Original, Print or Reproduction: What You Are Buying

The words on an art label are doing a lot of work, and almost nobody explains them. So here is the plain version, with no judgment about which you should buy.

An original

One object, made by hand, that exists once. If it is destroyed there is not another one.

It has physical surface. Depth, direction, places where the material sits higher than others. That is why an original changes as you move past it and a flat reproduction does not.

A limited edition print

A reproduction, produced in a stated number, usually signed and numbered by the artist. Twenty five of them, or a hundred, and then the edition closes.

These can be lovely and they are a real part of the art world. What matters is that the edition size is stated honestly and that it actually closes.

A giclee

This word confuses everybody, so let me demystify it. A giclee is an inkjet print. A very good one, on archival paper or canvas with pigment inks, but an inkjet print.

It is a printing method, not a category of value. A giclee can be part of a small signed edition or it can be an open edition sold indefinitely, and those are enormously different things wearing the same word.

An open edition print

A reproduction with no limit on how many exist. Perfectly fine as decoration and it is what most wall art in most stores actually is.

Just know what it is. It is a picture of an artwork, not an artwork, and it will not hold value because there is no scarcity in it.

The question that cuts through all of it

Ask one thing: is this the object the artist made, or a copy of it?

Everything else is detail. If the answer is uncomfortable or vague, that is your answer.

Which should you buy

Honestly, it depends what you want the thing to do.

If you want a wall to look good, a good print is a good print, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. If you want an object that is yours alone, that has physical presence in a room, that can be insured, passed on and hold value, that is an original and nothing else will substitute.

The one thing I would gently steer you away from is spending real money on an open edition reproduction. At that price you are usually within reach of a smaller original from someone whose work will still matter in ten years.

What I make

Originals only. Every piece is one object, documented, with a certificate and a provenance record behind it.

Smaller available work lives in the Studio Archives, which is a genuine place to start rather than a lesser version of the same thing. And if you would like to see new work as it finishes, the Collector's Circle sees everything first.

Warmly,

Dani