A Giclée (pronounced Zhee-clay) is an individually produced, high-resolution fine art print now considered to be the most accurate technique for reproducing an artist’s original works of art. The new high-definition printing technique was developed in the United States during the 1990s, and is now the high-end standard of the arts world. The most prestigious museums such as the Met, the Louvre, the Chicago Art Institute and the British Museum have now adopted the Giclée process.
The Giclée is unsurpassed in terms of matching the original artwork and also in terms of conservation. Thanks to new archival inks, conservation has been greatly improved from the offset lithography (the pigmented inks are rated >100 years without noticeable fading by William Imaging Research, USA).
Giclées are superior to traditional lithography in several ways. The gamut of color and resolution for Giclées is far beyond that of lithography or serigraphy. The colors are richer, brighter, last longer, and are so high-resolution that they are virtually continuous tone, rather than tiny dots. Giclées can be printed on a number of media, from canvas to watercolor paper. This renders an amazingly smooth and consistent image, a Museum Quality Fine Art Reproduction.
Since the digital image includes every subtlety and nuance of the original – including the smallest details of light and shadows such as the textures of the paint and canvas or paper – the fine art Giclée is often indistinguishable from the original work of art. Brush strokes have the appearance of brush strokes.
The process consists of a very sophisticated printer (with nozzles tinier than a human hair) that sprays millions of micro-droplets a second onto the media (paper or canvas). The Giclée is printed one line at a time and it may take an hour to complete a single 30″ x 30″ sheet.
Because Giclée printmaking is digital throughout the entire production process, there is much control of color and greater opportunity for artist interaction. Once completed, each art piece is inspected and goes through several quality control checks before the artist provides the final approval and signs the Certificate of Authenticity.
Giclées are priced midway between original art and regular limited edition lithographs. Limited edition lithograph prints are usually produced in editions of 500-1,000 or more, but Giclées rarely exceed 50-100 reproductions. Typically, limited edition Giclées are hand-signed by the artist indicating their personal approval of each work of art, and then individually numbered to identify each work of art as a part of the total edition.
RODEZart.com fine art Giclée prints are all produced using the finest materials currently available to produce Giclées of outstanding archival quality:
We use Epson UltraChrome K3 pigment inks which offer 8-color continuous tone printing with 2880 x 1440 dpi resolution. For Giclées on canvas, archival quality 18 mil thickness, 373 gsm, high resolution canvas is used. The prints are coated with an Ultra Violet (UV) inhibitor that provides protection from the harmful effects of ultraviolet light. The coating also protects the print from abrasion and light sprinkles of water. For printing on paper, we use museum-quality, acid-free, 285 gsm Hahnemühle Torchon archive-grade fine art paper with a natural white finish.
Each print is inspected and once it has passed the quality control checks, they are signed and dated, and the George Rodez / RodezArt seal is placed on the Certificate of Authenticity. Each fine art print is hand-signed and numbered individually. All limited editions are limited to 100 reproductions (per size).