Notions of Original, Print and Poster

With the mass production of prints and posters - especially the glossy formats churned out on an industrial scale in the later half of the -20th century , these 2 words have often become synonomous in the popular culture with reproduction.
  • Large format is original , small format a continuing "tourist" re-edition by Perrier
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  • How many editions , were they done contempory to Avendon's creation.
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  • Original Villemot , but just a panel of a larger poster
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    Within the art market and museum world however the word print has remained firmly defined as an original art form. The first question is what art form or technique.

    Is it a woodcut, lithograph etching , mezzotint or even now digital image; and secondly who did it? Photography could too be included in the " print " domain, but now seems to have its own independent classification.

    All of these techniques of creating multiple images mechanically often imply the collaboration of an artist with a printing technician.
    Two ways of gauging the originality are firstly the artist's input and control of the printing process and secondly that the image be a new creation not a mere representation of a painting or known image. This leads to a definition of originality that is not related to the fact that prints are multiplies of the same image, uniqueness in not a criteria, original and unique( a single image) are not conflicting terms.
  • A Mourlot litho. interpretation of Munch's famous woodcut.
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  • Warhol , but posterised by Chanel 20 years after its creation?
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    Posters have always been produced in large numbers and thus to decide whether they are original you may ask the two basic questions

    1. Have they been made in a context where an artist has created an original image.
    2. worked in tandem with a printer to achieve a desired printed result.

    In the world of posters one hears a lot of talk of noble stone lithography but I believe that the simple direct transfer of stone to paper became obsolete even prior to the first world war. In the ever evolving industrial world of printing sophisticated techniques of photo-transfer onto stone or zinc were present very early*(1) This is not to say that the latter techniques are less 'original'.

    With the amount of , time effort and money spent on Advertising campaigns , beauty and quality can be present in posters made right throughout the 20th Century. No one denies that millions of kilometres of paper have been wasted to produce pulp art-fiction posters with no artistitic merit or originality. But it just as apparent that many graphic creators have put body and soul into the creation of beautiful ORIGINAL POSTERS.. that when they leave the contempary arena ( 10 years?) , they classify themselves as ORIGINAL VINTAGE POSTERS.
  • Razzia Pasta , created for your kitchen , not for the billboard.
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  • An original version printed by Publicis or the Dutch one printed by Nobody knows who?
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    * (1)To quote Alain Weill , page 9 , " 100 ans d'affiches des Music Halls parisiens" Chene 1977. No 57. Folies Bergeres-La Revue. 1902. " Le procede utilise , comme indique sur le document , est une photolithographie , procede qui allait connaitre la vogue par la suite mais que les imprimeurs comme Bataille ou Wall appliquaient des cette epoque : au lieu d'avoir a dessiner sur la pierre , il suffisait de la sensibiliser et d'utiliser une photographie , d'ou gain de temps et d'economie!"