Archives of etchings from Crown Point Press, which is located across the street from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, are at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.įounded in 2000, Counter Editions works with leading contemporary artists and printers to commission and produce prints and multiples. A visible plate edge shows that the image is embossed into the paper. The press forces the paper into the plate to make the print. Finally, a printer pushes ink by hand into the plate and wipes the surface clean. The image is then etched into the copper plate using acid. Since its founding in 1962, Crown Point Press has been committed to keeping the medium of intaglio alive, working with blue-chip artists all over the world, from Anish Kapoor and Laura Owens to Ed Ruscha and Chris Burden. To make an intaglio print, an artist first draws on a copper plate using a sharp tool and/or materials like soap, sugar, tar, or wax. Read up on what they're known for, and click on their linked names to see more available works! To make it easy, we've put together a short-list of seven renowned printing presses and publishers that work closely with their artists. Keep in mind, though, that fine art prints are quite different than printed reproductions (which aren't always produced in collaboration with the artist), and that their values (and appreciation potentials) are, in part, influenced by the reputation of the publisher who produced them. To ensure you're getting an authenticated, high-quality work, buy from a reputable publisher, through a trusted source. (To brush up on your printmaking terminology or learn the 101 on print methods, read our trusty guide here.) Reputable publishers and so-called Master Printers (highly skilled printers who only attain the title after years of apprenticeship) work very closely with artists to produce editions of the artists’ work.

That doesn't mean you can't own a Lichtenstein, Rauschenberg, or Ruscha.Įditioned prints and multiples allow access to big-name artists (or up-and-coming ones!) without the big-name price tags. But, when the art that you love happens to be by blue-chip artists whose work sells for hundreds of thousands of dollars, you're not always going to be able to afford a one-of-a-kind artwork. Ask any art advisor and they will tell you: the first rule of collecting is to buy the art that you love.

Buy fine art lithographs