Home Art Gallery
Alexis
A new site has great art prints for sale. http://www.homeartgallery.com has
framed prints from Matisse and Picasso, as well as fabulous plaque wall
mounts and contemporary prints.
Please visit http://www.homeartgallery.com for more information about the
Henri Matisse Gallery.
Thank you.
Dan Fox
> Hi All,
>
> A new site has great art prints for sale. http://www.homeartgallery.com
> has framed prints from Matisse and Picasso, as well as fabulous plaque
> wall mounts and contemporary prints.
Here's a good, simple illustration of the print versus reproduction
(poster) issue. This site is selling inexpensive photomechanical
reproductions (posters) and calling them 'fine art prints.' They don't
meet any of the established criteria for prints.
--
Dan
'The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.' - Blake
www.danfoxart.com
Erik A. Mattila
prints. This company is carrying on an old commercial practice, which has
alway been called 'fine art prints.' (Meaning reproductions of works of "Fine
Arts.)" I remember back in the sixties the best place to buy "Fine Art
Prints" (he hee hee he) was Marlboroughs mail-order book store, located in
good old NYC.
The prices of these aren't too bad, actually, when you consider that they are
framed. And talk about 'gouge-O-rama' look at the framing industry. I've
built frames at various times in every possible scenario, from super-custom
shops (that made their own moulding) to stationary -- egad, even Aaron Bros
-- to factory productions. When I look at a modern frame shop, where the
proprietor has sign on as a consessionaire for a moulding company, attends a
week of 'training' and opens up the business doors. It's when you get down
the the mystic chart that determines how much you pay for a frame that's,
say, 22" high, and 32" wide (always go to the higher whole number when
confronted by a fraction) and it produces a magic price that has little
relationship to time and materials. The same is true with matts. Why should
an 18 x 24 matt cost 30 bucks when it has $2.00 dollars worth of matt board
in it, and it takes approximately five minutes to slice out with your C&H
Matt Cutter (That translates to 336 dollars per hour, folks- or you only have
to cut 36 matts to pay for your cutter). And Glass? Always buy it at a
hardware store, or better yet, at a glass shop.
Anyway, Dan, I looked at this site and I didn't see any of these images
advertising or announcing anything, so they can't be 'posters' tsk, tsk tsk.
Erik Mattila, relentless defender of the print industy!
Dan Fox
> I think the issue was actually artist's mass producing 'limited edition'
> prints. This company is carrying on an old commercial practice, which
> has alway been called 'fine art prints.' (Meaning reproductions of works
> of "Fine Arts.)" I remember back in the sixties the best place to buy
> "Fine Art Prints" (he hee hee he) was Marlboroughs mail-order book store,
> located in good old NYC.
Hi, Erik -
I think there was a long 'print vs. repro' thread here a while ago. I
didn't read it, so here are my comments on the issue (pun intended).
My understanding is that the word 'print' is intended only to
designate artworks created expressly to be reproduced as such - from a
plate, stone, etc. In other words, there is no original painting or other
work involved.
A print can be limited-edition or not. If it is limited edition, the number
of the print and the edition size (3/50) must be indicated, usually on the
bottom front of the print. The artist does not personally have to pull
the prints, but each print must be pulled with the artist
present. The artist's signature indicates his approval of the individual
print. (This is a quality control measure, since in a typical run many
individual prints are substandard.) At the end of the run, the source
image must be destroyed or defaced to ensure that no more images can be
pulled. Thus, 'limited edition' has a definite, physical meaning.
A non-limited edition print is possible but rare. It can be signed or
unsigned, but there is no limitation or numbering to the edition.
Anything based on a photograph of an existing artwork is a photomechanical
reproduction, or poster. At the site I referenced, they do indeed refer
to the work as 'fine art prints,' not 'fine art reproductions.' Granted,
their prices are fair, even cheap, and I imagine you get a grainy photo and
styrofoam frame for your money. Since the originals are masterworks, it is
difficult to imagine anyone being mislead here.
The market is flooded, however, with reproductions being sold as prints,
complete with numbering and signing. Often the signature is fake or, in
the case of Dali, signed on blank sheets. Some galleries and mail-order
scams are set up to do this; other galleries also sell real work and should
know better. (A guy in Kansas City once tried to sell me a genuine Warhol
Marilyn silkscreen for only $2000. The quality was laughable - the repro
was so dark that only the most naive would be taken in.) These prints are
fakes, and making or selling them is a criminal offense.
Less offensive, but still deceptive (not illegal, I think?) are galleries
and others who sell, as signed, limited-edition prints, high-quality
photographic reproductions of artists' work. These can go for thousands of
dollars. It isn't fraud, they say, because they are truthful about the
method of reproduction. And they won't make any more repros than indicated
in the edition, honest. But since it is a repro it isn't a print, and since
the artist won't destroy his painting (which probably has been sold by this
time) after the edition is printed, I think buyers are mislead. These
'prints' also have little resale value and no investment value, so this is
misleading as well.
> The prices of these aren't too bad, actually, when you consider that they
> are framed. And talk about 'gouge-O-rama' look at the framing industry.
> I've built frames at various times in every possible scenario, from
> super-custom shops (that made their own moulding) to stationary -- egad,
> even Aaron Bros -- to factory productions. When I look at a modern frame
> shop, where the proprietor has sign on as a consessionaire for a moulding
> company, attends a week of 'training' and opens up the business doors.
> It's when you get down the the mystic chart that determines how much you
> pay for a frame that's, say, 22" high, and 32" wide (always go to the
> higher whole number when confronted by a fraction) and it produces a
> magic price that has little relationship to time and materials. The same
> is true with matts. Why should an 18 x 24 matt cost 30 bucks when it has
> $2.00 dollars worth of matt board in it, and it takes approximately five
> minutes to slice out with your C&H Matt Cutter (That translates to 336
> dollars per hour, folks- or you only have to cut 36 matts to pay for your
> cutter). And Glass? Always buy it at a hardware store, or better yet,
> at a glass shop.
Agree with you on frame shops, Erik. There's a guy in my city who does
absolutely top-quality framing, a bit higher than the frame shops, but
worth it. He has all his samples in his truck and comes to your studio,
then delivers the finished product. We are lucky to have him; he doesn't
advertise and is always busy.
>
> Anyway, Dan, I looked at this site and I didn't see any of these images
> advertising or announcing anything, so they can't be 'posters' tsk, tsk
> tsk.
The 'fine art prints' designation is there, I think on a later page.
> Erik Mattila, relentless defender of the print industy!
Dan Fox, defender of quality prints and the buying public!
>