| |
One thing that became
quickly apparent to the early digital pioneers was the lack of a
proper name to describe the prints they were making. By the close of
the 1980s, IRIS printers were installed all over the world and
spinning off full-color proofs in commercial printing plants and
pre-press shops. These prints were used to check color and get
client approvals before starting the main print run. They definitely
were not meant to last or to be displayed on anyone's walls. Most
people called them "IRIS prints," or "IRIS proofs," or, more simply,
"IRISes."
However, this wasn't
good enough for the new digital fine-art printmakers like Maryann
Doe of Harvest Productions and Jack Duganne, who was the first
printmaker (after David Coons) at Nash Editions. They wanted to draw
a distinction between the beautiful prints they were laboring over
and the quickie proofs the commercial printers were cranking out.
Just like artist Robert Rauschenberg did when he came up with the
term "combines" for his new assemblage art, they needed a new label,
or, in marketing terms, a "brand identity." The makers of digital
art needed a word of their own.
And, they got it. In
1991, Duganne had to come up with a print-medium description for a
mailer announcing California artist Diane Bartz' upcoming show. He
wanted to stay away from words like "computer" or "digital" because
of the negative connotations the art world attached to the new
medium. Taking a cue from the French word for inkjet (jet d'encre),
Duganne opened his pocket Larousse and searched for a word that was
generic enough to cover most inkjet technologies at the time and
hopefully into the future. He focused on the nozzle, which most
printers used. In French, that was le gicleur. What nozzles do is
spray ink, so looking up French verbs for "to spray," he found
gicler, which literally means "to squirt, spurt, or spray." The
feminine noun version of the verb is (la) Giclée, (pronounced "zhee-clay")
or "that which is sprayed or squirted." An industry moniker was
born.
However, the
controversy started immediately. Graham Nash and Mac Holbert had
come up with "digigraph," which was close to "serigraph" and
"photograph." The photographers liked that. But, the artists and
printmakers doing reproductions had adopted "Giclée," and the term
soon became a synonym for "an art print made on an IRIS inkjet
printer."
Today, "Giclée" has
become established with traditional media artists, and some
photographers. But, many photographers and other digital artists
have not accepted it, using, instead, labels such as "original
digital prints," "inkjet prints," "pigment prints," or "(substitute
the name of your print process) prints."
For many artists, the
debate over "Giclée" continues. Some object to its suggestive,
French slang meaning ("spurt"). Others believe it is still too
closely linked to the IRIS printer or to the reproduction market.
And some feel that it is just too pretentious. But, for many, the
term "Giclée" has become part of the printmaking landscape; a
generic word, like Kleenex, that has evolved into a broader term
that describes any high-quality, digitally produced, fine-art print.
One problem, of
course, is that when a term becomes too broad, it loses its ability
to describe a specific thing. At that point, it stops being a good
marketing label--and make no mistake about it, "Giclée" is a
marketing term. When everything is a Giclée, the art world gets
confused, and the process starts all over again with people coming
up with new labels.
This is exactly what
happened when a new group formed in 2001--the Giclée Printers
Association (GPA)--and came up with its own standards and its own
term: "Tru Giclée." The GPA is concerned with reproduction printing
only, and its dozen or so printmaker members have approved a short
list of printing equipment and materials to bear its logo (see
above).
Giclée (zhee-clay)
n. 1. a type of digital fine-art print.
2. Most often associated with reproductions; a Giclée is a multiple
print or exact copy of an original work of art that was created by
conventional means (painting, drawing, etc.) and then reproduced
digitally, typically via inkjet printing. First use in this context
by Jack Duganne in 1991, Los Angeles, California.
|
