Adrienne T. Beck (20th Century) American, "Marilyn" Signed Artist's Proof Serigraph. Depicts a busy road in a town with a large image of Marilyn Monroe looming over the street, all in a pop art style. Signed and dated '88 in pencil bottom right. "A/P" written in pencil bottom left. Title written in pencil bottom middle. Framed. Adrienne Beck is an artist based in the Washington, D.C. area who primarily worked in the 1980s and 90s, producing and teaching others how to make serigraphic prints at local galleries, art centers, and her alma mater, George Washington University. 

Overall Size: 24 1/4 x 30 1/4 in. 

Sight Size: 16 1/2 x 22 1/4 in. 

Frame Thickness: 1 in. 

An artist or artist’s proof (usually written as “AP”) is an impression of a print taken in the printmaking process to see the current printing state of a plate while the plate (or stone, or woodblock) is being worked on by the artist. The French name, Epreuve d’artiste, is often written as “EA” to mean the same thing in European galleries and markets. A proof may show a clearly incomplete image, often called a working proof or trial impression, but in modern practice is usually used to describe an impression of the finished work that is identical to the numbered copies. There can also be printer’s proofs (“PP”) which are taken for the printer to see how the image is printing, or are final impressions the printer is allowed to keep. Artist’s proofs are not included in the count of a limited edition, and the number of artist’s proofs can vary depending on the desires of both the printer and the artist. By convention, the artist is not supposed to sell these, usually implying that they become available after they have passed away. However, some artists use it as a method of re-issuing an edition that has sold out. The term “proof” is generally applied only to prints from the late 18th Century onwards starting with the English mezzotinters, who began the practice of issuing small editions of proofs for collectors, often before the “lettering” or inscription below the image was added. Art historians, curators, and collectors view working proofs as especially desirable because of their rarity, the insight they may give into the progress of the work, and because they may well have belonged to the artist. Especially in the case of dead artists, they can be the only evidence of the artist’s incremental development of an image, something not usually available with drawings, paintings, or sculpture. Prints are generally sold as limited editions, with a print being cheaper than a drawing or painting because the artist/gallery makes more money by selling multiples. An artist’s proof, therefore, has special value, even as a print, because of its extra rarity and its possible differences from the “standard” print, sometimes with barely visible minute discrepancies from the finished artwork that highlights their uniqueness.