Giclee (zhee-clay) a French term,
in this case meaning "spray of ink". Giclee is recognized
in the art print catagory of lithographs and serigraphs and is considered
the world's best technique for reproducing original works of art,
and for printing digitally created art and fine art photography.
With the advent of the Giclee, the
art of fine art printing has become even more precise. Because no
screens are used, the prints have more apparent resolution than
lithographs. The dynamic color range is the serigraph. In the Giclee
process, a fine stream of ink, more than four million droplets per
second, is sprayed on to archival art paper or canvas. The effect
is similar to an airbrush technique but much finer. Each piece is
carefully hand mounted on to a drum which rotates during the printing.
Exact calculations of hue, value, and density direct in to four
nozzles. This produces a combination of 512 chromatic change (with
over 3 million colors possible) of highly saturated, permanent,
nontoxic based ink. The artist's color approval and input are essential
for creating the final custom setting for the edition, which is
printed on watercolor paper, the same as the original.
The latest advancements in the Giclee
process are the work of a sophisticated fine art production facility
that utilizes the highest resolution digital printers. This edition
of fine art prints is a collaboration between the artist and a specially
trained printing craftsman. They have extended the boundaries of
current technology, customizing their equipment, designing new programs,
and offering protective coatings to ensure quality standards for
the collector. Displaying a full color spectrum, Giclee prints capture
every nuance of an original painting, be it watercolor, oil, or
acrylic. They have gained wide acceptance from artists such artists
as David Hockney and Robert Rauschenburg, to major institutions
like the Chicago Art Institute, the Los Angeles County Museum, British
Art Museum, Metropolitan Museum, National Gallery of Art, and numerous
others.
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