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FREE MICHAEL CHARRON GICLEE
Copy the image above of Michael Charron’s “East of Pearl” into your pictures folder then print it on fabric, photo paper, bond paper etc. CONGRATULATIONS you have a giclee
IMPORTANT: Giclee Art Buyer Beware website is not against artists making giclees or artists profiting from their artwork. We do, however, stand for assisting art buyers to make informed decisions about the artwork they acquire.
The art business is not regulated and is a prime example of a “buyer beware” market place.
Giclee (/zhee-clay), is a neologism coined in 1991 for digitally formatted images that are printed with ink-jet printers.
In relationship to “fine art” images created by ink jet printers have no significant, real or monetary value, their value lies entirely within the realm of “decoration”. This applies even if the giclee is hand embellished (actual paint dabs placed on the printed image) hand signed and originate from a limited edition (number of prints produced). This assessment applies to any and all original oil paintings, acrylic paintings, water colors, gouaches, pastels, drawings, intaglios, lithographs, serigraphs etc. that are photomechanically reproduced.
The French word l'estampe defines an original fine art print as one in which the artist works a plate, or stone, by hand by himself or with the assistance of a master printmaker. No photo process may be used to transfer the image to a planographic surface. If photo processes are used to transfer previously existing images to a plate it is considered a reproduction not a hand made print. Machine made fine art reproductions do not and never will have significant value.
We invite you to consider the following when you evaluate a giclee purchase:
- A truly limited edition size is defined by those in curatorial roles as being 150 or less. Regardless of the edition size, be it 5 or 1500, a giclee has no value beyond decorative.
- A contemporary artist’s signature brings no significant monetary value to a giclee. Examples of what it costs to acquire a signature, many of which are accompanied by a photograph: Clint Eastwood $120; Harrison Ford $100; Julia Roberts $72; John Travolta $60; Gene Simmons $64 and Jimmy Stewart $100.
- Let’s assume an average size artwork is 18 x 24”. It costs approximately $12.38 to reproduce an 18 x 24” original, in an edition of 100, as a giclee on canvas or quality paper. If you stretch the canvas the cost goes to $17.37 each. Giclees are terribly inexpensive to produce.
- The cost to produce a giclee per print in an edition size of 100: Art reproduction, $17.37; Artist’s signature (somewhere between Clint Eastwood and John Travolta) $.09; Photography of the original piece $1.35; Travel to the photographers and printers $1.00; Incidentals $10.00 TOTAL $29.81. Add a 500% profit margin $29.81 + 500% = $178.86. FAIR RETAIL VALUE: (rounded up) would be $180.00 (unframed). Artists and galleries sell giclees routinely at 5000% profit margins, many artists charge 10,000% above cost for their negligible hand signed giclee prints. Colorado’s largest furniture warehouse sells 24” x 24” canvas giclees for $39.88.
- There are thousands of mid career artists that will sell their oil paintings for $3000 or less. There are tens of thousands of very talented artists that will sell their oil paintings for less than $1500. A real, hand made, one of a kind oil painting for the cost of a giclee.
- Giclees are ubiquitous. Objects of enduring value are not.
- Giclees are mass produced by machines. Fine art is hand-made by artists.
- One giclee based on our cost breakdown is $180. A calendar with a dozen beautiful Van Gogh photomechanical reproductions (essentially giclees) costs less than $15.00.
- A real art object, by an exceptional artist, is destined to become a treasured heirloom which possesses the potential to become an extremely valuable piece. A Giclee can become an heirloom possibly but extremely valuable? Never.
Copper Plate Method of Reproduction: Today some artists are placing images onto copper plates via photo transfer techniques then referring to them as fine original intaglio prints. The artist or gallery then charges the unsuspecting consumer grotesque amounts of money for what are essentially copies printed from copper plates. This is extremely misleading as these prints are not original etchings.
The nuances within the art business are plentiful and esoteric. Please consider Giclee Art Buyer Beware as a source of expert information when it comes to fine art and the printed reproduction thereof. Qualifications of the two proprietors of Giclee Art Buyer Beware are, but not limited to; 68 combined years experience in the art business since earning their advanced fine art degrees and both are charter members of the Taos Society of Etchers.
