What is considered original art? Originals, giclee, and art prints explained.

 

 

 

 

 

The world of art may seem an intimidating foray – full of
jargon, assumed pretentiousness, and hefty price tags to boot. But it doesn’t
need to be that way. In fact, understanding the terminology used only takes a
few minutes and is an interesting history lesson.

So you all get to hear the terms “original art” “giclees”
“contemporary art”, etchings, serigraphs and other words surrounding the art
world. What do they really mean?? I am about to explain and hopefully shed some
light on the matter.

What is an original artwork?

 “Original” quite simply means a unique one-off
piece from the artists own hand. This could be an oil, acrylic,
watercolour painting, etching or a drawing. A print or giclee wouldn’t be considered
an original as its machine-driven process and not coming directly from the
artist.

Original works from the artists own hand are always more
valuable and desirable. Many buyers will only be interested in originals as it
means they’re buying something unique and irreplaceable.

What is contemporary art?

“Contemporary” art is generally taken to mean art that is
produced by living artists in the last 50 or years.  (living artists)
 although some say that contemporary is everything from World War II (late
1940s) onwards. produced today. 

Though seemingly simple, the details surrounding this
definition are often a bit fuzzy, as different individuals’
interpretations of “today” may widely and wildly vary. Therefore, the
exact starting point of the genre is still debated; however,
many art historians consider the late 1960s or early 1970s (the end
of modern art, or modernism) to be an adequate estimate.

Original art vs. an original print

This is where things get a little complicated. While an
original painting is a one off, straight from the artists easel, and original
print however refers to the run of prints off the original lithographic plates.
This means an ‘original print’ could be from a batch of hundreds.

This doesn’t detract in the least from the quality or value
of the art – but it does eliminate the uniqueness factor which can be an
instant put off for some collectors.

Certain artisanal printmaking techniques are
extremely respected and still taught at Art Colleges
worldwide.  Under the “printmaking” umbrella falls works on
zinc/copper “etchings”, stone lithographs, lino cuts, woodcuts and even hand
pulled silk prints (or serigraphs which Andy Warhol made famous).  I guess
the basic potato print is the most basic form of original printmaking I can
explain.

The  art print business, however,  can use the
words to his own advantage ie. “original lithograph” means that yes it IS a
lithograph from a lithographic stone, but not necessarily from the artists own
hand.

In many cases, the lithographic stone was used to
produce large amounts of works too where master lithographers took the original
images and “translated” them onto the stones. These are technically not
‘fine prints” but are called “afters” (ie. a print “after” a design from the
artist).   A lot of the modern masters did do the work on the stones
themselves using this artisanal process and these pieces are always worth more
money.

What is an oil painting?

Oil painting is simply artwork that’s been painted with oil
based paint. Oil is a great medium, and its own fraternity in the art
community. Good quality oil based paints are made by grinding special pigments
into linseed oil – one of the reasons oil based paint can be so
expensive! 

Its advantages are great use of the mediums and a whole
range of glazes and techniques. Oil paintings can stay wet for weeks which
gives the artist plenty of time to come back and touch up areas, and continue to
blend the paint.

Its disadvantages are that it has a longer drying time and
some artists can be allergic to the chemicals used.

What is an Acrylic?

‘An acrylic’ is just art that’s been painted with acrylic
paint. Acrylic is great it is basically pigment in a “glue” thats fast drying
and holds its color forever. Water based, non-smelly and easy to dilute to make
glazes or use with fillers to make body.

What is Giclee? Giclee prints explained:

are NEVER from the artists own hand, because its a
mechanical process whereby the original image is “scanned” in and then the
printer can recreate the image either on paper or on canvas. A kind of massive
ink jet printer.  This has become a cheap way for painters to mass produce
their works. Sometimes they can even go in and hand embellish parts of it, but
its is NOT a respected nor artisanal art form.

What is Giclee art?

The term Giclée was coined by Jack Duganne in 1991. It
originally applied to fine art prints which were done on Iris printers, but it
has since come to mean any print done on an inkjet printer. Although printers,
galleries and artists use the term Giclée to imply “fine art printing”, there
is no guarantee of quality that goes with the word. The truth is anyone who
does inkjet printing technically does Giclée printing.

What’s the difference between acrylic and watercolour
painting?

The difference between acrylic and a watercolour painting
is that with watercolour painting you have to leave white paper showing if you
want white on the picture. You leave white paper showing and you build up your
layers every time it’s dry you add another layer and the final layer that you
do is the black paint which is the shadows.

With acrylic painting, you start with your blacks and
your dark colours and you build up layers in the very last layer is the white
paint on top watercolour painting you don’t put white paint on the top.

If you do you’ve changed your mediums – it’s become an
acrylic painting mixed with a watercolour.  it’s like a mixed media in
some artists do that they’ll just add a little bit of white paint on the top
but the true pure watercolour is you leave your white paper for the white colour
.

What is abstract art?

The simplest way to think of abstract art is where
the image doesn’t appear to be of anything distinguishable. Because the
painting doesn’t show anything, What the painting means is left entirely up to
the interpretation of the admirer.