Investing in Fine Art Prints

BL, a budding Gen Z art afficionado, asked if the fine art print market is a good investment. A great question, and the answer is “YES!” for some types of prints created in select eras in certain styles (for example Pop Art is strong today). Let’s look at the world of prints, often called “multiples,” and see what sells NOW, as last month we saw top attendance and top dollars spent at three major print fairs.

Printmaking comes in many forms and is often a collaborative process between the artist and the printer. When printed in a sequence of the same image, this is called an edition (a numbered and limited series); most connoisseurs consider a limited-edition print an original work of art. Look for a fraction: 1/10 is the first strike in a series of 10, for example, and this is often handwritten in the margin. Look also for an original signature, not just a signature that is part of the image located “in the plate.” An “open” edition, on the other hand, is not a limited number of prints, and is not “numbered,” and is therefore never as valuable as a numbered limited-edition print. These open editions are  not usually signed by hand. Here are the artworld’s classic methods/mediums of printmaking:

A. Etching, engraving, woodcut, dry point, aquatint and mezzotint are “intaglio” prints, meaning an image/drawing/composition is incised in a surface (in copper for example), ink is applied directly to the incised surface, and the plate is pressed onto paper. The sunken deep lines “hold” the ink and with pressure create the image. An engraving/etching and a woodcut are typically an older style of printmaking associated with Old Master prints which are late 18^th century or earlier in the Western tradition; think Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt, and Francisco Goya.

B. Lithograph: A drawing made on a stone using a special ink; the stone is then washed with acid, which penetrates the areas not drawn upon. Rolling with printing ink, the ink “sticks” to the drawn parts, over which paper is pressed. David Hockney uses lithography extensively.

C. Screenprint or Serigraph: A reproduction of an image via a stencil (for example, a photograph such as those portraits made by Warhol). The “screen” is a screened frame that bears the reversed image. Serigraph is a lesser valued version of this process, used by Peter Max, for example.

The fine art print market is growing among younger buyers. Record attendance last month at NY’s International Fine Print Dealers Association Print Fair (21,000 visitors) occurred at the same time as the new Brooklyn and traditional Paris Fine Art Print Fairs. Auction houses saw younger buyers springing for affordable prints (especially in the Pop Art style) in online bidding. 20 to 40-year-old buyers are not only buying ultra-contemporary works but classic prints by Modern Masters (artists working 1920-1970s) such as Miró, Baldessari, and Hockney. My first print fair in the mid-1980s was almost exclusively showing Old Master etchings and engravings; now Old Master prints capture only 25% of the market. 

One dealer at the New York Print Fair reported that a Gen Z buyer had admired his great aunt’s classic Miró collection as a teen, vowing to buy his own Miro when he came of age. Modern Master prints are the best sellers across the market (the classics: Miro, Picasso, Hockney). Second best sellers are contemporary prints (meaning the works of the last 40 years), and the lesser sellers are Old Master prints, except Rembrandts, which have retained their strength in the market. The top selling artist in the print category? Andy Warhol, from 2015-24, with total sales of $501 million. After Warhol, top artists in this category are Picasso, Banksy, and Jeff Koons, as well as the big bold iconic images by Lichtenstein and the colorfully accessible work of David Hockney.

BL, if money were no object, I would look into Lichtenstein’s “Nude” series (1994) and Warhol’s “Endangered Species” Series (1983). Another name to purchase? George Condo. His surreal work will put you in mind of Salvador Dali and his cubist works in mind of Picasso. Condo is capitalizing on icons, as only a true Pop artist would.

Finally, BL; to purchase affordably, check out museum fundraisers, notable museums often commission a printmaker to create an edition, sold to raise funds. These prints are typically works by important mid-career living artists, benefitting the museum and their reputation at the same time. Note that a limited “run” (a small edition of under, say 250) will increase in value.