Collecting prints and art multiples

A guide to everything you need to know about collecting fine art prints and multiples 

What is a lithograph? What distinguishes an original from a copy? Which are the most important authors to collect in the field of graphic art? 

Here are some tips to follow if you want to get into the world of fine art prints and multiples!

First, it is necessary to understand what a print is: a print is defined as any work of art made in several stages, created through a mechanical process of transferring from one type of medium to another. There are many different types of prints, but the four best-known techniques are: etching, lithography, screen printing and woodcut. 

A print is a work of art: they are not simple copies of an original, but are the result of the collaboration between an artist and a team of printers, highly specialized figures. The works are produced in a limited number and are called “editions”. 

Editions are signed and numbered with an edition number, typically written with a fraction (e.g. 1/4): the number on the right of the bar indicates the total number of prints made, while the figure on the left is the number of the single print. C

Moreover, most of the prints on the market are generally signed, even though this is not always the case. Artists such as Andy Warhol or Pablo Picasso, for example, signed some of their prints with a stamp, while Richard Diebenkorn and Lucian Freud signed them with their initials: this, however, does not give the work a lower market value. 

Collecting prints can depend on a variety of reasons: you can build up a collection dedicated to the same author to see the stylistic and subject evolutions and the growth of the artist’s skills as a printer over the course of his career; or, a print can be an excellent starting point to start putting together a larger collection without having to pay astronomical sums of money. 

Next, print preservation is crucial. 

Here are three key tips to follow to best care for these delicate works of art: 

– if a print has bright colors, do not hang it in direct sunlight; 

– make sure that the print is kept away from any source of moisture; 

– do not cut the sheet to try to fit it into a smaller frame: framing a print is a very important step and for this reason it is necessary to turn to professional framers who know how to enhance and protect the work in the best possible way. 

To better manage information about your collection of art multiples there is Art Rights, a platform that encompasses the best services for the management and certification of artworks – physical and digital – with Blockchain technology.

And you, are you ready to start your own collection of multiples?