The Contemporary Indian Art market is growing rapidly and collectors from within India and abroad have gone into overdrive acquiring works of established Senior Masters and the next rung of artists projected as Future Masters pushing the prices of collectible works of art to astronomical levels, also resulting in an acute shortage in the availability of good quality works for the discerning buyer. In such a scenario the only chance that any kind of collector of Contemporary Indian Art whether an amateur or an established serious sort with deep pockets would be able to land a Masterpiece is slim to none with an exception to a situation of engaging in feverishly competitive bidding in an art auction.

This being the ground reality it has left the collectors wanting for more. The solution is obvious, ‘Original Prints’, as these are regarded as ‘Multiple Originals’ by the artist and accepted as such by the art collecting and dealing community, also the visual experience afforded by a good quality ‘Multiple Original’ is no different from a ‘Singular Original’. The idea of Serigraphs in Signed, Limited Editions by established senior artists and promising young talent, was introduced with the driving factor being a need to provide collectors with an option to acquire works of art in the form of Fine Art Prints regarded as Multiple Originals alongside the Singular Original works.

Serigraph – History

The origin of this fine-art print technique is attributed to the ancient and simple stencil methods. However, early stencils have not survived and hence the exact date of the origin of this technique is difficult to ascertain. Documented details regarding the use and development of the stencil technique in China and Japan between A.D. 500 and A.D. 1000 are available. The Chinese and Japanese in the early days used this technique for printing textiles and the Japanese are credited with the earliest development of a screen matrix type which is a direct predecessor of the modern screen. They achieved this by using fine silk threads to create the screen matrix thus giving this technique another name by which it is more popularly known commercially i.e., Silk Screen Printing.

The use of silk screen printing was quite widespread by the early 20th century and its usage was mostly commercial due to its versatility in printing on various substrates and its flexibility to accommodate smaller print runs at very low costs.
Artist–Printmaker, Anthony Velonis played an important role around the year 1935 in getting the silk screen process noticed by the artist community as a medium of fine-art but met with limited success as the silk screen printing medium was perceived purely as a commercial technique rather than an artistic one.

It was then that Carl Zigrosser, curator of the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Arts felt the need to differentiate between artistic and commercial silk screen printing and introduced the term ‘Serigraph’ to be used for artistic and creative silkscreen work, this term being a combination of the Latin word ‘seri’ meaning ‘silk’ and the Greek word ‘graphos’ meaning ‘to write’.

This development of silkscreen prints is now known as ‘Serigraphs.’

So, what exactly is a Serigraph?

n : a print made using a stencil process in which an image or design is superimposed on a very fine mesh screen and printing ink is squeezed onto the printing surface through the area of the screen that is not covered by the stencil
n : A print made by the silk-screen process.

A Serigraph is a Fine Art Print which has been produced using the screen – printing method thus more precisely making it a Fine Art Screen Print.

There would be certain requirements for the screen prints to qualify as original Fine Art Screen Prints or ‘Serigraphs’, they would be:
• The artist alone has conceptualized and created the master image on which the print is based.
• The print is made either by the artist or as per his directions and under his supervision.
• The finished print is approved by the artist.
• The artist-printmaker usually prints a pre-determined and fixed number of multiples of the screen prints, thus making them into an ‘Edition’ of the ‘Serigraphs’. These Editions may be ‘Open’ or ‘Limited’ which as their names suggest mean that in ‘Open’ editions the artist-printmaker may ‘Restrike’ or print more of the same prints later but if printed as a ‘Limited Edition’, then it acts as a guarantee on the part of the artist-printmaker and publisher that the same images will never be printed again.

Serigraphs for Investment

As you all are aware that a Serigraph is one of the types of prints regarded as a Fine Art Print hence basically the rules of investing in serigraphs remain the same as Investing in Fine Art Prints. However, where serigraphs are concerned, lets highlight certain positive arguments in favour of ‘Serigraphs as an Investment’ as compared to other printmaking mediums without undermining the importance and relevance of the other mediums of Fine Art Prints.
• A Serigraph is the preferred printmaking medium for artist printmakers who are predominantly painters as this medium allows them to attain a heightened quality, feel and visual engagement level which would be similar to their paintings in comparison to any other fine art printmaking medium.
• Worldwide, it is an accepted fact that paintings are more sought after than any other medium in the field of visual fine arts, thereby making the case stronger for serigraphs as an alternative to paintings as they share a similar visual appeal especially in cases where the serigraphs have been printed with precision and with a strict focus on quality, again giving a leading edge to this printmaking medium.
• The market for serigraphs due to its instant appeal extends to all segments of the art collector community be they amateurs or connoisseurs unlike other printmaking mediums which may only be appreciated by the trained eye or the seasoned collector, thus widening its resale market and thereby leading to increased returns.

Based on these points in favour of serigraphs, one can safely conclude that they do have a considerable edge over other printmaking techniques with regard to the finished print and its overall demand which would inadvertently raise its price in higher multiples as compared to other Fine Art Prints.

Painted Rhythm collaborates with the Artists to Publish, Release and Distribute a complete Edition of such Fine Art Prints which are Signed by the Artist and Printed by him or under his Supervision in a Limited Edition exclusively for Painted Rhythm, thereby making available and accessible to art collectors, high quality, genuine works of art each accompanied with a Certificate of Authenticity through its Online and Offline Resources.

Contact us at: +91 98212-57569 (Ajay Veera) or art@paintedrhythmag.com and we can advise you based on the current art market and help you select an artwork that will be both loved by you as well as have a financial value in future.