Art in Multiples, Back at the Armory

Few art fairs feature Gerhard Richter rubbing shoulders with Titian. But the International Fine Print Dealers Association Print Fair, which opens on Thursday with a preview and runs through the weekend, regularly makes neighbors of the old and the new, while providing opportunities for emerging artists and emerging collectors, with some works on offer for less than $1,000.

This year’s fair returns uptown to the Park Avenue Armory after several years at the Javits Center. And with the move comes a shift in the calendar — the previous fair was only four months ago. But collectors and curators, dealers and gallerists, fine-press publishers and artists can’t seem to get enough.

“It’s a bit of a quick turnaround,” said Jay A. Clarke, curator of Prints and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, but the New York fair has always been a highlight, and “it’s especially exciting that it’s returning to the Armory.”

Prints are usually available in limited editions of nearly identical copies and are a fundamentally collaborative media, with artists teaming up with skilled craftspeople to complete the work. Discerning print buyers often look for editions produced during the lifetime of the artist.

The star of this fair may be the immense “The Submersion of the Pharaoh’s Army in the Red Sea” (1514-15, published in 1549), in which the 16th-century Italian Renaissance artist Titian dares the humble relief print to take on the ambition and scale of painting. Its experimental character fits comfortably alongside modern and contemporary work.