Francis Bacon Triptych

Born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1909, prominent British painter and printmaker Francis Bacon created controversial art until his death in 1992.

Despite the fact that he did not receive formal training, Bacon gained instantaneous recognition in 1945 after an exhibition at Lefevre Gallery in London that included his 1944 triptych Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion. Bacon's figures can be described as distorted, fleshy masses in anguish; these shocking and unsettling images are his representation of the evils and the devastation of the human condition. Bacon's oil paintings simultaneously repel and intrigue the viewer with their bold, grotesque figures. This paradox remains consistent with his prints, which he based on a selection of 35 of his own paintings dating from 1965 to 1991. Bacon worked with skilled printers to create his relatively small body of etchings and lithographs that total only about 40 editions.

In 2008 and 2009, a major retrospective of Bacon's paintings traveled to the Tate Britain, London, England (September 11, 2008–January 4, 2009), to the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain (February 3–April 19, 2009) and to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (May 20–August 16, 2009). Bacon's works are permanently part of public collections around the world, including the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway; Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Birmingham, England; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Modern Art, New York; and elsewhere.

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(Biography provided by Marlborough Graphics)

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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