Print Week in New York is in full swing, with each the thirty fourth iteration of the Worldwide Advantageous Print Sellers Affiliation (IFPDA) Honest and the inaugural Brooklyn Advantageous Artwork Print Honest open to the general public by way of the weekend. The exhibits draw a mix of seasoned collectors and newfound lovers, because the medium is usually seen as an accessible “gateway” for buying artwork because 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 hold a watch 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,” mentioned 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 tasks ceaselessly 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 ceaselessly produced in editions. Created by drawing or carving a picture onto a matrix, which might encompass a woodblock, steel plate, stone, or different materials, prints are impressions produced when the matrix is inked and utilized to a floor resembling 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, advised 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 mentioned.
Artist’s proofs, typically sought-after by collectors at festivals, are additionally works outdoors of an version, created throughout proofing classes when the artist remains to be engaged on creating the management print, Catasus defined.
Screenprints, lithographs, and etchings are usually a few of the hottest sorts of prints. Amongst Catasus’s favorites are intaglios, or prints created with a metal-plate printmaking approach by 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 reduce away in order that the picture is created by way of 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 mix 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.
Probably the greatest methods to achieve an understanding of the completely different and generally enigmatic printmaking strategies is just to strategy 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 mentioned, noting that the IFPDA Honest is a superb alternative to broaden one’s information 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 think about 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 mentioned.
Echoing this recommendation, Viljoen mentioned 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 mentioned.
