL final September.
“You can also think about other ways in which artists combine media, like wood-cutting and intaglio printmaking, or formatting,” Viljoen talked about.
Top-of-the-line methods to achieve an understanding of the totally different and typically enigmatic printmaking strategies is just to method a piece’s writer or supplier.
“It’s always worth learning about the process for a given print and how involved an artist was in its creation,” Erdos stated, noting that the IFPDA Honest is a good alternative to broaden one’s data in regards to the evolution of printmaking methods throughout a number of centuries.
“That can give you a greater understanding and appreciation for the labor of printmaking, and usually where there’s a great story, there’s a great print,” she added.
DGPH (Martin Lowenstein and Diego Vaisberg), “99 Monsters: Birds from Argentina” (2017) (© DGPH Studio, Buenos Aires; courtesy The New York Public Library)
However course of and finances apart, essentially the most essential ingredient to contemplate when investing in a print is at all times private choice. “Ultimately, the only thing to avoid is something that isn’t exciting to you,” Erdos stated.
Echoing this recommendation, Viljoen stated that she at all times encourages individuals to “not invest in a name, but really invest in a work of art they love.”
“ I do think that’s what ultimately matters: not whether a work will look good over your sofa, but whether you really love it,” Viljoen stated.
