Why a Signature Can Make or Break an Artwork’s Price

In the years she served as New York director of Crown Point Press, Kim Schmidt worked with numerous artists—John Cage, Francesco Clemente, Richard Diebenkorn, Al Held, Pat Steir and Wayne Thiebaud, among others—on their print editions, and each produced images according to their own processes, which could vary widely. However, Schmidt had one iron rule for every artist and every edition they created: “We wouldn’t let works go out that weren’t signed and numbered.”

Like a vigilant parent, Schmidt would stand watch as the artists examined their prints, signing and numbering those they approved and discarding those that weren’t up to standard—she shredded them in front of the artists. “I made sure we didn’t skip a print, because we don’t want unsigned and unnumbered prints floating around the market,” she told Observer. It isn’t a particularly interesting or creative activity for either the artist or printmaker to move methodically through an edition, writing ‘1/50 Richard Diebenkorn, 2/50 Richard Diebenkorn’ and so on until they reach the 50th print, and then signing additional impressions identified as Artist Proofs or Printer’s Proofs or HC (hors de commerce, or not-for-sale) proofs or other special designations.

“Artists rarely are happy to have to sit down and sign their names again and again,” Schmidt said. “Sometimes, artists would get tired doing it, or their handwriting might get a bit sloppy. I could see this happening with Richard Estes, and I suggested that we take a break and go out to lunch and have sushi.” Presumably, that break helped restore the artist’s patience for signing and numbering the remaining prints.

The task of signing artworks—paintings, photographs, prints, sculptures or otherwise—can ultimately mean a much larger financial reward than a meal. The signature informs the viewer that the artist created the work and approved it for sale. “It says ‘This work is finished and is ready to go out in the world,’” Edwynn Houk, a Manhattan gallery owner who specializes in photography, told Observer. That implied statement also carries monetary value, since “unsigned works sell for less or take much longer to sell.” There is more effort involved in selling unsigned pieces, he explained, because “I need more paperwork,” meaning proof that the work was produced in the artist’s studio, released for sale and exhibited publicly. A print may have been created by an artist but set aside as unsatisfactory, which is why it was never signed. Evidence that a particular work was exhibited suggests that the artist approved it for display and sale.

“I’ve been offered unsigned and unnumbered works by Ellsworth Kelly,” Schmidt, who now works as a dealer, said. “I almost always say, ‘No, thank you.’ Kelly was known to be meticulous about each print, and I don’t want to take a chance on something he might have overlooked.”

In some cases, the entire economic value of a print lies in the signature. Salvador Dali and Marc Chagall both signed blank sheets of paper that were later used for reproductions of their most famous works. Picasso’s granddaughter, Marina, published a series of the artist’s prints to which she signed her name—her signature reportedly resembling Picasso’s closely. Last fall, the estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat published an edition of screenprints based on the deceased artist’s 1982-83 drawing King Alphonso, signed by Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux, Basquiat’s sisters and administrators of his estate. In all of these cases, the artists never saw the finished prints, yet the works still sell at prices suggesting they are authorized original artworks.

The estates of artists often help address questions of authenticity. Jill Newhouse, a gallery owner in New York City who specializes in American and European art of the 19th and 20th Centuries, told Observer that “while some works are signed during the artist’s lifetime, many works are estate stamped, meaning a stamp is applied posthumously by the artist’s executors on works which remain in the artist’s studio at the time of death. This is true of Delacroix, Degas, Bonnard, Matisse and others.”

The tradition of artists signing their prints dates back roughly a century; before that, artists often used monograms instead. Artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec and Pierre Bonnard would sign some works and leave others unsigned, depending on collector demand and circumstance. They often signed works at the time of sale, while prints that remained unsold during the artists’ lifetimes sometimes went unsigned. In those cases, the market does not necessarily distinguish between signed and unsigned impressions, since there is no doubt that the artists authorized their production and sale.

The convention of signing an entire edition at once is more recent, dating back to the 1930s, when Paris dealer Leo Spitzer persuaded several major artists, including Matisse and Picasso, to produce refined reproductions that they would sign, and he would sell.

Most artists are aware that their signature can increase the value of their work. Picasso produced a series of etchings in the 1930s known as “The Vollard Suite,” which he began signing in the 1950s and 1960s to help raise funds for left-wing political causes he supported. Norman Rockwell and Andrew Wyeth signed editions of prints to support their respective museums—Rockwell’s in Stockbridge, Massachusetts and Wyeth’s in Brandywine River, Pennsylvania. Other artists have used signature editions for less charitable purposes.

“Signatures are a mark of authorship,” Henri Neuendorf, a Manhattan art dealer specializing in postwar and contemporary art, told Observer. “They say to the audience or prospective buyers that the artwork is indeed by the artist.” Still, some artists simply neglected to sign certain works, which does not diminish their authenticity. “About a year ago,” he noted, “I had an unsigned Warhol portrait on consignment. Given the scale of Warhol’s studio and his working methods, unsigned Warhols are not unusual. Importantly, the piece was stamped by the estate of Andy Warhol and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, used on unsigned Warhols in lieu of a signature and accompanied by an estate number that can be cross-referenced in their records.” Even so, uncertainty can remain. “The Sam Francis estate has posthumously sold works that the artist left behind unsigned in his studio and marked them with a stamp. Some market participants believe that he didn’t deem these works good enough to be sold and to represent his oeuvre, and hence signed works sometimes sell for more than stamped works. It’s impossible to know for sure what Francis’s intention for these works was, of course, since he is no longer with us.”

Problems arise when signatures are forged onto reproductions or printed directly on the paper alongside the artist’s image, which can often be detected by examining the printing dots under magnification. Houk claimed that “the legal heir” of photographer Lewis Hine (1874-1940) “made his own unlimited editions of Hine’s images, selling them with fake signatures.” Such practices introduce uncertainty into the market and force dealers to provide extensive documentation establishing provenance.

Many, but not all, buyers know to look for a signature on a work of art. Is it on the front of the painting or the reverse of the canvas? Is the sculpture signed on its base? Is the photograph signed on the back of the print? Even when collectors know to check, recognizing whether a signature is genuine can be difficult. One notorious example emerged during the Knoedler Gallery forgery scandal, when court documents alleged that one of the disputed works attributed to Jackson Pollock bore a misspelled signature reading “Pollok.”

“Generally, an unsigned work by an artist will not bring what a signed example will,” Joshua Eldred, president and chief executive officer of Eldred’s auction house, told Observer. The auctioneer may also face significant research. “For example, 18th- and 19th-century folk art paintings are rarely signed, but they often exhibit distinctive characteristics that allow us to identify the artist,” referring to outside specialists in particular artists or artistic categories. “In some cases, paintings come with documentation certifying their authenticity. If it’s a letter from the acknowledged expert for the artist, that’s just as good as a signature on the piece, especially if the expert has included the work in the artist’s catalogue raisonné”—a publication listing all known works by the artist. “If the letter is not by an expert on the artist, it doesn’t carry much weight. I often caution clients about ‘certificates of authenticity,’ especially on antique paintings. Anyone with a laser printer can print one, and they are often used by unscrupulous people to provide a false sense of security to a buyer.”

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