With mentions of art-related NFTs in several other threads, I thought it made sense to try to consolidate some of that into one thread to discuss NFTs/Digital Art in one thread.  Odd that I am creating it as I have very little understanding of it all, save for the basics, but again thought it made since to try to corral the discussion into one main thread if possible. 

I'll lead off with the news today from Christie's.

www.theartnewspaper.com/news/the-future-of-the-art-market-christie-s-to-become-first-major-auction-house-to-sell-a-standalone-nft-work-of-art

‘The future of the art market’: Christie’s to become first major auction house to sell a standalone NFT work of art

Are NFTs a fad or do they represent the future of the art market?



That is the question Christie’s appears to be testing later this month when it becomes the first major auction house to offer a standalone NFT (Non-Fungible Token) work of art.



The work is by Beeple—who might sound like a character from a children’s television programme, but whose Instagram account has a very real following of 1.8m—and is titled Everydays: The First 5000 Days (2021). The vast, pixellated work is comprised of 5,000 individual images created every day since 1 May 2007.



Beeple (whose real name is Mike Winkelmann) already has celebrity backing, having created concert visuals for artists such as Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Childish Gambino, Nicki Minaj, Skrillex and deadmau5. His art has also attracted considerable prices; a collection of 20 works sold for $3.5m in December.



However, given the unprecedented nature of the Christie’s sale, the auction house is offering Beeple’s work with an “unknown” estimate. Bidding starts at $100 (the auction runs from 25 February-11 March). Unlike the NFT Christie’s sold last October by Robert Alice (which was a virtual version of a painting), Beeple’s work is purely digital. The winning bidder will receive an encrypted file without any kind of physical presence, and the transaction will be registered on the blockchain. Crucially, unlike the traditional art world, the provenance for all NFT purchases are public, immutable and available on the blockchain.



According to Noah Davis, a Christie’s specialist in post-war and contemporary art, the market for NFTs has “seen a rapid ascent over the last few years—especially the last few months”.



One very recent case in point: on 14 February, the graphic designer David Rudnick who is known for high-profile collaborations with musicians including Black Midi, Nicolas Jaar and Oneohtrix Point Never, sold a Valentine’s Day NFT for almost $20,000. An anonymous bidder paid 10.8 WETH (Wrapped Ether), the equivalent of $18,600, for Stem—a glitchy rendering of a flower.



The work was sold on Zora, which offers artists a percentage of all future sales, unlike traditional trading platforms where artists lose out on resales. In the case of Rudnick’s Stem, his share is 10%.

So who is buying this kind of art? Davis says that millennials occupy a “major segment of the market for NFTs, and are mostly new to the traditional art at auction category”, but he also notes that buyers include “a generation of collectors who have long awaited the advent of the market for digital art”.



The potential NFT market is particularly of interest, Davis adds, “because it appeals to audiences who are tech-savvy and singularly focused on digital art, as well as collectors who have long been drawn to the cutting-edge of art in new media”.



Among the tech-savy to have recently publicised their investment in NFT art are the SpaceX and Tesla chief executive, Elon Musk, and Chamath Palihapitiya, the chief executive of the technology holding company Social Capital and former Facebook executive.



Palihapitiya is reported to have been building a sizeable portfolio of NFTs including digital art and virtual trading cards, recently telling Bloomberg: “I do think that that’s the next frontier of digital currency and digital assets.”



Palihapitiya has also been making headlines recently as the “undisputed king of special-purpose acquisition companies [SPACs]”—another new frontier that appears to be opening up in the art market.



For some, such as Jason Bailey, the founder of the analytical database artnome and digital art specialist, the current attention to NFTs is not surprising. As he puts it: “The centre of culture and influence has long been moving from the analogue world to the digital world”—and the pandemic is no doubt accelerating this shift.



Nonetheless, the art world has been typically slow to catch up. As Bailey points out, auction house brands in particular “are built around exclusivity, a centralised system, and analogue events like live auctions and art fairs. This approach worked well with boomers for many decades”.



However, he adds: “The post-boomer generations are poised to benefit from the largest wealth transfer in human history. The younger generations have views that are antithetical to boomer values, preferring brands built on inclusivity, decentralisation, and a digitally native experience. If Christie’s and the other auction houses treat blockchain and NFTs like a trend instead of the future of the art market, they will have missed their opportunity for relevance with future generations.”



The quality of art on offer has been sticking point for some of the more traditional art world players, though Bailey says to write off NFTs based on not liking the work of a handful of artists is “not unlike having seen a few websites from the early 1990s and writing off the entire potential of the internet”.



The question now is how long before NFTs are traded rather than merely being bought and held on to. Only then will we be able to assess whether this market will thrive or not.

Woof - I hope you’ve been well!

I won’t argue with you. I get it. My personal enjoyment of art is driven by its physical presence. It’s why my flat file is basically non existent and 90+% of what I own is framed and on the wall.

But NFTs I think are here to stay, and a segment of those are art related. So dumping those here I figure might help consolidate the discussion (though perhaps that naive thinking on my part with the forum as it is).

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s totally worthy of discussion. In fairness, I thought I’d never buy crypto either and that changed. Didn’t mean to poo poo your thread haha

I'm very much a bull on Bitcoin and Ethereum but NFT's are looking like the 2021 equivalent of 2017 ICO shitcoins. I predict a bunch of people holding bags of worthless clipart in a year or so
Maybe i'll be proved wrong on this, i dunno...

Oh man...

Dope, really? Not my thing, that's for sure. 

Seems like a video game crowd TBH.

Sure, but that still doesn’t mean they want 8-bit terrible digital whatever these are on their walls?

I get it, these have a place now. But to say that the art world is shifting towards NFT’s is a bit of a stretch at the moment.

Block chain COA’s I see happening - sure. They’ll pay out a fee for every time a piece moves (back to the artist).

Is that what you’re taking about?

Interesting NFT discussion on Clubhouse with Beeple, Christies and a bunch of digital artists right now

Just wait for fully digital paper

Fake Banksy nets $1m in nft sales

cointelegraph.com/news/nft-market-top-signal-fake-banksy-nets-over-1-million-in-eth-sales

Christies to offer NFT by Beeple to the market:

www.christies.com/features/Monumental-collage-by-Beeple-is-first-purely-digital-artwork-NFT-to-come-to-auction-11510-7.aspx

Sometimes I just it’s just all the crypto millionaires don’t know not spend their ETH And BTC.
I’d say all the NFT can work great for collectibles like Pokemon or baseball cards. No need to make them, no need to ship them no need to store them. You can see suck card on your mobile. Also it’s very easy to sell/buy.

With artworks, it’s a little more complicated. The main one I believe, the obvious one, is that it’s difficult to put such work on the wall. That might probably change in the future. That said we would all get Banksy NFT.