A Print Showcase and Resource Site
World Printmakers announces their new limited-edition fine-art print site (http://www.worldprintmakers.com). Online since June, 2000 they declare themselves "a showcase for fine-art printmakers, both traditional and digital, from around the world," and a quick look at the site confirms this affirmation.

Based in Europe (Granada, Spain) but with global ambitions, they already represent printmakers from more than 30 countries. "Americans are in the majority," says founder Mike Booth, an American expatriate himself, "because they had a head start on Internet, but we're getting a nice response from the rest of the world, from Australia to Mexico. We're particularly excited about the printmakers coming out of Eastern Europe and Africa."

Sober and Fast
The site itself, presented against a sleek black background, is sober and subdued, fast and a pleasure to navigate. "Our clientele is more interested in seeing prints than animated gifs or presentation pages," says Booth. "We're convinced that a printmaking site should be first and foremost about prints," he adds. World Printmakers also has a didactic side, with online printmaking courses and the full lowdown on printmaking history, traditions and techniques.

This is very much a specialist site. "We of the fine-art printmaking media have an important educational function," says Booth, "since it's our job to help art lovers distinguish between authentic limited-edition fine-art prints and the photographic reproductions which are increasingly being fobbed off as "limited-edition prints." The World Printmakers response to these abuses is an earnest-if-somewhat-Quixotic "Full Disclosure" campaign which encourages all authentic printmakers to accompany every print they sell with a fully-documented Certificate of Authenticity.

The Defense of Live Artists
Print fraud is only one of World Printmakers favorite themes. Another is the promotion and defense of live artists. "We all appreciate what the masters of the past have done for contemporary art," says Booth, "but we're looking more towards the future. There are wonderful living printmakers out there and we can all have the pleasure and satisfaction of discovering them today." What about sales? "Sales are coming, little by little," says Booth. "World Printmakers is only a year and a half old. Right now we're more concerned about cultivating credibility and providing authentic services to artists and collectors than we are about selling. Which is not to say that we're not interested in sales. We're convinced that print collectors, once they have tried our services, will be reluctant to buy prints anywhere else. We make it so easy form them to roam the world in search of true limited-edition contemporary fine-art prints!"

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