Art off the internet

[dantheman123]

Does anyone know where I can get some files off the internet that I can then use as artwork to be printed by 4 colour lithographic process? I want to use "The tree of life" By Gustav Klimpt. It is ok for me to use this as he has been dead for more than 70 years.
The difficulity i am having is that the pictures I pull off the internet are not of sufficient quality and the end result looks pixilated. Any ieas?

[BrainMonkeys]

Like you say, the copies on the internet are of poor quality, and that's usually so people can't print them out for themselves. Unlike literature, art, like music, is owned by publishing groups and by interested parties, ie. the gallery or private owner of the said piece of art even after death of the artist. So if you want a copy, you'll have to ask them for permission if you want a decent print. Most galleries do prints of the paintings they own, but only tend to go for the more popular images. Some can make prints of specific paintings, but they're usually pricey.

The Tree Of Life is in the Osterreichisches Museum fur Angewandte Kunst in Vienna, so you'll have to go through them.

[willa]

Brainmonkeys' on the right track. In my former life as a college publications designer, I would get permission from museums to use art in promotional concert posters and programs. Once permission was given, I could then buy a transparency (slide), which my printer would then color-separate prior to 4-color (or 6-, 8-color) printing. These work much better than prints from the museum shop, which have already been line-screened and might produce a moire if screened/scanned again.

Contact the copyright owner for their criteria for reproduction permission. As I worked in an educational institution, permission was usually easy to get once they knew I wasn't reproducing the art for profit. (E.g., it would be on a poster promoting an opera but wasn't for sale as a collectible poster.) Most musuems and galleries have a process in place for just such requests.