[ Pietro Annigoni ]
We represent the following local and
Australian artists through their limited editions and prints:
(click on each artist to obtain more information)
Buy unique prints and limited editions securely online
Pietro Annigoni
Judy Lawler
Margarette Looney
Nicole Southworth
What is a Limited Edition Print?
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Today a limited edition print may be printed on archival paper,
cotton paper (giclee) or as a lithograph.
The most common form limited edition today is the "giclée"
print. It is a piece of printed artwork or photograph produced by using a high
quality digital printer.
Giclée prints are big news in the USA. In the fine art business they have taken
over from lithographs and screen prints as the dominant and preferred way for
artists, galleries and publishers to make reproductions and prints.
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The growth
in the American giclée market has been phenomenal while traditional print
methods have stagnated. It has been reported that something like 80% of new
images in the US are being produced using the giclée techniques.
The technology behind this revolution is based on the power of computers
combining with advances in printing techniques. Extremely fine droplets of ink
can be spurted onto heavy water-colour paper or artist's canvas. These droplets
can be controlled by the computer so that the resolution of the printed image is
much finer than conventional printing. The image and printer commands are
recorded as a digital file and can be accessed on demand. This means that an
edition can be proofed and then tested for popularity. Then when the artist,
gallery or publisher wishes to print more copies of the image they can be
produced as and whenever needed.
The first giclée machine was an Iris printer, which is a four colour machine.
It first came onto the market around 12 years ago and although producing
exceptional quality, problems with fading quickly led to the art market reacting
negatively to this process. With other printer manufacturers moving into the
market and extensive research and development by ink manufacturers, these
problems were rectified and with certified testing of images in relation to
lightfastness, attitudes changed and Giclée prints are now the benchmark.
Independent testing on the ink/paper combination used predicts a
life of 85 to 90 years indoors without any noticeable fading.
To produce a print, a sheet of paper (in our case 400 gsm Arches watercolour
paper) is wrapped around a drum which revolves at high speed. As the drum
rotates the print head moves slowly across the drum spitting ink onto the sheet.
Printing a sheet with this process on the highest resolution takes one hour
compared to offset (most commonly used process in the production of prints)
which is capable of producing up to 15000 sheets per hour.
