The art journal Parkett, an important editions publisher since its inception in 1984, asks contributing artists to create either prints or objects that are offered separately to subscribers with each issue. According to publisher Dieter von Graffenried, multiples were few and far between during the 1980s. But in the mid-’90s, he says, “I noticed an increase. In fact, every now and then, we have an issue where the majority of editions are objects.” For the winter 2004 issue, for instance, three out of the four artists—including painter Alex Katz—decided to create multiples.

Targeting the Past & Present

Many artists today use the genre to riff on art history. Kiki Smith’s Little Mountain, 1993–96 (edition of 150), a cast-glass paperweight modeled on her own breast, seems an obvious nod to the pink foam breast on Duchamp’s cover for the catalogue of the 1947 exhibition “La Surrealisme.” Sylvie Fleury’s Slim-Fast, 1993, painted wooden boxes in vanilla and strawberry (editions of 250 each), spin off Warhol’s Brillo Boxes, adding a feminist twist.

Artists often riff on their own work, too, as in Cerealart’s The Wrong Gallery, 2005, by Maurizio Cattelan, Massimiliano Gioni and Ali Subotnick ($1,200; edition of 2,500)—a perfect 1:6-scale replica of the original Wrong Gallery, a shallow space set behind a storefront door in Chelsea. Cerealart has also produced miniature versions of many works shown in the gallery, by such artists as Adam McEwen, Elizabeth Peyton and Lawrence Weiner ($35 to $300; most in editions of 500).

Sizing It Up

A lot of multiples have a deliberately tchotchke-like quality; they can also play with scale. Between 1981 and ’89, Katharina Fritsch produced six unlimited-edition multiples: a white brain, a fluorescent yellow Madonna, a vase, a scarf, an abstracted black cat and a stack of coins in a plastic bag. Fritsch modeled the Madonna after souvenir figurines sold at a pilgrimage spot in Germany. In 1987, she remade it as a life-size sculpture, Madonna Figure.

She has also used her small multiples to create larger installations, as in Display Stand with Brains, 1989–97, Display Stand with Vases, and Display Stand with Madonnas, both 1987–89—a nearly 9-foot-tall tower created with stacked Madonnas.

Originally offered for around $300, Fritsch’s multiples are more expensive now because they are no longer made. “I know someone who bought a Madonna for $1,200 some time ago,” says Jeffrey Peabody, director of Matthew Marks Gallery in New York, which distributed the works. “The last time we had any brains, they were $1,000, and that was several years ago.”

(Although officially the editions are unlimited, Fritsch decided to stop making them a few years ago. They were mass-produced, but many had to be hand-finished, so, ironically, “they were just too much work,” says Peabody.)

Sometimes artists use multiples to expand on their other works. Anya Gallaccio’s sculptural installations, for example, often employ natural objects, such as flowers and fruits that decay over the duration of a show.

She frequently produces multiples along with her installations, which have the effect of fixing some of these evanescent projects in time. To commemorate her 1992 project, Red on Green at the ICA in London, Gallaccio made three sets of boxed pastels, incorporating the ground-up remains of the roses, two in editions of 10 and one in an edition of 20.

For a current project, After the Gold Rush, she is producing six distinct varieties of Zinfandel wines made from grapes grown in different vineyards in Sonoma County, Calif. About 200 boxed half-cases will be released sometime in 2007.

Multiple Definitions

So how big does an edition have to be to qualify as a multiple? As with everything else related to this category, it depends on whom you ask. The typical definition is three or more, says Susan Inglett of I.C. Editions.

But her husband, David Platzker, a New York dealer who runs Specific Object, an Internet site specializing in artists’ books and editions, says: “Oldenburg’s argument was that if they’re done in editions of 26 or greater, they were multiples. If they were done in editions of 25 or less, they were sculptures in edition. But the whole notion is that if it’s done in volume—any volume—it’s a multiple. It’s all about dissemination of artwork.”