Search for something to hang above the sofa and you'll meet a jumble of words: art print, fine art print, poster, wall art, canvas print, giclée. Prices range from five euros to five thousand. It's easy to feel you're missing something.
Here's what the words actually mean.
Original
A unique work made by the artist's hand: a painting, a drawing, a watercolour. There is only one. Usually the most expensive, and the most personal.
Original print
This one surprises people. In printmaking (etching, woodcut, lithography, screen printing), the print is the artwork. The artist designs it to be printed, often in a small numbered edition. A Rembrandt etching or a Hokusai woodblock print is an original, even though more than one exists.
Reproduction print
A copy of an existing artwork, printed with a high-quality process. Giclée is a common term for fine inkjet printing with pigment inks on good paper. A reproduction can be beautiful and long-lasting, especially when the artist oversees it, signs it, or finishes it by hand.
Poster
Usually a mass-produced reproduction on lighter paper, in open, unlimited runs. Perfectly lovely for a first flat or a child's room, but not made to last for generations.
Wall art
Not a category at all, really. It's a shop term for anything that hangs on a wall: prints, mirrors, tapestries, canvases with quotes, metal sculptures. Useful for browsing, not for knowing what you're buying.
How to choose
Ask three questions:
- Who made it, and was the artist involved in this particular object?
- What is it printed on, and how long will it last? (Here's how to care for art on paper.)
- Does it make you feel something you want to live with?
The third matters most. A five-euro postcard you love beats an expensive canvas you chose to match the cushions. More on that in choose art by feeling, not by colour, and on the vocabulary of editions in signed, numbered, limited.
Somewhere in between
My prints sit between a reproduction and an original: giclée prints on fine art paper, each one finished by hand and signed, so no two are exactly alike, and each comes with a meditation letter. Blue Toile n.3 is one of them.
Remember to take as much time as you need, and meet me at the next one.
Love, Evi