Rare Print Gallery – Evolution of Techniques Involved In Printmaking

Many a time people look at a print and wonder what it actually is. As printmaking is an entirely different thing than drawing or canvas painting often people get confused regarding what can be referred as a print. Here is all the information you might need about printmaking and collecting prints. The word 'print' in itself holds a broad meaning. Prints can refer to a mechanically created reproduction of any artist's painting or drawing or it can be a photographic image. Prints also incorporate something which is completely non – visual such as printed text on books.

Rare Print Gallery and the World of Art

So far we have noticed that prints can be literally any visual as well as non – visual representation that has been produced mechanically on any medium such as paper, textile or wood even.

However when we consider prints from the point of view of art it is quite different from the canvas paintings or drawings produced by the artists by hand using tools such as oil pastels, charcoal or pen and ink etc. Prints are also produced by an artist but the difference here lies in the mechanism. Printmaking is done in a printing press using various mechanical techniques. Rare print gallery or museums offer an insight into the various types of printmaking and are hence a delight for art lovers all across the world.

Hence it will not be wrong to say that when an artist decides to produce a print using any of the techniques possible in a printing press he is not painting on a canvas or on paper using the traditional ways. Printmaking and painting is both authentic and original art works but the difference lies just in the method of their production.

Another difference between paintings and prints is that on one hand where a painting is exclusive and cannot be reproduced in the same manner, prints on the other hand can be reproduced into multiple copies due to their very technique of production. However this fact does not degrade the monetary value of art prints. Antiquarian art prints are produced in limited editions and hence hold great monetary as well as sentimental value for collectors.

The value of rare art prints lie on various factors such as their rarity i.e. the size of the edition, the condition in which the print is at present, the importance of the work in the overall lifespan of the artist, also their sentimental value to the collectors. In the modern day art prints the factor that determines the value of a print is that whether it is signed or autographed by the artist or not. Relief prints, topographical prints and lithographs are some types of art prints that are revered among collectors.

Source : articlesbase.com