What is a Print? A print is a work of graphic art which has been conceived by the artist to be realized as an original work of art, rather than a copy of a work in another medium. Prints are produced by drawing or carving an image onto a hard surface (known as a matrix) such as a wood block, metal plate, or stone. This surface is then inked and the image is transferred to paper or another material by the application of pressure, thus creating an impression, or print. The printed image that results is the exact reverse of the image on the plate. Unlike paintings or drawings, prints usually exist in multiple impressions, each of which has been created from the same inked plate. Artists began to sign and number each impression around the turn of the 20th century to ensure that only the impressions they intended to make would be in circulation. The set of identical impressions (prints) made from an individual matrix created by the artist, either working alone or in conjunction with a master printer are called an edition. Plates are not to be used in subsequent printmaking runs without the artist’s explicit authorization. The process of printing the edition is therefore just as important to the authenticity of a print as the act of inscribing the image onto the plate.
Glossary of Printmaking Terms and Techniques Aquatint
An intaglio technique in which gr adations of tone or shadow ar e pr oduced rather than sharp lines; often this technique is used in conjunction with etching for images that can resemble wat ercolor washes. In this pr ocess the ar tist applies a layer of gr anular, acid-r esistant mat erial to the plat e before submer ging it in an acid bath that "bit es" in and ar ound the layer , cr eating lar ge ar eas of texture. The use of var ying gr anule siz es pr oduces di ferent degr ees of tone. Spitbit e aquatint involves painting acid dir ectly ont o the aquatint coating of the pr epared plat e. T raditionally, a clean brush was coat ed with saliva, dipped int o nitric acid and brushed ont o the plat e, hence the name of this pr ocess. Now ar tists may use chemicals lik e ethylene glycol or K odak Phot ofo, in combination with or in place of saliva, to contr ol the str ength of the acid applied.
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Artist's Proof
A cat egory of pr oof which relates to a pr actice dating back to the er a when a patr on or publisher commissioning prints pr ovided an ar tist with lodging, living e xpenses, and a printing studio with workmen, supplies and paper . The ar tist was given a por tion of the edition (t o sell) as payment for his work. Though ar tists today ar e paid for their editions, the tr adition has persist ed and a cer tain number of impr essions ar e put aside for the ar tist. Ar tist's pr oofs ar e annotat ed as such or as A.P ., or pr euve d'Ar tiste (E.A.).
Artists' Book
Unlike an ar t book or catalog, an ar tists' book is a cont emporary publication that has been cr eated as an original work of ar t. It is not a book of works of ar t, but rather the book itself is the work of ar t. It's cr eated using tr aditional printmaking methods and can be editioned.
Bon à Tirer (B.A.T.)
Literally "r eady to pull," the B.A.T . is the f nal trial pr oof - appr oved by the ar tist - which tells the printer e xactly how the edition should look. Each impr ession in the edition is matched to or modeled aft er the B.A.T . This pr oof is used principally when someone other than the ar tist is printing the series. Ther e is only one of these pr oofs for an edition.
Carborundum
A technique used in intaglio printing which utiliz es a gritty past e that is applied dir ectly ont o the plate resulting in a paint erly and impast o e fect. W atch a carborundum print being made at IFPD A Member S toney Road P ress in this video .
Catalogue Raisonné
A C atalogue Raisonné is a published reference that covers ever y known work of an individual ar tist up to the year of the book's publication. C atalogues raisonné typically apply to ar tists who ar e advanced in their car eers or deceased and ar e writt en by the leading e xpert on that ar tist's car eer. In addition to images of all the ar tist's works to dat e, these studies usually also include biogr aphical information, pr ovenance, e xamples of the ar tist's signatur e and/or marks, condition reports for individual ar tworks, bibliogr aphies of lit erature related to individual works of ar t, and discussions of
International Fine Print Dealers Association, Inc. 421 8th Ave, Unit 376, New York, NY 10001 ● (212) 674-6095 ● [email protected] ● www.ifpda.org ● @ifpda questionable or "attribut ed" (but not authenticat ed) works of ar t. The P rint Council of America's Index to P rint C atalogues Raisonné (IPCR) will help you f nd out if an oeuvr e-catalogue of an ar tist's prints e xists. An oeuvr e-catalogue is de fned as any listing of the ar tist's total output, or some clearly de fned section of that output: for e xample, all the prints in one technique, or all the prints made up to a cer tain dat e. C atalogues of the output of print publishers and print publishing houses have been included as well.
Chine-collé
A pr ocess developed in the 19th centur y which enabled ar tists to print on delicat e papers impor ted from China. This paper ("Chine") was attached ("collé") to a heavier paper suppor t as it passed through the etching pr ess. This pr ocess gave the ar tist access to gr eater variety in their etchings; they could add color to the print by choosing a thin paper in a shade that di fered fr om the backing sheet. In early pr actice, the thin paper was usually the same siz e as the etching plat e but the paper can also be shaped by cutting or tearing to cr eate a print and collage combination.
Chop
A symbol, or logo that is either embossed or stamped on each print of a f nished edition, including all pr oofs, as a way to identify the print er and publisher of the edition. A print er will oft en have his/her own individual chop that is separ ate fr om the publisher's chop
Cliché-verre
Cliché-verre, also called Glass P rint, is a print made by placing phot ographic paper beneath a glass plate on which a design has been scr atched thr ough a coating of an opaque substance and then exposing it to light. The f uid lines possible with cliché-verr e prints ar e reminiscent of etched lines and act a negative image with the par ts of the image allowing light thr ough printing on the paper .
Collagraph
The wor d Collagr aph is a combination of collage and gr aphic. T raditionally, a collagr aph plat e is made lik e a collage: adhering textural elements ont o a solid boar d (usually car dboard, wood or plastic). Rather than e xisting as a collage, the plat e is print ed lik e a relief. The term has gr own to include any intaglio printing plat e that is not cr eated on metal with tr aditional etching or engr aving processes.
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Counterproof
Counterproofs, most notably favor ed by Impr essionist ar tists, wer e made by placing a dampened sheet of paper on top of a past el dr awing and applying pr essure, be it thr ough a pr ess, or by hand, to tr ansfer the image to a sheet of delicat e Japan paper . The result was an impr ession that was softer and, because of the intr oduction of wat er, mor e aqueous and subdued than the sour ce image.
Cyanotype
Cyanotype is a phot ographic, blueprint technique wher e paper is tr eated with special, light-sensitive chemicals. Objects, f lms or negatives ar e then used to block light on the tr eated paper to cr eate a composition. When e xposed to light, the paper turns the char acteristic blue color and the block ed areas remain whit e.
Digital Print
When ar tists use comput ers to cr eate and manipulat e their works, a lar ge-scale inkjet print er can be used to print the works. These comple x print ers use a sophisticat ed print head to disperse the ink on the paper in a f ne mist in or der to deliver a consist ently toned image. A digital print is only considered an "original print" if it was cr eated by the ar tist to be realized speci fcally as a print. A digital print which is a copy of a work that originat ed in another medium, such as painting or drawing, is a reproduction and ther efore is not an original print.
Drypoint
A form of engr aving in which the ar tist incises the sur face of the plat e with a sharp needle or stylus. This intaglio technique gives the ar tist the gr eatest fr eedom of line, fr om the most delicat e hairline to the heaviest gash. As the ar tist scor es the plat e to cr eate the image, ridges of shavings called burrs are pushed up to the sur face and sit alongside the lines. Because the burr is not cleaned fr om the plate it is able to hold ink, yielding lines that ar e char acteristically soft and velvety . Dr ypoint plat es (particularly the burr on them) wear mor e quickly than etched or engr aved plat es and ther efore show far gr eater di ferences fr om the f rst impr ession to the last. Consequently, dr ypoint editions have fewer impr essions.
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Edition
The set of identical impr essions (prints) made fr om an individual matrix cr eated by the ar tist, either working alone or in conjunction with a mast er print er.
Engraving
An intaglio technique char acterized by clean taper ed lines made by incising a metal plat e (traditionally copper) with a sharp tool called a burin . A range of line widths is possible depending on the siz e of tools used, making delicat e tonalities also possible. The incised lines hold the ink when the image is pr essed. Engr aving is the technique most commonly seen in Old Mast er prints.
Etching
With a visual result similar to dr awing, etched lines ar e usually fr ee with blunt terminations as a result of the ar tist dr awing with a sharp tool thr ough a soft, oft en wax-based, coating on the plat e. Volume and cont our is cr eated using a technique called hatching, wher e the ar tist changes the spaces, angles, lengths and qualities of the lines The plat e is then placed int o an acid bath, wher e the acid eats away, or "bit es" the e xposed metal of the incised lines leaving the ar eas that ar e coated, unt ouched. The ar tist can achieve a br oad range of tonality with etching by contr olling the time the plat e spends in the acid-bath.
Heliogravure
See de fnition for Phot ogravure.
Hors Commerce (H.C.)
Translated fr om F rench as "Not to sell," publishers use such impr essions as e xhibition copies, thereby pr eserving the number ed impr essions fr om over exposure or rough handling. These pr oofs started to appear on the mark et as e xtensions of editions print ed in the lat e 1960's. They may di fer from the edition by being print ed on a di ferent kind of paper or with a variant inking; however , they may also not di fer at all.
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Impression
One of a number of printings fr om the same plat e. A term fr equently used in qualitative descriptions of prints fr om earlier periods, befor e editioning was common, when an ar tist would e xperiment with the application and wiping of ink on the plat e as they print ed it to cr eate tonal variances among prints pr oduced fr om the same plat e. In some cases, di ferent types of paper could also be used to achieve di ferent e fects due to the manner in which the ink was absorbed by the paper . T oday's master print ers still cr eate editions by hand however , impr essions in an edition, when cr eated, ar e virtually identical. V ariances among impr essions can also be due to damage or e xposure to light and humidity .
Intaglio Printing
The term intaglio comes fr om the Italian wor d intagliar e, meaning "t o incise". In this technique, acid or a point ed tool is used to incise the composition int o a metal plat e, usually made of copper , but sometimes of st eel, ir on or zinc. Aft er the image has been dr awn, the plat e is cover ed with ink, and then wiped so that only the incised ar eas contain ink. The pr essure of the pr ess for ces the paper into the incisions wher e they pick up the ink, resulting in the raised char acter of the lines on the impression. Because oft en the sheet of paper is lar ger than the plat e, an indentation of the plat e edges, or plat emark, appears ar ound the edges of the image ar ea. Befor e it became common practice to coat plat es with st eel for reinforcement, a plat e, especially one containing dr ypoint lines, would degr ade over time as the pr essure of the pr ess would dull the burr . As a result, the f rst impression was oft en crisper than the last and in turn, the edition was number ed in or der. The diferent types of intaglio prints ar e distinguished by the technique used: etching, aquatint, and photogravure ar e made using acid to corr ode the metal plat e, while engr aving, dr ypoint, and mezzotint ar e made using a sharp tool to incise, or scr atch, the sur face of the plat e. Oft en sever al diferent intaglio techniques ar e used in the same print to achieve variations in contr ast and tone. A video cr eated by IFPD A Member BORCH Editions e xplains the pr ocess fur ther in this video .
Linocut
This technique is a variation of relief printing, which uses a sheet of linoleum mount ed on a plank of wood. Because linoleum has a smooth sur face rather than the gr ainy texture of wood, the resulting prints ar e char acterized by even ar eas of color and ink. As with woodcuts, linocut printing is a relief process wher e the ar eas which ar e car ved away do not receive ink. Separ ate blocks must be
International Fine Print Dealers Association, Inc. 421 8th Ave, Unit 376, New York, NY 10001 ● (212) 674-6095 ● [email protected] ● www.ifpda.org ● @ifpda carved for each color in the print, however , ar tists can, using a reductive technique, use one block to print in multiple colors. In this instance, the ar tist car ves fur ther int o the block aft er each color is editioned to reveal the ne xt layer to be print ed. Blocks ar e usually work ed in color fr om light to dark, and as a result their sur face is almost complet ely car ved away, making it impossible to edition the print again.
Lithography
Literally meaning "st one dr awing," this type of print is made by dr awing or painting ont o the sur face of a limest one using a gr easy cr ayon or liquid wash and is best known for its f at paint erly sur face. Because lithogr aphy is planogr aphic, the resultant design lies on the sur face of the paper , rather than pr essed in or raised up fr om the page, as in other techniques. Colors appear smooth and uniform in tone. It is possible to use multiple colors in a lithogr aph, each color , as in the other techniques described her e, requiring its own st one and sever al subsequent runs thr ough the pr ess. This pr ocess can also be used with metal plat es, most commonly aluminum which allows the ar tist to easily incorpor ate phot ographic techniques in the composition. In the 19th centur y it was popular to use zinc, thus called a zincogr aph.
Matrix
From the Latin wor d mat er, meaning mother , the matrix is the sur face on which the ar tist cr eates an image prior to printing; for e xample, a woodblock, a linoleum block, a metal plat e, a lithogr aphic stone, or a mesh scr een.
Mezzotint
Mezzotints ar e best known for their rich and luscious black tones and soft, subtle ar eas of light. The resulting image appears hazy and atmospheric, almost lik e a phot ograph. Unlik e the other intaglio processes, this technique is work ed fr om dark to light; the entir e sur face of the plat e is abr aded using a spik ed tool called a rocker. These gr ooves will hold the printing ink and if ink ed at this point in the pr ocess, the plat e would print entir ely black. T o cr eate variations in tone, the ar tist scr apes and burnishes the abr aded plat e to smooth out the sur face so that those ar eas will hold less ink and thus yield light er tones in the image.
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Monoprint
Monoprints ar e made when an ar tist alt ers the image on an alr eady etched and ink ed plat e by adding ink to the sur face. When print ed, this addition pr oduces an impr ession that appears di ferent from a conventionally print ed impr ession fr om the same plat e. By manipulating the ink on the plat e in each successive printing, the ar tist cr eates a series of unique impr essions with similar compositional elements.
Monotype
In this technique the ar tist cr eates a composition in printing ink or paint on any smooth sur face which is then cover ed with a sheet of paper and passed thr ough a pr ess, tr ansferring the image to printing paper . Because of the smooth sur face, the pr essure applied irr evocably alt ers the composition, making multiple impr essions nearly impossible. In the rare instance that two prints can be pulled fr om the same sur face, one will be str ong and the other weak.
Numbering
While the numbering of individual impr essions (prints) can be found as early as the lat e ninet eenth century, it did not become standar d pr actice until the mid-1960s. Befor e st eel facing and other ways of pr eserving plat es for longer print runs, the or der in which the edition was print ed was important. T oday, all limit ed edition prints should be number ed, and because of advancements in technology and a mast er print er's ability to print reciprocal, identical images, the numbering sequence is no longer int ended to refect the or der of printing. Numbering is tr anscribed as a fraction with the top number signifying the number of that par ticular print and the bott om number representing the total number of prints in the edition. The edition number does not include pr oofs, but only the total number of prints in the number ed edition.
Paper Pulp
Fibers (lik e wast e paper , wood, hemp and cott on) ar e macer ated in a specializ ed beat er int o a substance used to cr eate individual sheets of var ying textures and thickness. P igment can be added to the pulp to cr eate compositions within the paper . As in printmaking, two-dimensional works ar e run thr ough a hydr aulic pr ess which for ces the wat er to escape and joins the f bers
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Photogravure
Photogravure is oft en char acterized by phot ographic images that have moody, velvet-lik e black areas and a br oad range of tone. Combining phot ography pr ocesses with tr aditional etching techniques, it allows the ar tist to print these phot ographic images on untr eated printmaking papers. This pr ocess is also known as Heliogr avure.
Planographic Print
In this method of printing the ink is neither pr essed down int o the paper nor raised above its surface, but lies e xclusively on the plane of the paper . This means that with planogr aphic printing the print ed and non-print ed ar eas on the sur face of the print e xist on the same plane. Planogr aphic techniques include: lithogr aphy, serigr aphy, pochoir , monoprints, monotypes, scr eenprints, digital prints, and count erproofs.
Pochoir
This technique was developed in F rance in the early twentieth centur y. T ranslated "st encil," this process allows the ar tist to dir ectly add hand-color ed ar eas to an impr ession by painting these areas thr ough a st encil. The st encil itself is usually knife-cut fr om thin coat ed paper , paperboar d, plastic, or metal and the ink or paint is applied with a brush. This technique is sometimes combined with other planogr aphic methods, such as lithogr aphy.
Portfolio
A set of prints by a single ar tist or gr oup of ar tists, oft en with a unifying theme. Over time, a portfolio of prints may be separ ated and each print sold individually .
Posthumous Edition or Impression
When an ar tist's heirs give permission for the printing of an edition or second edition, it is known as a posthumous edition. P osthumous editions should be limit ed and document ed just as in standar d printing pr actice, though they ar e not necessarily hand-number ed. Editions that wer e pencil-signed
International Fine Print Dealers Association, Inc. 421 8th Ave, Unit 376, New York, NY 10001 ● (212) 674-6095 ● [email protected] ● www.ifpda.org ● @ifpda in their original edition fr equently bear stamped signatur es authoriz ed by the ar tist's heirs or the publisher in their posthumous stat e.
Printer's proof
A complimentar y pr oof given to the print er; ther e can be one or sever al of these pr oofs, depending upon the number of print ers involved and the gener osity of the publisher .
Proof
This term gener ally refers to any impr ession pulled befor e the o fcial print ed edition of an image. The ar tist may mak e changes to the image aft er e xamining a pr oof, much lik e an author mak es changes to a rough dr aft of a manuscript befor e sending it to the publisher . If the composition is altered aft er the pr oof, the pr oof becomes a "stat e".
Publisher
This person pr ovides the f nancial suppor t to pr oduce and mark et an ar tist's prints. A publisher brings together an ar tist and a print er (assuming the ar tist does not do their own printing) or the publisher may also be a print er themselves, a business model which dat es back to the sixt eenth century. The gr eat majority of original prints made in the ninet eenth centur y wer e commissioned and br ought to mark et by publishers.
Relief Printing
Relief prints ar e char acterized by bold contr asts of dark and light. In this technique the ar tist f rst sketches a composition on a har d, f at sur face such as a wood or linoleum block; then the par ts of the image that ar e not to receive ink ar e car ved away fr om the sur face, leaving only the composition visible on the top sur face of the matrix. Ink is then applied to this raised sur face with a roller. The raised image on the block is tr ansferred to paper with a mechanical pr ess or by pr essing the block into the paper by hand. Since the ar eas of the block that wer e cut-away did not receive ink, they appear whit e in the print ed image. The ink ed ar eas ar e slightly impr essed int o the sur face of the paper fr om the for ce of the pr ess and so appear indent ed int o the paper . The primar y relief techniques ar e woodcut, wood engr aving and linocut.
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Restrike
Restrikes ar e lat er impr essions that have not been authoriz ed by the ar tist or the ar tist's heirs. While some restrikes ar e of good appear ance, the e xcessive printing of the matrix tends to wear it out and many restrikes ar e only ghostly images of what the print is supposed to be. In the case of images that may be intrinsically valuable (i.e. compositions by Rembr andt), the worn-out copper plat e is often reworked sever al centuries lat er so that, while the restrike may be said to have come fr om the original plat e, ther e is har dly anything left of the original work on the plat e, even the plat e's signature oft en being re-etched by someone else.
Screenprint (Serigraph, Silk Screen)
A pr ocess based on the st encil principle in which mat erial is attached to a mesh scr een to block the fow of ink to the paper in a par ticular ar ea. A squeegee is used to for ce the paint or ink thr ough the exposed ar eas of the mesh scr een. A separ ate scr een is required for each color in the ar tist's composition and the same piece of paper is print ed with each scr een in succession. The resultant image is simple, yet bold and oft en has a gr aphic quality .
Second Edition
A second edition is a lat er printing, usually authoriz ed by the ar tist or by the heirs, fr om the original matrix, aft er an edition of a declar ed number has alr eady been print ed. It should be annotat ed as a second, or subsequent, edition. A phot ographically pr oduced replica of the original print, whether printed in a limit ed edition or not, is not a second edition; it is a reproduction.
Signatures
Signatures tell a viewer a lot about the authenticity and dating of a print. The ver y earliest prints did not have signatur es at all, although by the lat e f fteenth centur y many ar tists indicat ed their authorship of a print by incorpor ating a signatur e or monogr am int o the matrix design. This kind of composition is called "signed in the plat e" or a "plat e signatur e." While some prints wer e pencil signed as early as the lat e eight eenth centur y, the pr actice of signing one's work in pencil or ink did not really become common pr actice until the 1880s. T oday, it is cust omary for original prints to be signed. When a print is described simply as "signed" it should mean that it is signed in pencil, ink or crayon. A plat e signatur e or a stamped signatur e should be described as such.
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State
Often an ar tist will work on a composition to a cer tain point and then st op to print an impr ession of it to consider how it will look in its f nal appear ance. Plat es ar e composed in reverse making stat es an essential st ep in cr eating a f nal image. This single stage in the evolution of this image is called a state. Each time the composition is changed a new stat e of the print is cr eated. These changes can range fr om the addition of a plat e signatur e to dr astic alt erations in the composition. T oday ar tist's may choose to edition a stat e befor e moving on with the composition.
Trial Proof
An impr ession pulled befor e the edition in or der to see what the print looks lik e at that stage of development, aft er which the ar tist may go back to the matrix and mak e adjustments. Ther e can be any number of trial pr oofs, depending upon how a par ticular ar tist works, but it is usually a small amount and each one usually di fers fr om the others. In F rench, a trial pr oof is called an epr euve d'essai, in German, P robedruck.
Watermark
An impor tant role in the connoisseurship of a print, a wat ermark is an image, logo, or symbol embedded in a sheet of paper that identi fes the mill at which the paper was made as well as the paper type/style, and in some cases, a dat e. The mill's logo is woven with wir e int o the mesh of the paper mould and as a result less pulp collects on top and ar ound the image making that ar ea of the page thinner . W atermarks, which ar e typically locat ed in the lower right corner of a sheet of paper , are oft en only visible when the sheet of paper is held in fr ont of a light.
Wood Engraving
The appear ance and line quality of a wood engr aving is similar to that of a copper -plate engr aving. The lines ar e rigid, noticeably taper ed at the ends, and var y in thickness and length to cr eate tone and texture. W ood and copper di fer insofar as a copper engr aving is print ed using an intaglio technique wher e the incised lines receive ink, and print on paper as black. W ood engr avings ar e printed in relief; the ink is rolled ont o the sur face, so the incised lines remain whit e.
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Woodcut
Woodcuts ar e identical to linocuts in pr ocess, but have a unique appear ance because the ink ed surface of the block oft en picks up the texture of the wood gr ain, which in turn tr ansfers to the printed image. W oodcuts wer e some of the f rst kinds of prints made in ninth-centur y China, and the pr actice was lat er adopt ed by the Eur opeans. In the sevent eenth and eight eenth centuries, Japanese ar tists using woodcut techniques reached an e xceptional level of ar tistic achievement through a style called ukiyo-e. Multiple colors can be achieved by cr eating a separ ate block for each color , however ar ound 1915, ar tists in the P rovincetown ar t colony developed whit e-line woodcuts – a pr ocess which allowed for many colors to be print ed on one block. By cutting a groove between each color ed sur face in the composition, the ar tists wer e able to apply ink only to the raised ar eas while the gr oove, which does not receive ink, prints as a blank or "whit e" line which separates each ar ea of color . See The British Museum's shor t f lm.
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