|
 |
THE COMPLETE
GUIDE TO
LIMITED EDITION ART PRINTS
How to Identify, Invest & Care for Your Collection
by: Jay Brown |
|
|
CHAPTER 4
- THE PAPERS AND THE INKS |
The Longevity of the Ink
Did you ever look at your favorite print and wonder
what people might think of it generations from now? Would they be able to feel
the emotion, the texture and the story? Or would they interpret it differently,
perhaps seeing a polar bear as we now see a dinosaur or a primitive image as
tomorrow’s cartoon? It’s hard to know how they might interpret our art. But, if
they’re looking at the art prints that have been hanging on our walls for years,
unfortunately they’ll probably interpret them as contemporary images of orange
and yellow design that lack texture and definition. That’s all that will be left
when the inks fade and the paper begins to show signs of acid burn.
The inks used today by most printers are
state-of-the-art. They’re extremely fade-resistant and the best available, but
they’re not permanent and they can bleach out and disappear with time. The
fading generally progresses slowly, so it’s very rarely noticed until it’s too
late. And, today the progression can take two or three decades or more.
Offset-lithographic prints are made up of four main
colors and the life of each color is different. The first color that begins to
disappear is yellow, which results in a print that looks overly blue, red and
black. The colors that are created with yellow on the color chart like green and
orange will become absent at this time as well.
Next, the red begins to disappear, resulting in a print
that appears practically monotone — just blue and black. The blue fades next,
followed by black. All that’s left is the white of the paper (unless it happened
to be exposed to acidic materials or wasn’t truly 100 percent acid-free as
promised, in which case it can change color as well).
Take precautions. Keep your prints out of direct
sunlight and away from the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun. Also, try to
avoid fluorescent lights and lights that stay on much of the time.
You can also make a conscious decision not to frame
your prints and just put them away in a drawer or closet. That’ll solve the
fading dilemma, but there’s very little enjoyment in sitting in your closet
trying to see a work of art in the dark. It can also be pretty darn lonely.
The Standards for Paper Quality and
Longevity
Unless you own a paper mill or have been in the world
of art printing and publishing for years, it’s nearly impossible to know for
sure that a piece of art paper is made of the right elements to last a lifetime.
From the collector’s standpoint, you want the paper to have enough body and
rigidity so it won’t bend and get dinged up with reasonable handling. And, you
want the content of the paper to be pH neutral so it won’t discolor with age.
Today most art papers are pH neutral – either acid-free
or all rag. If they are kept in a dark and dry environment, they should remain
crisp and white for centuries. However, if they are exposed to outside elements
such as light, humidity and dirt, impurities can eventually permeate the
acid-free qualities of the paper, altering their neutrality and causing them to
eventually begin discoloring and deteriorating.
To give papers extra protection, occasionally a coating
of calcium carbonate is applied to the paper. This extra protection barrier
makes the paper even more resilient than standard high quality papers and
lessens the risk of the art paper being impeded by impurities. However, only the
very best publishers and artists spend the extra dollars to afford their
collectors this extra protection.
The longevity of the highest quality art paper is
infinite with proper care. Variables such as exposure to humidity and the grades
of framing materials used can do more to determine the longevity of the paper
than the chemical make-up of each individual sheet.
Coated Papers
It doesn’t take a scientist to understand that if you
spill a glass of milk on your living room carpet, that it will soak right into
the fibers. But, if you spill the same glass of milk on the kitchen table, it’ll
sit on the surface. And, that’s the same philosophy that paper makers, printers
and publishers use to determine the best paper for a limited-edition print.
There are two basic types of art paper — coated and
uncoated. Uncoated paper allows the ink to penetrate into the paper fibers with
little resistance. The result is a print with a soft look and a more artistic
feel. The other option is a coated stock, which resists the natural tendency of
the ink to penetrate the paper and allows the color to rest on the surface
fibers to dry. The result is generally a more brilliant and colorful print.
Both types of paper are very acceptable and equally
valued in the print world today. In the past, coated papers were considered
cheap and they were reserved for posters and other less-expensive prints, but
not any longer. Nowadays, printers use whatever it takes to make the print look
more like the original piece of art.
A Word About Borders
The one to three-inch border found around nearly every
limited edition print serves a number of purposes and is considered a part of
the actual print, even though it’s often just blank white space. It provides an
area for handling the art without getting fingerprints directly on the image and
it also provides an area for the publisher to typeset a title, denote a line or
two about the history of the image and include important copyright information.
In many cases, it also provides the necessary space that artists need to apply
their original pencil signatures.
The standard in the American print market has been to
print offset lithographs on white paper with a matching white border. In Europe,
the standard is still to use white paper, but to print a cream edging about one
inch wide around the perimeter of the image. The European way has technical and
aesthetic drawbacks. First, as prints are exposed to light, they are at constant
risk of fading. Colors like cream, which have yellow in them, generally fade
first. Subsequently, the border color of European offset lithographs often
experience changes in tone. Secondly, the colored border is limiting for certain
frame designs.
However, the color of the border isn’t very important.
Understanding that the border condition has a great deal to do with the
investment value of a print is important. Should someone take a knife or a pair
of scissors to the border of a print, then the value of the work will be
diminished tremendously.
Borders are the Rodney Dangerfield of the art world.
They are often just tucked underneath a mat where nobody seems to care about
‘em. They just don’t get no respect! But, if you want your print to hold its
full value, you’ll give the border the respect it deserves.
The Deckle Edge
Sometimes it can be a good thing when an art print is
torn. Sound crazy? Well, with some high-quality paper stock, the edges are hand
torn to give it a more arty appearance. It’s all part of the presentation, just
like the folders that protect the print and the authentication that explains it.
It’s like the sizzle that accompanies a good steak.
If one print from a print edition has a deckle edge,
rest assured that all the other pieces from the run do as well. It’s a high
quality “perk” done by paper mills, that has become a tradition with the best
fine art prints.
CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE
|
