Art & Object Fall Fair 2024

BEYOND THE BASICS BY JENNIFER DASAL

Celebrated printmaker Sandro Bracchitta at work. WIKIPEDIA / PHOTO: DANCAS77

Collecting Multiples

FOR COLLECTORS, PRINTS AND OTHER MULTIPLES ARE ARTISTICALLY REWARDING AND FINANCIALLY ACCESSIBLE.

B efore he had reached the age of 30, Albrecht Dürer (1471 1528) did something that some of his fellow artists considered some what odd: Dürer, a highly skilled paint er, devoted a significant portion of his artistic output not to the lucrative cre ation of paintings but to the making of multiples—woodcuts and engravings intended not as versions of paintings or illustrations for books but to be col lected and enjoyed as works of art in their own right. From Dürer down to today, the appe tite for prints and other kinds of mul

tiple artworks has never dissipated. In the last decade, the market for multi ples has actually expanded, thanks in part to the popularity of artists such as Takashi Murakami, Shepard Fairey, and Banksy, all of whom have followed in Andy Warhol’s multiple-producing foot steps. Combined with the recent explo sion of digital art in the form of NFTs, it might be fair to suggest that there has never been a better time for both cre ator and collector to dive into the mul tifarious world of multiples. However, questions often arise, par ticularly among beginning collectors:

What exactly is a multiple? Are multi ples and prints the same thing? How are multiples valued? And, most crucially, why and how should I add multiples to my collection? Multiples, Prints, and Copies First, some definitions, as they are essential to understanding this fasci nating and sometimes confusing sector of the art market. When curators and collectors speak about multiples, they are referring to individual works of art designed to be produced in several itera tions. And multiples need not be prints.

33

Fall 2024 | Art&Object