Al Hirschfeld Barbra Streisand

For nearly 70 years, Al Hirschfeld created iconic caricatures of theater, film and television celebrities, capturing moments in time and documenting U.S. entertainment history in the process. Art historian Lloyd Goodrich called Hirschfeld “one of the few masters of graphic humor.” "New York Times" art critic John Russell dubbed him “the Fred Astaire of pen and ink.” Brendan Gill of "The New Yorker" stated, “To be a star on Broadway is to be drawn by Hirschfeld.” And many performers believed that, regardless of any other accolades they might achieve, “if Al Hirschfeld hasn’t drawn you, you don’t exist.” Hirschfeld began his career as a political cartoonist and became a theater caricaturist for "The New York Times" in 1925. He began creating his pure line drawings on a trip to Bali in the 1930s, and, over the course of his career, mastered the technique of using lines to capture the spirit and personality of his subjects. Hidden in each drawing is his daughter’s name, Nina, and so many people became obsessed with finding all of the Nina’s, that he developed a system of noting the number of Nina’s in each work next to his signature. In addition to "The New Yorker" and "The New York Times," Hirschfeld’s drawings appeared on playbills and posters as well as in advertisements. As a result of his work, he earned two Tony awards for lifetime achievement in theater and had a Broadway theater renamed in his honor.

Decorating with fine art prints — whether they’re figurative prints, abstract prints or another variety — has always been a practical way of bringing a space to life as well as bringing works by an artist you love into your home.

Pursued in the 1960s and ’70s, largely by Pop artists drawn to its associations with mass production, advertising, packaging and seriality, as well as those challenging the primacy of the Abstract Expressionist brushstroke, printmaking was embraced in the 1980s by painters and conceptual artists ranging from David Salle and Elizabeth Murray to Adrian Piper and Sherrie Levine.

Printmaking is the transfer of an image from one surface to another. An artist takes a material like stone, metal, wood or wax, carves, incises, draws or otherwise marks it with an image, inks or paints it and then transfers the image to a piece of paper or other material.

Fine art prints are frequently confused with their more commercial counterparts. After all, our closest connection to the printed image is through mass-produced newspapers, magazines and books, and many people don’t realize that even though prints are editions, they start with an original image created by an artist with the intent of reproducing it in a small batch. Fine art prints are created in strictly limited editions — 20 or 30 or maybe 50 — and are always based on an image created specifically to be made into an edition.

Many people think of revered Dutch artist Rembrandt as a painter but may not know that he was a printmaker as well. His prints have been preserved in time along with the work of other celebrated printmakers such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol. These fine art prints are still highly sought after by collectors.

“It’s another tool in the artist’s toolbox, just like painting or sculpture or anything else that an artist uses in the service of mark making or expressing him- or herself,” says International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) vice president Betsy Senior, of New York’s Betsy Senior Fine Art, Inc.

Because artist’s editions tend to be more affordable and available than his or her unique works, they’re more accessible and can be a great opportunity to bring a variety of colors, textures and shapes into a space.

For tight corners, select small fine art prints as opposed to the oversized bold piece you’ll hang as a focal point in the dining area. But be careful not to choose something that is too big for your space. And feel free to lean into it if need be — not every work needs picture-hanging hooks. Leaning a larger fine art print against the wall behind a bookcase can add a stylish installation-type dynamic to your living room. (Read more about how to arrange wall art here.)

Find fine art prints for sale on 1stDibs today.