Does digital art really need an "original"?

[otis]

I've sold my work both commercially and privately for 10 years. As an artist, I tend to go back and forth between working digitaly and traditionally. I truley love both mediums.

My dilema is, I've been seriously considering entering into the "commercial" fine art market. As we all know the art industry is probably one of the most misunderstood and at the same time most abused and manipulated fields.

Galleries and publishers don't know what to do with digital art. Is it in the photography category or painting? There are no "originals" only limited edition prints. Is digital work only used for commercial purposes?

To me it's nothing more than a medium. But try telling that to a gallery who only knows the difference between a "reproduction" of somthing "original".

People can analyze and categorize art, and mediums all day long. But I don't think the medium really determines the value of one's work. I think Andy Warhol proved this when he decided to just do sceen prints of iconic images. He never paintied anything traditionaly. I truly believe that he would have used a computer instead of a silkscreen machine if they had been invented back then!

What are your thoughts? Is it possible for a digital painter to become established without having any "originals?"

[smellykitty]

its odd to here people are giving you a problem over the medium and what to do with it

are these places proclaiming themselves to be contemporary art places or fine art places? stay away from fine art places, they are behind the times. any gallery or publisher that is worth it goes by 'contemporary', they are up to date and for the large part can careless what medium something is.

[otis]

The more I think about it,.. I bet most proffessional galleries only care about how well it sells. :confident
Really does anything else matter?

[Seedling]

The gallery world is a strange, silly place as seen from the entertainment industry. Who would want to buy a rectangle covered in paint smears? Who would want to make one original thingamabob that will disappear into someone’s private home and never be seen from again? Art is for games and book covers, where it can be appreciated by many and acquired for cheap! Art is better when made digitally, because we can sell our digital cake and eat it, too.

;-) Art is a funny thing from either side of the fence.

To answer more seriously, I don’t know why a traditional gallery would go the risky route of selling prints that can be endlessly made. Digital work just doesn’t jive with what galleries are – sellers of that which is limited.

But maybe someone will come up with a way to get digital work into traditional galleries eventually. I bet you’d be up for the challenge. ;-)

[Silvertone]

Digital frames.....giant digital frames. Hey, they have 'em for digital pictures now, right? Might be a tad pricey though! Start up the world's first digital fine art gallery.

[HunterKiller_]

Maybe you could print off a single giant, hi-res 'original'.

[Vigilandus]

Maybe you could print off a single giant, hi-res 'original'.

And delete the file on your pc. That would make it unique right?

[smellykitty]

art is better when made digitally..care to explain?

[chaosrocks]

oddly as a person who sells Etchings in the gallery world I have this problem all the time. and Have for the last 25 years. with an etching the drawing is done directly on to the plate and the resulting hand printed impression is the Original.
The only way to make this work is to educate the general public as to what the media are and what they do. Believe me, I've made that speech 1000 time. when some asks to see "the original" of one of my husbands works.

just as a n interesting side note. Bill Gates has a huge personal art collection. and all the art in his house in Cupertino (he has several houses). is digitised and projected on to the walls in digital frames. although h e does own the actual works. I know this because he bought one of my husband's pieces and they had to ask permission to do this.....I guess it makes changing the art work around, easy. no nail holes.

choas

[DavePalumbo]

And delete the file on your pc. That would make it unique right?

I've heard this one before, though personally it still doesn't equal a physical painting to me. No matter how high the res, it's still a print. One can pull a single print from an etching plate and then destroy the plate, does that etching now become a drawing? No, it's simply a print with an edition of one. This is not to say anything negative about digital or etching, just that they are mediums which yield limited editions.

edit: Chaos beat my post in by a few minutes I suppose :)

[otis]

I'm just going to do both mediums.
I don't care what "so-called art critics" say.

[Seedling]

Sounds like a good plan, otis. :-)