Printastic: why prints are more popular then installations

Works on paper seem to be breeding like rabbits. What happened? The last I knew, Londoners were crazy for cutting-edge artworks such as sharks in tanks with very long names, or super-sized canvases resting on massive elephant-dung feet. Now I look around, and, from The Frieze Art Fair to the upcoming London Original Print Fair, works on paper are the hot-hot thing to buy, with original limited edition prints by big names taking the crown.

Times have changed, belts have tightened and suddenly everyone wants a beautiful artwork to hang in a regular type of frame (shock!) on their normal-sized wall (sensation!). Meanwhile, Hirst's Shark is now on view at the Musée Océanographique de Monaco — a better venue for it, perhaps.

Gordon Cooke, chairman of the London Original Print Fair, says that when the fair first started 25 years ago, people bought prints to keep in boxes at home, viewing the collection on a Sunday afternoon now and again. Things are rather different today. While it started with 16 exhibitors, this year the fair will welcome 67, and everyone seems to be agreed that we're living in the golden age of print. "There's a resurgence of interest in prints — many more people recognise their qualities, and various serious artists have become extremely enthusiastic about making them," says Cooke. "People now realise that prints are a way of buying works by major artists without having to sell a large company in order to pay for it."

In the US, artist Shepard Fairey made the iconic Obama Hope print and became an overnight sensation, adding to the allure of the medium. Online US print gallery 20x200.com sells archive-quality limited edition prints in price brackets from $20 to $5,000. It is run by Jen Bekman, a New York gallerist who realised that artists and people looking to buy only needed an open marketplace in which to play. The word in the US press about 20x200 is: "Buy fast. When they're gone, they're gone."

Back in London we find that the longest-running print fair in the world is also London's longest-running art fair and in less than two weeks it will open for five days at the Royal Academy. There are works by Picasso, Hirst, Rembrandt, Hockney, Anish Kapoor, Grayson Perry, Paula Rego, Antony Gormley, Peter Blake, Peter Doig, Eduardo Paolozzi, Goya — yes, Goya — Matisse and Eric Gill. The list goes on and on and, honestly, I would like to buy most of them.

Many of the world's master printers and a number of thrusting fine art publishers are making London into a hub for prints. Alan Cristea, Malborough Fine Arts and the Paragon Press are the leading publishers — with a list of artists that is impressive.

Among London's master fine art printers, many of whom will be modestly manning the stalls at the Print Fair in their best suits, are the Paupers Press and Advanced Graphics. Other well-trusted printers across London include K2 Screen and its sister studio for top digital printing, Omni Colour. There are also tiny printing studios such as Agnieszka Miles, who prints for Lucie Bennett and others with great care on a machine in her living room in Dulwich.

"Without a doubt, London has a pool of printer talents that are adding to the resurgence," says Helen Rosslyn, director of the fair. "For instance, Bob Saich of Advanced Graphics or Michael Taylor and Simon Marsh from Paupers Press, which is celebrating its 24th birthday this year."

Rosslyn says that for many years there was a mistrust of prints — people feared they might turn out to be cheap photographic copies. "It's now understood that an original print is not just a reproduced photograph but an artwork that has been designed by the artist to be printed in a small edition," she says.

There are many techniques — lithograph, screen-print, etching and digital printing layered with hand-painted colours or gold leaf or other elements.