Art fans spilled out of Somerset House as they tried to get their hands on a new work by renowned British print artist David Shrigley at the London Original Print Fair on Thursday (20 March).
Now celebrating its 40th year, the fair saw iconic pieces by Picasso, Hockney, Warhol, Basquiat, Joan Miró and Tracey Emin hang walls away from Shrigley’s “I Will Not Allow The Dark Skies To Affect Me” – a yellow chick in his signature childlike style.
The fair’s anniversary exhibition, Prints from Private Collections: 40 years of Print Collecting, saw some 1,200 works from more than 40 exhibitors displayed in the rooms of Somerset House, with galleries bringing collections inclusive of everything from British Modernism to Indian printmaking to the walls.
New work by Peter Blake – the legendary pop artist who co-created The Beatles’ iconic Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – was unveiled at the fair by CCA Galleries. Elsewhere for music lovers, works by Radiohead’s Thom Yorke were hung by Tin Man Art alongside pieces by the band’s celebrated artwork designer Stanley Donwood, including the abstract album cover for OK Computer.
For the Prints from Private Collections anniversary display, returning gallery Abbott and Holder collaborated with the Imperial War Museum to present a spotlight exhibition, “The Great War: Britain’s Efforts and Ideals”. The collection, previously held in storage at the Imperial War Museum, showcased original prints commissioned in 1917 from eighteen artists, inspired by the industry and values of wartime Britain. It had been more than 100 years since a commercial gallery had exhibited the lithographs.
The London Print Fair itself is of historical note. Launched in 1985, the event holds the title for the city’s oldest art fair. Its director of 38 years, Helen Rosslyn, told The Independent the fair launched because print dealers mostly didn’t have shops or galleries to display in, so founder Gordon Cooke partnered with the Royal Academy of Arts (the fair’s home until 2020) to host 16 exhibitors. “It was a little stockroom, really,” she said. “From that, it’s just kept growing as people got more comfortable about buying prints.”
Art consumers may once have looked down their noses at purchasing prints, thinking of the works as more like photocopies than an edition carefully created by the artist. But Rosslyn says this couldn’t be more wrong. “Printmaking is quite collaborative,” she explained.
“You get an artist and they will find a printmaker who’s a specialist in the business of printing. They’ll tell them the right inks, the right paper, and the relationship between a printer and an artist might go on for 40 years,” she said.
“Prints are original artworks because the artist always anticipated making an addition,” Rosslyn said while explaining the difference between a print and a copy. “They aren’t just a reproduction or something artists have made as a painting,” the art fair director added. “It dates right back to [Albrecht] Dürer’s day. He realised that if he did a great painting it would get stuck in somebody rich’s house. Whereas, if he made a woodcut, just the simply carpenter could buy [a print] with a week’s wages.”
Addressing the print market’s place in the art world, Rosslyn continued: “I sort of like to think of prints as a well kept secret. But a lot of galleries are now setting up ‘editions’ wings. They’re recognising that not only do prints bring in more people who can afford to buy art but it’s a stable way of selling and collecting in a steady market.” It’s also one of the only ways you can own a Picasso work for under £10,000 a piece.
The London Original Print Fair is at Somerset House until March 23.