Editorials by Forrest Fenn - What's with this artist's proof stuff?

What's With This Artist's Proof Stuff?
by Forrest Fenn

Now let’s get real about this for crimanny sake. Artists’ proofs are experiments that lithographers and etchers pull from plates as they play around with different inks and different viscosities trying to find the right mix. The artist needs to be happy with the result, so sometimes many samples and adjustments are made before everyone is satisfied and the real press run is begun. A press under great pressure on an etching plate can do strange things, so the “proofs” are mostly discarded or the artist keeps them to use in his fireplace.

If a numbered edition is made, say fifty, then the proofs should not be sold unless they are part of that numbered edition. Got that? Are you listening? If an artist wants an edition of 30 numbered etchings, it’s all right to number 1 of 30 through 27 of 30 and then keep three for herself. Or she can sell them. But there should not be more than 30 total. Period. NO EXCEPTIONS.

BUT IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BRONZE SCULPTURES. It’s true that during the process of casting a newly made model into bronze the foundryman may not be completely sure how the piece should be sprued in order to assure a successful casting. If it doesn’t pour properly and the sculpture is ruined, the bronze may be thrown back into the melting pot and recycled into another attempt.

What is happening today, though, is that an artist may number an edition of 50 and then cast number of artist’s proofs on top of that. WRONG! So if he sells a bronze called “Cowboy on Bucking Bronco”(I hope that will never be the title of a sculpture) that is numbered 12 of 50, the buyer should logically assume that only 50 are in existence and the price he paid was based on the rarity of 50. He thinks the system is working and the piece will appreciate over time. That seems fair.

That being the case he might be mad as hell if he finds that he invested a bundle only to learn that there were 60 made and not just 50. That could steam him up pretty pronto, and his lawyer might be getting a phone call in the middle of the night. That happened in California. The law called it criminal misrepresentation, or something like that; what do I know?

Anyway, I knew a man who lived in Mesa that had an original wax model by Charlie Russell and had it cast in an edition of 30 numbered copies. Then he ordered 50 “Foundry Proofs.” NOW WAIT JUST A MINUTE! When he showed me what he had done (he’s dead now and I hope birds are flying over his ashes), I just sat there like an envelope with no stamp on it. He looked at me with a Willie Sutton smile and said, “Who’s gonna know?”

If he had advertised a numbered edition of 30 plus 50 artist’s proofs, that would be all right because I would know going in that there were really 80 total and I could go off and buy a painting with my money. Still, I wondered how he could order artist’s proofs when the artist had been dead for forty years.

Now, I don’t have a problem with someone making unlimited copies of an etching or a bronze. But I don’t want him lying about how many there are. Nobody says an artist has to number copies of his work. Or he can put the same number on each of them if he wants to, and that’s legal, I suppose. It just screws up his bookkeeper something fierce. Who cares as long as he doesn’t have more in his inventory than he advertised.

Most artists start casting the high numbers first and slowly work back toward the low numbers. The thinking is that as more copies in the edition are cast, the more bugs in the casting process are worked out, resulting in a better finished product. And everyone knows that the low numbers are most valuable, but only God knows why. Number 1 may be the last in the edition to be cast. It’s nothing but an identification number anyway, and the early artists in Europe didn’t number any of their pieces. Go figure! If it makes a difference to you, then go ask the artist if your number one casting was really number thirty. I’m sure he’ll tell you if he knows.