Democratising Fine Art Through Print

In many ways, fine art can be seen as elitist, both in the academic and as a commodity. The former because the language surrounding it is often seen as impenetrable without having an education in an aesthetic subject. The latter, because it is thought that beautiful artwork is financially unattainable when the wider headlines suggest prices in the thousands to millions to acquire original pieces.

In reality, almost every UK city has a gallery or free art museum that anyone can visit if they are so inclined - so what is causing the barriers?

The perception of clinical white walled spaces of the traditional gallery set up could be an intimidating experience, with discomfort leading to disengagement. This is not the intention of the artwork, nor the gallery, but is ingrained as the perceived ‘make-up’ of an exhibition space for many who are new to art and the art market.

So a subject matter that should evoke feeling and expression might feel out of reach, but Woolwich Contemporary are pushing print as the democratic art form, where printmaking becomes the instrument in creating an individual art experience for everyone.

We don’t use the term ‘democratic’ in the sense of dumbing down a subject to make it more palatable to more people - more that we are using original print as an accessible and readable ‘way in ‘ to discovering more about fine art, it’s processes and how to start a collection.

The multiple methodologies of print create a platform for techniques and ‘art speak’ which can be discovered subsequently through other art forms. The nature of editioning, such as in the invention of the printing press in the Renaissance period, provides a wider circulation of original art by famous names; and the relative price points create an opportunity to purchase big name artists or fit original artwork into any budget.

Historically, many creatives in the past couldn’t afford to buy paintings or sculptural pieces from their peers, and instead, artists began to trade and deal in the more accessibly-priced prints, leading to its pet name as the “makers’ medium”.

So why print? Well, put simply, with the nature of editioning, the laborious processes and intricate techniques of printmaking pay off with multiple images, and no need to remake the design (or matrix). With more available (to a limited edition number), the price of purchase can be relatively lower to other fine art mediums. That’s not to say that there aren’t one-off prints (monotypes), or high priced works, but the economic viability of print opens up a world of what has been seen as a luxury commodity, to a wider public.

Perhaps through an association with commercialisation, and the misunderstanding that a print is a ‘reproduction’, printmaking has long been deemed a ‘lesser’ art form.

But it shouldn’t be; printmaking is a hugely diverse medium, with intricate technical processes that can arguably require more skill and knowledge of the craft than other fine art techniques. Original yet multiple, precise yet expressive, used in both fine art and commercial contexts - printmaking has the incredible versatility and adaptability that no other medium possesses. And not just between each printmaking method, which requires a different skill set entirely, but even within the editions themselves. How the artist applies the pressure, paper or paint can dramatically alter the finished product and evoke different reactions, reinforcing the originality of each piece, despite common misconceptions.

As well as being a more democratic art form for a collector, printmaking evens the playing field for the artists too. Many printmakers work from a communal press in a shared studio space, creating a wonderful community of artists, there to inspire, support and critique one another.

In summary, printmaking challenges an assumption that art is out of reach for everyone but the wealthy. It creates an accessible platform for both artists and collectors. Not only can you use print to inform your knowledge of techniques, processes and its relationship with other artforms, or within an artists’ overall practise; it provides an accessible starting point to learn how to talk about work, experiment with artists, or indeed introduce work by a well-known names in to your collection at a lower price point to other mediums.

From our young printmakers and their families at the Young London Print Prize, and reinterpreting approaches to engaging with fine art through our interior and lifestyle angles, to working within any budget with curated price points and payment plans, and pushing the boundaries of print with large scale and interactive commissions, our purpose at WCPF is to use print as a tool, a ‘way in’ for each and every person to curate their own fine art experience.