I consider myself an art lover. And not only that I think it's a brilliant investment – after all you can't sit at home and look at your stocks and bonds. But what if you can't quite buy yourself into the art market? You should be considering the print market!
Original prints are limited edition, all made from the same physical template, so they have value, both as items for re-sale and and as wall decorations. But they come in a far more varied price bracket than their one-off-oil-on-canvas-brothers.
There are plenty of galleries that sell prints of all sorts, but to get the largest number of prints in the one place you need to attend
The London Original Print Fair.
Map of Nowhere by Grayson Perry
The fair is the longest running specialist print fair in the world, this year celebrating it's 26th anniversary in the
Royal Academy of Art. And being the oldest it has no trouble attracting exhibitors – this year there will be more than 50 different galleries/ dealers shipping their wares into London for the fair. Those wares will be very varied, ranging from pieces created in the early days of print making in the 15th century, made using woodcuts and engravings, to modern prints by artists like Damien Hurst and David Hockney.
So hopefully you'll see something you like. Print sale prices range from £100 to £100,000 and they're promising etchings by Canaletto, engraving by Hogarth and fresh works from artists like
Peter Blake, who was responsible for the record cover for
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and
Gavin Turk, responsible for
God Save Che Guevara.
