Luigi Kasimir Fleet Street

Alois Heinrich “Luigi” Kasimir (Austrian, 1881-1962) was born on April 18, 1881 in Ptuj, Austria (today Slovenia) then a part of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. He may have inherited his talent from his ancestors; his grandfather was a painter and a poet, and his father, an officer in the Habsburg army, who later became a professional painter. Kasimir attended the Vienna Academy of Art where he studied under Willhelm Unger, who introduced him to the technique of the color etching, and also to his future wife, the artist Tanna Hoernes. Kasimir was among the early practitioners of the multi-plate color etching. Before this, prints were usually hand-colored with the color being applied in a casual, haphazard manner. Kasimir would first create a sketch—usually in pastel. He then transferred the design on as many as four to six plates, printing one after the other and applying the color to the plate - all done by hand. Although Luigi Kasimir is mainly famous for his etchings, but he also produced some oil painting, as well as some pastels. One of his favorite genres was the landscape. He demonstrated a predisposition for monuments, street scenes, and tourist landmarks. He depicted places from all over Europe, mainly Italy, Austria, and Germany. He also travelled to the United States to do a series of etchings of famous sights ranging from urban landmarks such as New York skyscrapers to natural wonders like California’s Yosemite Valley. Kasimir designed a bookplate for Sigmund Freud, who also hung an etching of the Roman Forum by Kasimir in his consulting room. Kasimir’s wife, Tanna and their son Robert worked in a similar style. Luigi Kasimir died in 1962 in Grinzing, a suburb of Vienna, Austria

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.)

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