Editions ... again!

Dear Reader,

Do you feel abandoned? With the swing of life from 2008 to 2009, it seems like the winter hibernation of the art world and the holidays is finally over, as streets and galleries come back to life with traffic. Actually, during the break, we were out and about, working the art life, attending events (parties!), exhibitions around town and reading about economic reverberations everywhere, especially as they concern the art market.

I promised to discuss editions in an earlier blog, and to be honest, it's really dry stuff, but there are some basics that need to be understood by the beginner art collector - so here we go:

Editions are an easy way for the artist to introduce his work to a developing art market, and for novice collectors to invest in artworks. By definition, an edition is a closed set of copies of a particular work. We hear references to editions in terms of prints and books, as limited or unlimited sets. A limited edition is closed in terms of numbers of copies, for example, an artwork will be limited to 9 editions, or 9 copies; each edition of the artwork will be numbered in chronological order, as created, from 1 to 9; and marked consecutively 1/9 to show the first work of an edition of nine works. Editions can range from as few as 2 to whatever number the artist decides to choose, and generally, depending on the artist's reputation and the skill level of the artwork, the edition number of the work will have a direct impact on the value (price) of individual works. An unlimited edition, is a set of works that will have unlimited copies. These works may be noted as from an unlimited edition, although usually not, and will not have a numbering system.

Voila! I'll follow up and pick this up again next post!