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Abstract Expressionism

A school of painting that flourished after World War II until the early 1960s, characterized by the view that art is nonrepresentational and chiefly improvisational.

Abstract Expressionism combines the principles of Abstract Art and Expressionism, by enabling the subconscious instincts to work, a theory the Surrealists first started. As a result of the subconscious principle, the artist creates shapes automatically with small amounts of paint he or she drips onto the canvas, rather than deciding to control the brush as in conscious painting endeavors. Monet's last works (while he was partially blind) show this type of painting. He tried to find an outlet for his optical sensations.
Acid-Free

Acid-free paper or canvas has been treated to neutralize its natural acidity in order to protect fine art and photographic prints from discoloration and deterioration.
Animation Cel
A clear plastic sheet onto which a drawing is transferred. Colored paints are applied to the reverse side. One or more cels may be placed over a painted background, which serves as a setting for the action. In animated movies and cartoons, twenty-four to thirty cels are required for each second of screen time.
Aquatint
A printing technique capable of producing unlimited tonal gradations to re-create the broad flat tints of ink wash or watercolor drawings. This is achieved by etching microscopic cracks and pits into the image on a master plate, typically made of copper or zinc. Spanish artist Goya used this technique.
Artists Proof, A/P
A small group of artworks set aside from an edition for an artist's or publisher's use. Typically some of the first prints pulled from a limited edition of artworks, they are marked as an A.P. and sometimes left unnumbered. Artist's proofs generally draw a higher price than other impressions.
Canvas Transfer
A canvas transfer is a print or poster image that has been transferred and fixed to a canvas surface. The result is a piece of printed art that has the appearance of an original canvas painting without the higher cost usually associated with original artwork.
Collotype
A photomechanical process. The preparation of a plate by coating a metal surface with light-sensitive gelatin. A photographic negative is placed on the surface and the two are exposed to light. The gelatin dries and hardens in proportion to the strength of the light transmitted through the negative. Collotypes are primarily lithographs and are especially good for reproducing watercolors, lithographs, drawings, and photographs. Also called photo gelatin print or heliotype.
Cubism
A non-objective school of painting and sculpture developed in Paris in the early 20th century, characterized by the reduction and fragmentation of natural forms into abstract, often geometric structures usually rendered as a set of discrete planes. Practiced by many, including the Russian culture. Leading figures were Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso.
Drypoint
Printing technique of intaglio engraving in which a hard, steel needle incises lines on a metal plate, creating a burr that yields a characteristically soft and velvety line in the final print.
Engraving
Printing technique in which an intaglio image is produced by cutting a metal plate or box directly with a sharp engraving tool. The incised lines are inked and printed with heavy pressure.
Etching
An intaglio process in which an image is scratched through an acid resistant coating on a metal plate. The plate is then dipped in acid, which eats into the exposed surface
Giclée
Giclée (pronounced "zhee-clay") is a French word meaning "a spraying of ink". With the advent of giclée, the art of reproducing fine art has become even more precise. Giclée's have the highest apparent resolution available today -- as high as 1,800 dpi. In addition, since no screens are used, the prints have a higher apparent resolution than lithographs and a color range that exceeds that of serigraphy. Displaying a full color spectrum, giclée prints capture every nuance of an original and have gained wide acceptance from artists and galleries throughout the world.

The patented printing technology utilizes microscopically fine droplets of ink to form the image. A print can consist of nearly 20 billion ink droplets. The microscopic droplets of ink vary in sizes (approximately the size of a red blood cell) and density. This unique patented feature produces a near continuous tone image, smoother gradation between tones, and a more finely differentiated color palette.

Hors d'Commerce Proof (HC)
Print identical to the edition print intended to be used as samples to show to dealers and galleries. These proofs may or may not be signed by the artist.
Intaglio
The process of incising a design beneath the surface of a metal or stone. Plates are inked only in the etched depressions on the plates and then the plate surface is wiped clean. The ink is then transferred onto the paper through an etching press. The reverse of this process is known as relief printing.
Limited Edition
A limited edition is a series of identical artworks, which are limited to a one-time printing of a certain number of pieces. The artist determines the size of the edition, and usually signs and numbers each individual piece.
Lithograph
A lithograph is a printing technique based on the principle that oil and water do not mix. Using oil-based ink or a grease crayon, an image is drawn on a flat stone or metal plate. Water is applied to the surface and is repelled by the areas where oil-based images have been drawn. The entire surface is then coated with an oil-based ink that adheres only to the areas drawn in oil, ink, or crayon. The image is then printed on paper. Lithography became a popular printing technique because thousands of exact replicas could be made that were like drawings on paper, without degradation of the image.
Mixed Media
Descriptive of art that employs more than one medium – e.g., a work that combines paint, natural materials (wood, pebbles, bones), and man made items (glass, plastic, metals) into a single image or piece of art.
Moulding
Moulding is the wood or metal material used for framing an artwork. We only use the finest quality mouldings, just as you would find in traditional fine framing stores.
Offset Lithography
A special photo-mechanical technique in which the image to be printed is transferred to the negative plates and printed onto paper. Offset lithography is very well adapted to color printing.
Print Proofs Types
Proofs are prints authorized by the artist in addition to the limited signed and numbered edition. The total size of an art edition consists of the signed and numbered prints plus all outstanding proofs. If a set of proofs consists of more than one print, numbers are inscribed to indicate the number of the prints within the total number of the particular type of proof, (e.g., AP 5/20 means the fifth print in a set of twenty identical prints authorized as artist proofs). Proofs are generally signed by the artist as validation of the prints.
Relief
All printing processes in which the non-printing areas of the block or plate are carved, engraved or etched away. Inks are applied onto the projected surface and transferred onto the paper. The reverse process is known as intaglio printing.
Remarque
Additional enhancements by the artist on some or all of the final prints within an edition.
S/N (Signed and Numbered)
S/N is a symbol used to indicate that a limited edition artwork has been signed and numbered by the artist.
Sculpture

Sculptures are either in the round or in relief and refer to an artist's work done in three dimensions. Sculptures can be carved; they can also be created from nothing but the raw materials by molding an artwork from clay as in a relief. Carving and molding are two independent, yet complimentary, forms of sculpture.

Direct carving is thought by some to be a higher form of sculpture than molding; however, many fine sculptures have been achieved by the process of molding either clay or wax initially, with the final work being transferred to bronze, plaster, lead or stone.

In sculpture the three-dimensional aspect is very important.
Serigraph
A serigraph is an original silk-screen color print. Serigraphy (or silk screening) is a stencil process in which ink is forced onto the material to be printed through the meshes of a silk or organdy screen, which has been prepared to have pervious printing areas and impervious non printing areas.
Serigraphy (Silk-screen)
A printing technique that makes use of a squeegee to force ink directly onto a piece of paper or canvas through a stencil creating an image on a screen of silk or other fine fabric with an impermeable substance. Serigraphy differs from most other printing in that its color areas are paint films rather than printing ink stains.
Woodcut
Printing technique in which the printing surface has been carved from a block of wood. The traditional wood block is seasoned hardwood such as apple, beech or sycamore. Woodcut is one of the oldest forms of printing dating back to the 12th century.