About Giclée Printing
THE DEFINITION:
: Giclee (zhee-klay) - The French
word "giclée" is a feminine noun that means a spray or a spurt
of liquid. The word may have been derived from the French verb "gicler"
meaning "to squirt".
THE TERM:
The term "giclee print" connotes an elevation
in printmaking technology. Images are generated from high resolution digital
scans and printed with archival quality inks onto various substrates including
canvas, fine art, and photo-base paper. The giclee printing process provides
better color accuracy than other means of reproduction.
THE PROCESS:
Giclee prints are created typically using professional 8-Color
to 12-Color ink-jet printers. Among the manufacturers of these printers are
vanguards such as Epson, MacDermid Colorspan, & Hewlett-Packard. These modern
technology printers are capable of producing incredibly detailed prints for
both the fine art and photographic markets. Giclee prints are sometimes mistakenly
referred to as Iris prints, which are 4-Color ink-jet prints from a printer
pioneered in the late 1970s by Iris Graphics.
THE ADVANTAGES:
Giclee prints are advantageous to artists who do not find it
feasible to mass produce their work, but want to reproduce their art as needed,
or on-demand. Once an image is digitally archived, additional reproductions
can be made with minimal effort and reasonable cost. The prohibitive upfront
cost of mass production for an edition is eliminated. Archived files will not
deteriorate in quality as negatives and film inherently do. Another tremendous
advantage of giclee printing is that digital images can be reproduced to almost
any size and onto various media, giving the artist the ability to customize
prints for a specific client.
THE QUALITY: The
quality of the giclee print rivals traditional silver-halide and gelatin
printing processes and is commonly found in museums, art galleries, and photographic
galleries.
THE MARKET: Numerous examples of giclee prints can be found in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Chelsea Galleries. Recent auctions of giclee prints have fetched $10,800 for Annie Leibovitz, $9,600 for Chuck Close, and $22,800 for Wolfgang Tillmans (April 23/24 2004, Photographs, New York, Phillips de Pury & Company.)
An example below:
Kotwali Bazaar, was painted from photographs and memories of Susan Mayclin Stephenson's trip to Dharamsala, India. The Kotwali Bazaar is the Indian market in Lower Dharamsala, filled with Indian tailors and food markets. |
The original oil painting of Kotwali Bazaar is 9" x 12" and sold for $3,000. The giclee print is 8.5" x 11.5" and the price is $150. This Limited Edition print is limited to 60 giclees. That means there will never be more than 60 in existence. It is printed on archival German rag paper, with permanent inks And is as lovely as the original. Each print is individually prepared to order, numbered and signed by the artist, and comes with a certificate of authenticity. Please allow 3-4 weeks for the printing. For more information return to www.susanart.net, or contact susanonly@earthlink.net For Susan's presently available giclées, see: susan's giclees |