Reproductions

What is A Giclée?

An archival quality fine art reproduction artwork, certified by the artist. Usually in Limited Edition print runs. May be on either high quality paper or canvas.

Giclée is a French word pronounced "jee-clay".

 

  Giclée Reproductions are beautiful archival quality art works, absolutely true to the original colours, and certified by the artist. Archival quality means that they are guaranteed to last, good enough for a museum or art gallery. They are guaranteed for 80 years and individually authorised with a certificate of authenticity from the artist. The reproduction is also often signed by the artist.

The traditional printing method produces inferior colour art copies on plain paper. These art "prints" usually never match the colour of the original artwork, and they often fade in sunlight very quickly. You may have seen old art prints that have all the yellow and red faded out of them, so the image only has mostly pale blue left.

The Giclée process is a relatively new technology that has taken the US and international art market by storm in the last decade. The original art work is photographed with a very high quality camera, and the image is then printed onto a high quality base (either canvas or paper), using many more colour inks than with traditional printing. The end result is colour matched by the artist to make sure that the reproduction is exactly what they intended.

The artwork image is printed onto either a special high quality artist canvas, or high quality paper such as very heavy 335gsm Hahnemuhle watercolour paper. If it is a canvas print, the canvas is then stretched over a normal timber stretcher frame and need not be framed, it can be hung on the wall for a lovely contemporary look. If it is a print on paper, then it is usually framed under glass, with a mat border in a complementing colour. Both surfaces are textured just like an original artwork's. The reproductions are very hard to tell from an original, unless you look very closely, with an expert eye.

The Giclée printing process is more expensive than traditional printing techniques, but short print runs are easier to do. Usually the reproductions are in a Limited Edition, meaning that there are only a fixed number of prints allowed from the original image (usually 100 or 500). This means that your artwork purchase is an investment, that can go up in price over the years. The artist signs a certificate for each reproduction, and every print in the limited edition is numbered. Make sure to see the signed certificate from the artist before accepting any copies.

Giclée prints are called Fine Art Reproductions because they are of the highest gallery quality and covered by an 80 year written guarantee. You can buy a beautiful reproduction of an original at a tiny fraction of the original price. Invest with confidence!