I read an article this week about an art dealer in New York who has been charged with fooling two commercial art galleries into buying 63 forged works of art, worth over £18m ($30m).
Obviously, this constitutes fraud and is a serious crime in its own right—but there is more behind the uproar this story has provoked. The art market depends on the notion that great artists are inimitable; how else could they justify the astronomical prices?
Forgeries undermine this belief, and the fury they elicit raises the question of what people are actually paying for, when they fork out for an original piece of art. If it was just the beauty of the piece that attracted them, then an artfully created forgery would be just as good as the original. Clearly this is not the case; what makes the art so desirable (and allows it to be priced so highly) is the mostly the fact that other people cannot afford them. It is as much a statement about the person’s affluence as it is a decoration on the wall.
Yet this culture in the art world may be beginning to change. A new generation of young art enthusiasts are demanding the beauty, originality and historic significance of famous works of art, at an affordable price tag. This is where the print industry comes in, doing its bit towards renewing the pleasure in art for its own sake, rather than as a status symbol.
A growing trend in fine art printing using wide-format digital machines is spreading around the UK, both as a diversification avenue for commercial printers and sign-makers, and as an additional source of income for art galleries and artists. As colour accuracy improves, and technology is developed to imitate the finest details and brush strokes, fine art prints are becoming more and more appealing—and print technology is playing a vital part in delivering masterpieces to the masses.