Hans Hartung Lithograph

Hans Hartung is commonly presented as a standard-bearer for the École de Paris and the lyrical abstraction and is primarily considered as a post-war painter. Nevertheless, in the late 30s, this German-born artist had already participated in numerous exhibitions throughout Europe. His career began in 1922 at the age of just 18 years, when he didn’t even know the theories of Kandinsky but produced a series of abstract watercolors striking by their sheer expressiveness. This was the beginning of a career that lasted nearly 70 years and was punctuated by constant technical innovations. Paradoxical artist, Hartung was often at the opposite of the image the critics build of him, resulting in a distorted reception (Annie Claustres). Presented as a champion of gestural, lyrical and emotional painting, he remained passionate for mathematics, and his painting was apprehended through its rationality: from the 30s to the late 50s, he first produced small-sized works, spontaneously executed on paper; then he created the painting by laying down a grid and scaling up the small-size paper onto a canvas, referring point by point. The 60s also marked a turning point. Hartung stopped working by reproducing small formats but entered a patient search for technological innovation, including the production of multiple tools. In 1960, he won the grand prize for painting at the Venice Biennale, reaching the top of international recognition. Hartung never stopped creating, paintings with still more ardor until his last days in his property of Antibes that he had designed himself.

Decorating with fine art prints — whether they’re figurative prints, abstract prints or another variety — has always been a practical way of bringing a space to life as well as bringing works by an artist you love into your home.

Pursued in the 1960s and ’70s, largely by Pop artists drawn to its associations with mass production, advertising, packaging and seriality, as well as those challenging the primacy of the Abstract Expressionist brushstroke, printmaking was embraced in the 1980s by painters and conceptual artists ranging from David Salle and Elizabeth Murray to Adrian Piper and Sherrie Levine.

Printmaking is the transfer of an image from one surface to another. An artist takes a material like stone, metal, wood or wax, carves, incises, draws or otherwise marks it with an image, inks or paints it and then transfers the image to a piece of paper or other material.

Fine art prints are frequently confused with their more commercial counterparts. After all, our closest connection to the printed image is through mass-produced newspapers, magazines and books, and many people don’t realize that even though prints are editions, they start with an original image created by an artist with the intent of reproducing it in a small batch. Fine art prints are created in strictly limited editions — 20 or 30 or maybe 50 — and are always based on an image created specifically to be made into an edition.

Many people think of revered Dutch artist Rembrandt as a painter but may not know that he was a printmaker as well. His prints have been preserved in time along with the work of other celebrated printmakers such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol. These fine art prints are still highly sought after by collectors.

“It’s another tool in the artist’s toolbox, just like painting or sculpture or anything else that an artist uses in the service of mark making or expressing him- or herself,” says International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) vice president Betsy Senior, of New York’s Betsy Senior Fine Art, Inc.

Because artist’s editions tend to be more affordable and available than his or her unique works, they’re more accessible and can be a great opportunity to bring a variety of colors, textures and shapes into a space.

For tight corners, select small fine art prints as opposed to the oversized bold piece you’ll hang as a focal point in the dining area. But be careful not to choose something that is too big for your space. And feel free to lean into it if need be — not every work needs picture-hanging hooks. Leaning a larger fine art print against the wall behind a bookcase can add a stylish installation-type dynamic to your living room. (Read more about how to arrange wall art here.)

Find fine art prints for sale on 1stDibs today.