Social Realism Print

On 1stDibs, you can find the most appropriate social realism print for your needs in our varied inventory. Find contemporary versions now, or shop for contemporary creations for a more modern example of these cherished works. If you’re looking for a social realism print from a specific time period, our collection is diverse and broad-ranging, and you’ll find at least one that dates back to the 19th Century while another version may have been produced as recently as the 21st Century. When looking for the right social realism print for your space, you can search on 1stDibs by color — popular works were created in bold and neutral palettes with elements of gray, beige, brown and white. Finding an appealing social realism print — no matter the origin — is easy, but (after) Pablo Picasso, Raphael Soyer, Yue Minjun, Arslan Sükan and William Gropper each produced popular versions that are worth a look. These artworks were handmade with extraordinary care, with artists most often working in lithograph, paper and paint.

A social realism print can differ in price owing to various characteristics — the average selling price for items in our inventory is $1,300, while the lowest priced sells for $65 and the highest can go for as much as $25,000.

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.