Art Prints

Popartuk Knowledge Base

Definition of Art Print

A precise reproduction of an artist’s Original Painting which has captured the stunning and vibrant colours of the original Artwork.

What is a Print?

A print is a work of art that is created by instead of drawing directly onto paper; it is taken through an indirect transfer process. A print is therefore a work of art made up of ink on paper and existing in multiple examples. In order to create a print, artists begin the process by crafting a composition onto another surface and the transfer arise when a separate sheet of paper is placed into contact with the surface and its run through a printing press. One advantage of making a piece of artwork by printing is the fact that numerous impressions can be created as many sheets of paper can be sent through the printing process in the same way. The artist can therefore decide just how many copies of the artwork to make, this is known as editions.

About Lithography

Lithography was invented in 1798 by the German actor, Aloys Senefelder. However, lithography only became well known in the 1890’s with the colour prints composed by Pure Bonnard and Henri De Toulouse- Lautree. Lithography is created when images are carried onto a flat surface in the same way as crayon drawings or watercolours are done onto paper.

About Screen Printing

Screen-printing is a form of stencilling. During the 1930’s American artists began to use this form of printing, making artwork into screen-prints, similar to lithography however, screen prints did not come into fashion as such until the 1960’s when the so called ‘pop artists’ became very attracted to the bold colours and the general look of screen printing. One of the most famous and well known pop artists is Andy Warhol.