Giclee Printing

A Brief History

Artists have been appropriating commercial printing technology since it was first developed. When Durer produced etchings of his images, and used the prints as individual works of art, it was as revolutionary as Warhol or Lichtenstein appropriating color lithography to produce Pop Art in the early 1960s.

Iris Giclée technology was first developed as a proofing process for digital prepress applications, and remains the ultimate soft proof in the digital workflow. The high quality of the process was noticed in the mid 1980s by pioneers of Giclée printing like Graham Nash and Jon Cone, who then developed inks that expanded the color gamut and longevity of the print. Giclée printing became a viable fine arts medium because of their seminal work.

The list of artists using the Giclée technique is diverse, including artists who have always pioneered in the use of new printing technologies like Robert Rauschenburg, who produced Iris prints for his Guggenheim New York show in 1997, artists associated with painting such as Chuck Close, traditional printmakers like Vija Celmins, and photographers including William Wegman, Harry Callahan, Joel Meyerowitz, and Lee Friedlander. The attraction of a new medium that permits experimentation in the digital realm without compromising the quality of the resulting print is a powerful draw for many artists.

More..