WHAT IS A REPRODUCTION?Commonly referred to as prints, reproductions are printed copies of original artworks.
Reproduction prints in the context of typical artworks that we may display on a wall are published in two types of issue. The first is referred to as "limited edition". This means that the number of prints released for sale is limited to a set quantity which may be anything from just a few up to several thousand but more commonly is around twenty to five hundred. The second is open edition prints, which have no set limit on the number produced.
Limited edition prints are usually hand signed and numbered by the artist. By doing this, the artist instils a degree of uniqueness to each individual print. An original artist's signature can also be a valuable collectable in its own right, especially as the artist becomes more popular.
In many cases it may be prohibitive for an art buyer to afford an original painting by a successful artist that they admire. Buying a signed reproduction therefore allows them to own and admire the image of an artist that they really like at an affordable price whilst still having the comfort of knowing that the artist applied his mark, being his signature and edition number, by hand to that reproduction.
The edition number looks something like a mathematical fraction. For example if the hand written signature at the bottom of a reproduction is accompanied by the numbers 27/100 that would mean that this particular print is number twenty seven of an edition of one hundred. No more than one hundred will ever be signed and released to the public for purchase. The artist may however release the same image at a different size as a limited edition although ethics would dictate that further editions are not too numerous. An acceptable portfolio of limited editions releases of a single image at different sizes etc. may total around 3 -6. Any more than that and the concept of "limited" is starting to suffer a little. The credibility of the artist may also start to suffer.
With regard to investment value, a limited edition print may appreciate if it is of good quality and from a popular artist, especially if their work in general appreciates considerably. Of course, the less of anything there are, the more competition there will be for each item and so demand will push the price up. Keep that in mind when you are tempted to buy a print from a "limited edition" of two thousand. In contrast, a sample from a limited edition of twenty of thirty from a good artist is truly going to be a rare commodity as time moves on.
Modern printing inks can have better colour retention properties than many supposedly "artist quality" paints and so fading is not really a problem provided the reproduction is protected under glass and not subjected to strong light, especially sunlight which is irreversibly and rapidly destructive to colour. We have all seen examples of faded dull blue green prints that once may have had reds and yellows as well.
Gicleé prints may be made on canvas at quite large scale. They can be very impressive when framed out and difficult to tell apart from the real thing without close inspection. The term Gicleé basically means that the print was created using a spray ink process like an ink-jet printer. This may be anything from a readily available domestic version up to a huge industrial model. Either way, the ink lifetime will be better than commercial offset printing if the proper ink dyes are used. Any gicleé print made with long life inks on good paper and properly cared for has a generally accepted life span of about sixty to eighty years before fading may start to occur. An original painting made with inferior materials and pigments may deteriorate a lot faster than that. This is evidenced by the many museums that have rooms of crumbling artworks displayed in minimally destructive glow-worm light levels because the artists didn't care what materials they were using at the time.
Open edition prints are also sold as posters and are usually mass-produced by commercial printers. Their purpose is mainly for decoration and they carry no intrinsic value in themselves. When you buy an open edition print from a framer or print shop, you are paying mostly for the framing, not the artwork. This may be hundreds of dollars in some cases and always makes me wonder why the purchaser wouldn't put that money to better use buying an original artwork for the same price. They would then own something of real worth that has the potential to appreciate in value and will always be a unique and treasured possession.In some cases, artists may sign open edition prints without numbering them in an attempt to add perceived value. I feel this is more a marketing ploy than a real artistic statement. Of course you get a real signature and that may have value in time - who would turn down a Picasso moniker on an old napkin if it was offered to them for nothing?
Despite the cheap mass-produced element, there is always a valid place for good open edition reproductions - we can't all afford an original Monet for example and maybe you just love an image and want to have it on your wall. That's fair enough. I have a stack of cheap prints I love too (Most of them are on the pages of my art books) although a few Turner postcards grace the shelves and walls of my home amongst the originals and I went to the trouble of faking my own Gauguin once but that's another story. I just suggest care when choosing between original paintings, signed limited edition reproductions and commercial open edition prints. Know what you are buying, what it's real value is and what benefit you can expect to gain from owning it.
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Michael Hodgkins
