At Gallery One, we've done our best to create a Web site that anticipates and satisfies our customers' needs. With that goal in mind, we've compiled a list of art industry related terms. If you do not find an answer to your question here, contact us at 817.788.1343 or artsales@g1fineart.com.
Artist's Proof (A/P): An Artist's Proof is one outside the regular edition, but printed at the same time or after the regular edition from the same plates without changes. By custom, the artist retains the A/Ps for his personal use or sale. Typically, 10% of the edition total is designated as A/P, or in the case of a small edition, five graphics are usually so designated.
Atelier: French term for "printer's workshop."
Certificate of Authenticity: Certifies the authenticity of an individual piece in an edition and states the current market value.
Collage: From the French meaning “paste up.” The combination of pieces of cloth, handmade papers and other found objects to create artwork.
Collagraph: The printmaking process where materials are applied to a rigid board. The board is then inked and the result is a highly textured collage. The collaged board is then pressed onto paper resulting into an Original print.
Etching or Intaglio: The technique of reproducing a design by coating a metal plate with wax and drawing with a sharp instrument called a stylus through the wax down down to the metal. The plate is put in an acid bath, which eats away the incised lines; it is then heated to dissolve the wax and finally inked and printed on paper. The resulting print is called the etching.
Giclee (zhee-clay, French word meaning to spray): Digital printing process that uses high resolution ink jet printers to finely transfer the inks onto fine art papers or canvas. The results are an impressively high image detail and brilliant color that match the original more than any other printing process.
Gouache: The technique of applying opaque watercolor to paper; also a work of art so produced. The usual gouache painting displays a light-reflecting brilliance quite different from the luminosity of transparent watercolors.
Hand-pulled Print: See Printmaking
Hors Commerce (H.C.): Hors Commerce (Not for Trade) traditionally were the graphics pulled with the regular edition, but were marked by the artist for business use only. These graphics were used for entering exhibitions and competitions, but today, these graphics generally are allowed into distribution through regular channels.
Limited Edition (L/E): A fixed number of identical prints of an image, signed by the artist and sequentially numbered, showing both the prints number and the edition size. More valuable than an Open Edition print, but less valuable than an Artist Proof (A/P), Printers Proof (P/P), Remarque (Rem), Hors de Commerce (H/C) or the Original. Synonymous with Signed and Numbered (S/N)
Lithography: In the graphic arts, a method of printing from a prepared flat stone, metal or plastic plate, invented in the late eighteenth century. A drawing is made on the stone or plate with a greasy crayon or tusche, and then washed with water. When ink is applied it sticks to the greasy drawing but runs off (or is resisted by) the wet surface allowing a print - a lithograph - to be made of the drawing. The artist, or other print maker under the artist's supervision, then covers the plate with a sheet of paper and runs both through a press under light pressure. For color lithography separate drawings are made for each color.
Mixed Media: Two or more materials or techniques such as oils, watercolors, acrylics, ink, pencil, charcoal, lithography, serigraphy or giclee that are used together to create a single piece of artwork.
Montage: A picture made up of various proportions of existing pictures, such as photographs or prints, arranged so they join, overlap, or blend with one another.
Monotype: A one-of-a-kind print made by painting on a sheet or slab of glass and transferring the still-wet painting to a sheet of paper held firmly on the glass by rubbing the back of the paper with a smooth implement, such as a large hardwood spoon. The painting may also be done on a polished plate, in which case it may be either printed by hand or transferred to paper by running the plate and paper through an etching press.
Open Edition (O/E): A set of prints produced in an unlimited quantity and sometimes signed by the artist but never numbered. This is the least valuable type of art, but a good way to start collecting.
Pastel: A colored crayon that consists of pigment mixed with just enough of a aqueous binder to hold it together; a work of art produced by pastel crayons; the technique itself. Pastels vary according to the volume of chalk contained...the deepest in tone are pure pigment. Pastel is the simplest and purest method of painting, since pure color is used without a fluid medium and the crayons are applied directly to the pastel paper. Pastels are called paintings rather than drawings, for although no paint is used, the colors are applied in masses rather than in lines.
Patina: A film or an incrustation, usually green, that forms on copper and bronze after a certain amount of weathering and as a result of the oxidation of the copper. Special chemical treatments will also induce different colored patinas on new bronzes. Bronzes may be painted with acrylic and lacquer.
Printmaking: A hand-pulled print is an original, ink-on-paper, work of art. The artist creates a plate, block, stone, stencil, or other template that is then inked and from which an image is printed (pulled) onto paper using a press or by hand-rubbing. The artist may choose to print one or multiple images from the template (the total number of prints is known as the edition). Each finished print is signed and numbered by the artist. Once the edition is complete, the original block, plate, or stone is either defaced or destroyed so that no more prints can be made from that template.
Remarque (Rem): A current practice of some artists is the addition of a small personalized drawing or symbol near his pencil signature in the lower margin. The practice is borrowed from Whister's famous "butterfly" which was added to personalize many of his graphics.
Serigraph: Serigraphy (also referred to as 'silkscreen' or 'screenprint') is a color stencil printing process in which a special paint is forced through a fine screen onto the paper beneath. Areas which do not print are blocked with photo sensitive emulsion that has been exposed with high intensity arc lights. A squeegee is pulled from back to front, producing a direct transfer of the image from screen to paper. A separate stencil is required for each color and one hundred colors or more may be necessary to achieve the desired effect. A serigraph differs from other graphics in that its color is made up of paint films rather than printing ink stains. This technique is extremely versatile, and can create effects similar to oil color, transparent washes as well as gouache and pastel.
Signed and Numbered (S/N): See Limited Edition (L/E).
Stipple: In painting, to apply small dots of color with the point of the brush; also to apply paint in a uniform layer by tapping a vertically held brush on the surface in repeated staccato touches.
Wash: Used in watercolor painting, brush drawing, and occasionally in oil painting to describe a broad thin layer of diluted pigment or ink. Also refers to a drawing made in this tech
nique.
|
