Giclee... Huh? What is "Giclee"??

One of the terms used in the art world, particularly regarding digital fine-art, is "Giclee" (pronounced "Zee-clay").

Giclee comes from the French word "giclée" and means a spray or a spurt of liquid. The term is specifically used to indicate prints created typically using professional 8-Color to 12-Color ink-jet printers. Among the manufacturers of these printers are Epson, MacDermid Colorspan, & Hewlett-Packard. These modern technology printers are capable of producing incredibly detailed prints for both the fine art and photographic markets. Giclee prints are sometimes referred to as Iris prints, which are a printer pioneered by Iris Graphics, and now owned by Scitex.

I use a Scitex Iris printer to produce the prints on graffitipix.com.

The quality of the giclee print rivals traditional silver-halide and gelatin printing processes and is commonly found in museums, art galleries, and photographic galleries.

Numerous examples of giclee prints can be found in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Chelsea Galleries. Recent auctions of giclee prints have fetched $10,800 for Annie Leibovitz, $9,600 for Chuck Close, and $22,800 for Wolfgang Tillmans (April 23/24 2004, Photographs, New York, Phillips de Pury & Company.)

More about printing next post...

Molly