Bon a tirer? Art prints? Your choice?
December 9th, 2008
yakuzalove asked:
I am in lithography class and was told to sign my prints as bon a tirer. My teacher was very mean and told us to sign some prints as artist proofs if they weren’t “up to standard” and he talked a lot about “art conventions.” Is this how I have to sign prints? As a bon a tirer, edtion, or artist proof? Is it taboo not to sign this way? Why must I sign only in pencil?
I am in lithography class and was told to sign my prints as bon a tirer. My teacher was very mean and told us to sign some prints as artist proofs if they weren’t “up to standard” and he talked a lot about “art conventions.” Is this how I have to sign prints? As a bon a tirer, edtion, or artist proof? Is it taboo not to sign this way? Why must I sign only in pencil?
There are definitely conventions in signing original prints. You should probably listen to your teacher.
I used to sell original prints in a gallery. Nobody, but nobody ever signed theirs in anything but pencil. It is what buyers expect. Only an amateur would sign in anything else. If you need a further reason, it is probably to show that the signature was indeed signed by hand by the artist, AFTER the print was pulled. Not before. This is very important.
“Bon a tirer” means “good to pull”. It is the final state proof of your print, the one you decide is what you want all your other prints in the edition to look like. You compare every print you pull thereafter to the bon a tirer. If the print looks just like the bon a tirer, you can leave it in the edition, and sign and number them later. I doubt your teacher meant to sign all your prints as bon a tirer, there only needs to be one.
The only place I differ with your teacher is that artist’s proofs should also look exactly like the bon a tirer. You’re only allowed somewhere between 5-10% of the edition size as artist’s proofs. If the proof is not up to par, it would be either a “state proof” (a proof that differs markedly from the rest of the edition, perhaps because you’re not through working on it yet), or maybe you don’t sign them at all, but just destroy & discard them. Everything in your edition should look exactly alike, that’s the whole point of printmaking.
Hope that helps.