What is Giclee?
Just what is Giclee (zhee-clay) method of printing? Giclee is a French colloquialism coined in the 17th Century. It means, loosely, “a spraying of ink”. It refers to a technology first created by Scitex Corporation Ltd., and brought forth by a machine called the Iris, and it was primarily used for proofing color images.
Iris Print Seal – an aerosol spray overcoat that provides an invisible crystal clear semi-matte top coat, offers a smudge and moisture resistance finish, dye stabilizers, and the ultra violate light blockers.
Giclee prints have a very impressive track record for exhibition at prestigious galleries and museums such as:
- The Louvre Museum in Paris - The British Museum - The Washington Post Collection - The New York Public Library - The Philadelphia Museum of Art - The Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art - The New York Metropolitan Museum - The National Art Museum - The San Francisco Museum of Art - The Los Angeles County Museum - Zimmerli Museum of Art-Rutgers University - The Corcoran Gallery - Laguna Museum of Art
Giclee/Iris Print/Digital Print
The word Giclee is a French word meaning “fine spray”, which is what an inkjet printer does as it prints this type of art. An original is produced and entered into a computer through a digital scan. The Giclee process then is digital printmaking with an Iris printer that uses minute droplets of ink to create prints that cannot be duplicated by other printing techniques. Because there is no visible dot screen pattern, the resulting image has all of the subtle tonalities of the original art. Each dot may have over 4 billion possible colors! This produces exceptional museum quality prints. The entire Giclee movement is only about 3-4 years old and has allowed many artists to experiment with printmaking that were not involved before. It permits the artist to make the artwork any size and to print on substrate or type of paper or canvas in very small quantities at any one time.
All images property of HG Funk - Use without expressed permission is prohibited.
