What is an Original Print?
The noun “print” designates any image that has been transferred from a matrix to a support. Postage stamps, newspapers, currency, and cereal boxes, in addition to etchings by Rembrandt and screenprints by Andy Warhol, are all prints. In order to distinguish commercial or utilitarian prints from artworks, terms such as “original print” or “fine print” are used. One could say that the phrase “original print” describes a printed image that the artist has declared to be a carrier of cultural significance—whether it be a picture, words, or a diagram, or any combination of these. In the history or commerce of art, “original print” is a designation of artistic intention. Original prints are expressions of human creativity, artistry, and imagination, and they are valued for their aesthetics, emotional power, unique characteristics, historical or social significance, and visual communication. What sets prints apart from other artistic media, such as a unique painting or drawing, is that there can be multiple copies of an image. In the majority of cases, it is also the artist’s wish to make numerous copies (“impressions”) of their work. Although it is the artist’s intent that defines a work of art and not the medium, it is helpful to know how prints are created in order to recognize their appearance.
Before 1900, nearly all original prints were fabricated from four basic matrices: wood (woodcuts, wood engravings, relief prints); metal, usually copper (engravings, etchings, drypoints, aquatints, mezzotints, etc.); stone or zinc (lithographs); and mesh cloth (screenprints, also called silkscreens). The design is made on a printing surface or template, called a matrix, using one or more techniques (carving, etching, drawing, building up, stenciling, and other methods). After an image is created on the matrix, a medium (usually ink, a pigmented liquid) is used to transfer the image from the matrix to another surface (paper being the most common, but materials like cloth or plastic are also used). The resulting impression is a print. Repeating the process of inking the matrix and transferring the image results in multiple impressions that are nearly identical.
The matrix is crafted or conceived by the artist, working either alone or in collaboration, for the specific purpose of making a print. Each combination of materials used to create a print has visual qualities distinct from art produced in other media. Before the mid-nineteenth century, every surface involved in printmaking had to be prepared by hand, but artists later adapted photography and casting processes, such as electrotyping of wood engravings. While many contemporary artists continue to make prints via traditional matrices and techniques, others employ nontraditional materials and methods or combinations of them. Of course, today an artist can create an image digitally and print with laser technology, thereby further pushing the boundaries of what an original print can be.
The ability to make multiple impressions by consistently reprinting from the same matrix is what defines a print, and the number of copies produced is called an edition. The concept of limiting an edition to a certain number of prints is a modern one, originating in the late nineteenth century. Prior to that, the amount was determined by how many impressions could be taken from a matrix before it broke down, as well as the popularity of the image. Some works, such as the woodcut of a rhinoceros made in 1515 by Albrecht Dürer, were so popular that the matrix was continually repaired so it could make additional impressions, in this case well into the seventeenth century, years after his death. Other artists, such as the Dutch seventeenth-century visionary Hercules Segers, made unique impressions from his metal plates by experimentally varying the inking process each time he printed one of his landscapes.
After the public announcements of the invention of photography in January 1839, the role of prints shifted. Photomechanical reproductions cost less to produce than hand-made prints, which led to a new way of promoting and selling traditional prints. Making a limited edition, or special editions on certain types of papers, and devising a convention for signing and numbering each impression are ways of establishing a market value for prints. While these conventions are still followed today, there are a number of contemporary artists who embrace printmaking’s democratic and dissemination possibilities by creating unlimited editions or who emulate commercial manufacture by enlisting industrial methods for production. Regardless of how many copies are made, the process of printing an edition should be authorized by the artist.
The Print Council of America’s (PCA) website provides information regarding printmaking techniques, care of art on paper, authenticity as it relates to prints, and value, as well as a selection of PCA publications and a searchable database for catalogues raisonnés of prints, drawings, and photographs. One of the best ways to learn about original prints is by looking, however, so curators recommend examining original prints displayed at museums and libraries, as well as at galleries and art fairs where original prints are sold. Many institutions also have print study centers where works can be viewed by appointment. Additionally, making prints is an excellent way to comprehend different processes and to sharpen connoisseurship skills. But to learn by collecting is perhaps most important—putting one’s money down, thereby committing to the study and enjoyment of a particular work of art on paper, even as one’s taste and goals evolve. The advantage of collecting original prints is that they can be acquired at relatively affordable costs, enabling people even of modest means to live with and treasure authentic works of art. There is no better method for truly understanding an original print, as with other works of art, than by experiencing it in person.
The Role of the Print Council of America in defining “What is an Original Print?”
On May 1, 1959, three years after the incorporation of the PCA, the founders, led by the great collector Lessing J. Rosenwald, proposed publishing a brochure to answer the question: “What is an original work of art as it affects prints primarily?” The objectives were threefold: to set standards for what constituted an original print; to enlist print dealers, artists, and publishers to abide by three rules, which would guard against fraudulent practices; and to provide a publication for educating collectors and the general public. The founders were in part reacting to the advances in photomechanical techniques that had given rise to offset reproductions (i.e., posters) of paintings and drawings, as well as to the increased production and sale of art forgeries. Numerous art historians, artists, and dealers collaborated on the project, which was coordinated and edited by the PCA’s legal counsel, Joshua Binion Cahn. Curator Carl Zigrosser wrote on the history of originality and the PCA’s executive secretary, Theodore Gusten, took charge of shaping the definition itself, which stated the general requirements of an original print:
- The artist alone has made the image in or upon the woodblock, metal plate, stone, or other material, for the purpose of creating an original work of graphic art.
- The impression is made directly from that original material, by the artist or pursuant to the artist’s direction.
- The finished print is approved by the artist.
In 1961, the pamphlet What is an Original Print? was published and widely distributed. It was later amended with minor corrections in 1964 and again in 1967. A revised and expanded version, A Guide to the Care of Original Prints, by Zigrosser and conservator Christa M. Gaehde was published in 1965.
Although the booklet’s guidelines may have helped lessen piracy, the strict definition of an original print did not embrace historical or avant-garde printmaking practices. At a meeting with the PCA’s board of directors on April 30, 1965, Rosenwald cautioned that “to impose regulations on artists, and to enforce standards of originality, would very likely result in killing the goose that laid the golden egg.” Rosenwald advocated for the PCA to educate the public, believing that demystifying fine art prints would promote their widespread appreciation and encourage their exhibition, collection, and creation.
The role of prints in society and the techniques and working habits employed by artists and publishers have changed so radically over the centuries that providing an overarching definition of an original print is difficult. Since the publication of What is an Original Print? in 1961, the views of many PCA members on this matter have shifted. After all, there are no rules in the making of art, and today’s and tomorrow’s artists will continue to reimagine what an original print can be.
RESOURCES (in chronological order)
Cahn, Joshua Binion, ed. What is an Original Print?: Principles Recommended by the Print Council of America. 2nd ed. New York: Print Council of America, 1961.
Zigrosser, Carl, and Christa M. Gaehde. A Guide to the Collecting and Care of Original Prints. New York: Crown Publishers and Print Council of America, 1965.
Austin, Gabriel, Richard Field, Hubert Prouté, and June Wayne. “Alice In Dali-Land: On Originality.” The Print Collector’s Newsletter 3, no. 2 (May–June 1972): 25–29.
Griffiths, Antony. “What is a Print?” In Prints and Printmaking: An Introduction to the History and Techniques. Berkley: University of California Press, 1996.
Gilmour, Pat. “On Originality.” Print Quarterly 25, no. 1 (March 2008): 36–50.
Wood, Debora. “What is an Original Print? The Evolution of a Definition.” Print Quarterly 39, no. 3 (September 2022): 274–86.
“What Is an Original Print” was posted on March 28, 2020. It was updated on October 18, 2022, and June 1, 2024.