A couple of obsservations as I have been learning about print art:
- It’s remarkably hard to find all of an artist’s oeuvre in one place, and often hard even to assemble it from different places. In this age of instant online information/gratification, I have found that for most of the artists I’m looking at, there is not a single online repository of all their works, or even all their works within a single genre (e.g. prints). For many, there is not even a single publication with all of their work in it. When I do find a book with all of an artist’s work (a so-called catalogue raisonné; “A catalogue raisonné is a comprehensive, annotated listing of all the known works of an artist either in a particular medium or all media.”), it’s usually out of print, hard to find, and expensive. (Of course, these three properties are closely related.)
- There is often no information available about the why of a work, the meaning, or the artist’s intention in creating it. Those who are more familiar with the art world will doubtless not be surprised at this, but for a naif like me, it’s an unwelcome realization. No wonder there are so many critics and academics debating on these topics.
Both of these facts mean I have to equip myself with patience and a zen-like acceptance of what is. Neither of those things are skills for which I am known, but I guess I will have to get better at them.