The art of Serigraphy is well established, and owning one is an excellent art purchasing decision!

History: Serigraph combines the Latin word for “silk” seri, and the Greek word for “to write”, graphos. This ancient method of duplicating an original painting is one of the oldest forms of printing. Serigraphy can be traced as far back as 3000 BC when stencils were used to decorate Egyptian tombs and Greek mosaics. From 221-618 AD, stencils were used in China to produce images of Buddha. Japanese artists turned Serigraphy into a complex art by developing an intricate process wherein a piece of silk was stretched across a frame to serve as the carrier of hand-cut stencils. Serigraphy found its way to the west in the 15th century.

The development of screen printing was an evolutionary process shared by numerous unknown artisans in the past.

One who is known was Samuel Simson, who applied for, and was granted a patent in England in 1907 for a process of painting designs on silk. A few years after Simon’s patent, John Pilsworth of San Francisco developed a multicolor process of silk screening called screen printing. It was very much like the method used in the Middle Ages, but this process used a glue-like substance that filled the spaces in the fabric, creating a fixed stencil. The inks were forced through the uncoated areas with a stiff brush.

In the United States, Serigraphy took on the status of art in the 1930s when a group of artists experimented with the technique and subsequently began making “fine art” silk-screen prints and devised the term “Serigraph” to distinguish fine art from commercial screen printing. The first push was provided in the 1950s by Lutpold Domberger in Stuttgart, Germany. He offered his print studio to prominent artists associated with the Op Art movement. Respected artists like Josef Albers and Victor Vasarely combined their artistic visions with Domberger’s relentless pursuit of perfection as a screen-printer. They created superior, finely executed serigraphs that were sought by art galleries and collectors around the world. These efforts, combined with the experimentation of such artists as Jackson Pollack, helped to keep the screen-print medium in the forefront of printmaking.

This sparked an explosion of creativity in the field, which followed in the 1960s, with the next great creative push. The Pop Art movement, and Andy Warhol in particular, gave the medium its ultimate legitimacy in the fine arts. Other great artists of the 20th century who pioneered Serigraphy are Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Erte, Roy Lichtenstein, and more.

The method: Serigraphy (or silkscreen printing) is the romantic island in the big sea of original fine art reproduction since it is produced entirely by hand in close collaboration between the artist/publisher and Kolibri Art Studio, Inc atelier in Los Angeles. It is a time-honored technique, based on stenciling, for creating prints by hand. This classic method of fine-art reproduction involves labor- and material-intensive processes. It is expensive!

The serigrapher (or atelier) must recreate the entire work. It begins by determining how many colors are represented in the original painting. The print studio makes a separate screen for each color to be printed. If there are 70 colors printed, there must be 70 screens prepared created by a chromist (hand color separator artist); they are embedded into the fabric, and ink is passed through a squeegee on the canvas creating a texture on the surface.

Each hand-mixed color is printed with water-based inks then laid on large printing racks to dry. After approximately two to three hours, the next color can be printed. The print grows with every printing, becoming richer and more complete until the artist is satisfied. On an average day, 1 to 2 colors can be printed. At the finishing stage, a textured varnish is applied to simulate one-to-one the brush stroke of the artist. An edition of 300, with 70 colors, can take anywhere from 2 to 4 months to complete. Serigraphs are best known for vibrant colors and the artist/publisher can see and adjust the evolution of the colors through many proofing stages. The depth of color in the resulting fine art serigraph is almost luminous.

They are produced in limited editions to control their rarity; once an edition is completed, the drawings are destroyed, as are the screens.

This ensures that each print is truly a unique, limited-edition piece of art. In today’s age of automated technology and photomechanical reproduction, this kind of fine art printing, truly become a rarity. The amount of time, skill, and effort invested in creating a serigraph edition is reflected in the solid archival qualities and enjoy extreme longevity and are excellent heirloom pieces. 

At Christie’s art auctions in New York, serigraphs by living artists have sold as high as six figures USD prices. There are serigraphs, which have been accepted into prestigious art museum collections around the globe. 

Because of the meticulous handwork it takes to create a serigraph print edition, each print in the edition is an original. The process yields a fine artwork that increases the serigraph prints in value along with the original painting. The only thing that limits its value is the artist’s notoriety.

A fine art giclee print is a good investment when the cost of original artwork is too high. It is especially true for limited edition Giclee prints, which can even grow in value over time.

History: The word giclée was adopted in 1991 in Los Angeles by printmaker (or atelier) Jack Duganne for fine art digital prints made on inkjet printers.

The name was originally applied to fine art prints created on a modified Iris printer in a process invented in the late 1980s. He was an atelier working at Nash Editions of Manhattan Beach, California, formed by Grahan Nash, a British-American singer-songwriter and musician, a founding member in 1969 of the folk-rock supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

Duganne wanted a name for the new type of prints they were producing on a modified Iris printer, a large-format, high-resolution industrial prepress proofing inkjet printer on which the paper receiving the ink is attached to a rotating drum. Giclée is based on the French word gicleur, the French technical term for a jet or a nozzle, and the associated verb gicler (to squirt out). Une giclée (noun) means a spurt, squirt, spray of some liquid. Duganne settled on the noun giclée. It is widely used by artists, galleries, and museums to suggest high-quality printing form.

The method: The giclee art-prints are created to last. 100+ years of life is standard without the degradation of inks resulting in fading color. Giclée prints render deep, saturated colors and have a beautiful painting quality that retains minute detail along with subtle tints and blends. The prints are sometimes hand-embellished by the artist using paints and inks and even possibly things like a gold foil for a mixed media effect.

The production of a giclée print is not an automatic process. The human touch is critical in several phases of the giclée process. All giclée prints begin with an original piece of art scanned into the computer, where the scan is color corrected to ensure the digital image is as closely matched to the original as possible. That color correction requires an experienced eye and a gentle touch in making the proper adjustments in tone, contrast, sharpness, and other factors to produce a print that faithfully reproduces the original. In matching the computer image with the final print, a practiced eye must make adjustments for the best results. And last, the atelier itself needs steady attention to produce consistent, quality results. In short, the human hand is part of every step of the giclée craftsmanship.

Limited editions are usually signed by the artist, which can help increase their value, particularly if the artist is famous. Here at Kolibri Art Studio Europe, we only represent the most famous American pop artists!

On the left-hand lower corner of the impression is where you should place your edition number. These are two numbers that are divided by a slash and look like a fraction. The number below the slash is the size of the edition or how many prints are in the series, and the upper number is the number assigned. So, for example, if you have 25 identical prints and ready for numbering, you will number them 1/25 and the next 2/25 and so on.

Outside of numbering an edition, there are different marks that printmakers use to distinguish certain prints as being unique from the numbered edition:

A/P., P.A.,or E.A. (Artist Proof, Prueba de Artista or Epreuve d’artist)– If the artist is creating an edition for a dealer, the artist is able to keep a few prints for personal use from the edition. These are part of the edition and are kept to the same standard but are labeled A/P for Artist Proof, or more traditionally E.A. which is the French equivalent. The standard is to only have 10% of your edition be made up of these kinds of prints.

P/P, P.I. or E.I. (Printer’s Proof, Prueba de Impresor or Epreuve d’imprimeur) – These are proofs that the printmaker keeps, usually only one.

B.A.T. or R.T.P. (Bon à Tirer, Ready To Print) – A print signed with this mark (French for “good to pull”) means that this is the first print in the edition that meets the standards of the artist or printmaker and is used to measure the quality of the rest. These prints usually are the property of the studio that produced them.

T/P (Trial Proof) – These prints are made during the process of adjusting and developing the image. Even though technically they are unfinished prints, in the art market they are worth much more than the regularly editioned work because they reveal the process of the artist in creating the finished work.

S/P (State Proof) – This mark designates the print as a working proof and as being further worked on after the edition was created. Sometimes etchings will be assigned this mark as the printmaker experiments with acid exposure to the plate creating darker lines or variations in the design.

H.C. or NSF (Hors Commerce, Not-for-Sale) – French for “For Commercial Use”, these prints are sometimes unsigned by the artist and used to promote the edition and are supposedly not to be sold.

C/P (Cancellation Print) – After the edition has been printed, some artists and printmakers alter the original plate, block or stone so that it cannot be reprinted again. Usually, a line is drawn on the matrix across and then a print made as proof that the original has been changed and no more prints from it can be made.

U/P, U/S, V/E (Unique Print, Unique State, Variable Edition) – Prints labeled with these marks have unique feature that can’t be reproduced again. These kind of prints as well as, monoprints and monotypes may be labeled as 1/1 (edition of 1).

H.M.P, H.P.M or H.M.M. (Hand Modified Print, Hand Painted Print or Hand Modified Multiple) – Sometimes artists add features to a print by hand after the edition is created. These are most found in serigraph prints.

E.V. (Edition Varied) – Editions made on different paper or with printed with a different color ink are sometimes labeled with this mark. Some artists and printmakers choose to number these prints with Roman numerals instead of Arabic numerals Eg. I/X – X/X.

Please use extreme caution when handling the artwork.

• All works on canvas and paper are incredibly fragile and can damage easily due to extensive and poor handling.
• When artwork is in your possession, please examine the front and back for any irregularities. The back of the canvases should be checked for any indentations, etc.
• All prints should be checked before they are mounted/framed. 
• Please report any problems within 48 hours of possession.
• Would you please store the artwork flat in a temperature-controlled environment? Extreme weather conditions are dangerous for the artwork.

If there is any problem, including damage due to shipping or delivery, immediately report them to Kolibri Art Studio Europe Kft. Thank you for your attention and cooperation.

We will deliver your artwork personally and free of charge (within Hungary) to your desired location on the agreed date. If requested, our delivery staff will take care of the assembly/hanging for you.