ATC or ACEO? What’s that weird thing?

These are miniature works of art to exchange or collect, small cards of 64 mm x 89 mm (2.5 « x 3.5 »).
ATC has a long history, the first artist cards appeared with the miniature portraits of the 17th century, they became popular during the Impressionist period.
Previously, there were only exchanges between artists to study and share know-how.
The Impressionists have made them more popular by opening the market to art cards to exchange and collect for the public and art lovers.
To support themselves, artists are forced to sell these art cards in exchange for artists’ supplies, workshops and « slates ».

Artist Trading Cards (ATC) is a conceptual art project initiated by the Swiss artist M. Vänçi Stirnemann in 1997. He described it as a collaborative cultural performance. He made a thousand small original works in the same format. Trading cards are 64 mm × 89 mm, the same format as modern collectible cards (hockey or baseball cards). These are unique works or small series, made by the artists themselves, signed and dated on the back by the artist / producer, exchanged and collected by the people participating in the collaborative show. These cards have been exposed and exchanged on the same principle: to get one, you must offer one that you have made yourself.

The main objective of the ATC concept is to allow a free exchange between the participants in order to establish a relationship (collaborative performance). Today, they are exchanged for free by different structures on the Internet.
In order to allow a non-profit gain and a non-artistic collection, the concept of mutual exchange and the name of the cards have been modified (while keeping the size). In 2004, Lisa Luree started selling artistic cards on Ebay.
To circumvent the intellectual property rights, she called it « Art Cards, Editions and Originals » (ACEO).
In 2005, Jillian Crider launched on eBay the small-format art group, which allowed the works « not to exceed 14 inches in one direction ». While ATC are instead presented in museums and special exhibitions (usually accompanied by a negotiation session), the ACEOs are sold on auction sites, collected privately and reproduced in craft tutorials or of art or other publications.
In a nutshell, ACEO is an artistic movement that started on eBay and is a great way for art lovers to buy art at an affordable price.

To create ATC, you must follow some common rules:

1. The dimensions of the card are strict, they must respect: 64 x 89 mm (2.5 x 3.5 inches).

2. Cards are exchanged, never sold.
The cards sold are called « Art Cards, Editions and Originals », in French « Carte d’Art, Éditions & Originales » (ACEO).

3. The artist who made the card must sign and date it, and number it if it is an edition.
The coordinates of the artist can be added.

ATC support is a simple white card. However, some cards are created on thick watercolor papers, metal, starch cloth, polymer, plastic, clay, balsa, leather, embroidery cloth, acetate, and many other media.
Various techniques are then applied to the chosen medium: collage, textile art, assemblage, digital art, calligraphy, seed beads, watercolor, stamp, engraving, ink pen, colored pencils, airbrush, etc.
The back of the art card must include the artist’s signature, the date and sometimes the serial number or edition, as well as the title.
If the cards are exchanged during a « convention » (organized exchanges), it is usual to add the name and the date of this event, as well as the name of the place where it is organized.

Now you know everything about art cards.
In the next time we will discuss a topic:
How to do them?