There are many good reasons for an art lover to venture into the world of intaglio prints and other types of fine art prints. For one, art is a smart investment if the print-collecting bug has bitten you. But maybe you’re merely looking to bring art into your home — if so, prints and other art can help enhance your space while supporting your effort to tie an interior design together.
Making a print can be as straightforward as pressing one painted surface to another or as complex as triggering a chemical reaction to create an image. Intaglio is a broad term for the variety of techniques used to create images by incising a metal plate, either with a sharp instrument (engraving, drypoint and mezzotint) or with acid (etching, aquatint and photogravure).
In intaglio printmaking, after the artist incises the image, the plate is covered with ink then wiped clean, leaving pigment only in the marks that have been made on the plate. The plate is then covered with a piece of damp paper and run through a press to transfer the ink. Different intaglio techniques are often combined to create varying effects of line and tone.
OK, so what is the difference between a woodcut print and an intaglio print?
“It is the opposite of relief printing — woodcut, linoleum cut, letterpress, and rubber or metal stamping,” says Rhea Fontaine of Paulson Fontaine Press. “With relief printing, the raised areas of the printing surface are inked and printed, while the areas that have been cut away do not pick up the ink. Often these prints are made by hand.”
Find intaglio prints and other types of fine art prints for sale on 1stDibs.