DIGITAL ARTMAKING: Exploring the artfulness of giclée
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"Home from School"
Terry Ananny, "Home from School," 2002, giclée on canvas, edition of 250 numbered prints, 20" x 24".
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"Cathedral Mountain"
Martin Kaspers, "Cathedral Mountain," 2002, giclée on canvas, edition of 100 numbered prints, 38" x 50".
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"Moon Dance"
Martin Kaspers, "Moon Dance," 2001, giclée on canvas, edition of 50 numbered prints, 34" x40".
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"Crowfoot Glacier"
Martin Kaspers, "Crowfoot Glacier," 2002, giclée on canvas, edition of 100 numbered prints, 38" x 88".
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"Home from School"
Terry Ananny, "Home from School," 2002, giclée on canvas, edition of 250 numbered prints, 20" x 24".
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"Student Legacy"
Sherwin Tsang, "Student Legacy," 1999, giclée on canvas, 12" x 12" x 2".
DIGITAL ARTMAKING
Exploring the artfulness of giclée
By Monique Westra
Digital technology has made tremendous inroads into the world of fine art, revolutionizing the way art can be created, produced and marketed. One form of digital art that is rapidly gaining attention among artists and consumers is giclée.
A giclée (pronounced jee-clay) is an image that has been digitally printed onto a conventional fine art support such as watercolour paper or canvas. Its extraordinary precision and resolution is made possible by the use of sophisticated and very expensive wide-format inkjet printers that can output a continuous stream of ink, propelling about four million microscopic squirts of dye per second from tiny nozzles the size of a follicle of hair. This results in a staggeringly wide gamut of up to 16 million colours. The giclée image is impressive in its depth, resolution and colour. Its surface texture is smooth and consistent. But as the popularity of such computer-based art making grows, so does the debate over questions of originality and authenticity.
Giclées as reproductions
The most common manifestation of the giclée is as a reproduction, issued in limited editions. In this case, the giclée is a copy, albeit of stunning verisimilitude, but a copy nonetheless. The original work is always in another medium, say oil or acrylic on canvas, which is converted into a digital format. Next, the colours are meticulously calibrated to match the original, and then printed onto canvas.
A giclée reproduction is significantly and qualitatively different from mass-produced reproductions like those of Robert Bateman, which are issued by the tens of thousands and are photo-mechanically created copies of an original painting. It is here that one enters murky territory. The tell-tale tiny dots, the double signatures and the huge editions all render meaningless their accompanying “Certificates of Authenticity.” These are posters. They have no intrinsic value as artworks. By comparison, a higher quality reproduction giclée on canvas is issued in editions that are limited to a few hundred copies at most. Nevertheless, the “Certificate of Authenticity” that comes with a giclée does not validate it as an original—it is still a copy.
One type of reproduction, called a canvas transfer, superficially resembles the giclée. It is based on a reproduction, not on an original. The emulsion from a reproduction like a poster is lifted and transferred onto a canvas support. Generally, canvas transfers are not issued in limited editions.
There is nothing intrinsically wrong with the idea of a reproduction and indeed it can bring the work of an artist into the homes and offices of many people who could never afford to buy the original work. A framed giclée reproduction looks great and it comes at a fraction of the cost of the original that it so uncannily mimics. Christopher Talbot, owner of Mixed Emotions, a Calgary gallery that specializes in giclées, says, “I am trying to put art into people’s hands at prices that make sense.” In this gallery, all reproduction giclées are done from original works of art by Canadian and Australian artists. This ensures much better quality than, for example, a giclée done after a reproduction, which is a copy of a copy.
Giclées as original fine art
A giclée can be considered original fine art, comparable to printmaking, when it contributes a new image to the world. In this case, the image originates not as a separate physical entity such as an oil painting that is copied, but as a digital file. The creation of the image is intricately and irrevocably enmeshed in the computer which is a tool for the artist, an enabler of conceptualization. For example, in a photographically based giclée, the slide or print is the start, not the end of the creative process in which the original photograph is manipulated and altered within the computer in software programs such as Photoshop. Whatever its source, in nature or in the imagination of the artist, the art is conceived, gestated and born through the computer. The final image is actualized, given physical form, through the use of an inkjet printer, output as a digital print on paper or as a giclée on canvas.
Giclées and fine art prints
A giclée can be a one-of-a-kind, unique image or created in multiples which are issued, like fine art prints, in limited editions. However, there are significant distinctions between giclées and traditional fine art printmaking, such as etching, lithography and silkscreen to name only a few. The most noteworthy difference is that a giclée is produced by a computer, whereas all fine art prints are handmade: it is usually the artist (often with an artist/technician) who works the plate or litho stone; who manually applies the ink to its surface; and who puts the paper through the press. Each colour in a fine art print is applied separately and the process is repeated as many times as there are colours in the print, whereas all the colours in a giclée are squirted out of the inkjet printer at the same time. Some artists, like Walter Jule, also combine different printmaking techniques in a single image. This means that the process of creating one print goes through many steps, each of which engages the eye and hand of the artist directly. Using varied techniques to enrich the surface and visual complexity of a print introduces an element of chance. So, the precise appearance of a print that is the result of a complex, multi-tiered process is not known in advance of the actual printing. By contrast, a giclée image, complete in every minute detail, can be seen in its digital, virtual form on a computer monitor before it is ever materialized on paper or canvas.
Another difference to be noted is that, in printmaking, the entire edition is hand-pulled in the same time frame, in one day or over the course of several days or weeks. But, in the case of digital prints and giclées, only a very small percentage of the edition is produced at any given time because with a digital file, more can be printed at any point in the future. Furthermore, they can be printed in different sizes and tints. Digital art is art-on-demand.
Another critical difference concerns the notion of the limited edition, which has a direct bearing on the art market, which values rarity. In traditional printmaking, like etching, for example–the plate is cancelled or destroyed, making it physically impossible to make any more prints after the initial run. For digital prints and giclées, there is no plate—the “original” is locked onto a CD, preserved as a digital file, which is immortal. Only the integrity of the artist (and a leap of faith on the part of the consumer) ensures that the edition will not exceed its limit.
In the end, it is up to the consumer to decide what aspects of art making they value most. The important thing for every art buyer is to make informed choices.
OPINION
“I think giclée is strictly reproduction if it is imitating fine art. To my mind, giclée is definitely not a printmaking technique. Printmakers physically make their own prints. At each phase, there is human involvement. Printmaking is labour-intensive and requires a lot of technical expertise. Printmakers choose their medium because of a love of the surface and the unique way that materials behave on the paper. They love it precisely because it doesn’t imitate a painting or a drawing.”
--Isabelle Hunt-Johnson, painter
OPINION
“Digital is a natural extension of printmaking just as photo-mechanical processes were in the 1960s and ‘70s. Although digital has been accepted with open arms, I think artists should realize that no technology is neutral; each is driven by its own agenda and each so-called advance redefines earlier technologies. I get the feeling a lot of artists are rushing to their software because digital doesn’t have a tradition just yet so, unlike photography, it offers artists a kind of clean slate option where they can’t be nailed for producing a bad so and so. This won’t last long though and then we will see a rush to something else—this has always been true, it just looks a little sillier speeded up.”
--Walter Jule, printmaker
OPINION
“Early photographs were initially used to document events, but photography has developed into its own recognized art form. It's simply the process. The art-making potential of the giclée is in the hands of the artist. However, a critical difference is when this process is used merely as a method of reproduction.”
--Glenda Hess, Image 54 Gallery.
OPINION
“Original prints” are all handmade. The bottom line is that giclées are reproductions; it’s just a fancy new way of doing them. But even as reproductions they are substandard: they are rarely the exact size as the originals, the canvas is very thin and it is not archival. The inks are vulnerable to water. If you want a reproduction, an off-set lithograph in an edition of 500 or less is a much better buy. At least, they are done on archival paper, their inks are permanent, the plates are destroyed and they will last far longer than giclées. My final word is: Buyer-beware.”
--E. Alan Garrett, printmaker