Art Prints or Original Art?

By Darren WK Chow

To answer that question, let's start by taking a look at the differences between art prints and original art.

Art prints are reproductions of an original art piece. These can be mass produced by computers and machines. The prices are usually much more affordable, since they're just a duplication of the original art work.

The quality of art prints are dependent on the manufacturing process. Since most art pieces are reproduced digitally, it's sometimes very hard to tell the reproduced art piece from the original one. Digitally reproduced artwork means converting the original artwork into a digital image so that there's little or no data loss. The more data that's retained during this conversion, the better the reproduction will be.

Technology nowadays are so good at duplicating artwork that they can even be programmed to "know" the brush strokes of an artist and reproduce any drawing or painting. In other words, with technology, an exact duplication can be achieved. Or at least the naked eye cannot tell the difference.

So if the reproduction looks exactly the same as the original and costs way much less, would it make sense to purchase an art print instead of an original art work? Would you buy a duplication of the Mona Lisa for $150, or would you rather spend a fortune on the original?

You and I know, deep within us, that the reproduction can never be the same as the original. Because we know that an art piece produced by a machine is just an artifact. It doesn't feel alive, and there's no "soul".

Collectors of art know this. They buy the original because the original is a part of the artist. You can almost feel the artist when you're intuitive enough to feel what goes into a masterpiece. It appears alive. That's something that money cannot buy.

There's only one original. The others, no matter how masterfully duplicated, are just reproductions. They bring the artist further away, not closer, from the collector.

So if you have all the money in the world, would you buy the original or an art print? The answer depends on how close a connection you want with the artist.

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