an art NFT under the tree

Instead of an art book or a high-tech product, how about giving away an artist’s NFT for Christmas? A gift for geek art lovers…

Since 2021, traditional artists have taken over the field of NFT (Non Fungible Tokens or Non Fungible Tokens), those unique digital identifiers associated with a digital file (image, video, etc.) that serve as certificates of ownership. So why not offer a work of art associated with an NFT this Christmas – or offer yourself? Remember that art NFTs or crypto art can be bought in foreign currency using a bank card or in cryptocurrency through an electronic wallet (e.g. crypto wallet like Metamask) on specialized platforms.

Prices have fallen sharply

The fall in cryptocurrencies that has emptied the bubble around NFTs is, according to specialists, a great opportunity to acquire NFTs from artists that were previously inaccessible, such as: B. the series of pixelated flowers Murakami flowers by Takashi Murakami, launched last May on the occasion of his exhibition “An Arrow through History” at the Gagosian Gallery in New York (sold between 1 and 100 Ether (ETH) on the Opensea platform). ” On Sotheby’s Metaverse platform and on sothebys.com, NFT sales results are much lower than last year, with total dedicated sales down from $9-10 million to an average of $1-2 million adds Sotheby’s NFT specialist Brian Beccafico.

” Falling prices are a sign of a maturing market. For example, this is the opportunity to acquire a work by the American artist Frank Stella at unbeatable prices on the traditional art market. Last September, it launched a range of NFT geometries, white 3D virtual objects that the buyer can color and 3D print ” notes Fanny Lakoubay, a consultant at Art Crypto. Originally sold for 0.1 ETH, each digital token is now resold between 0.5 and 14 ETH on Opensea. ” Other conceptual works are of interest to established artists who have taken the plunge, such as Marina Abramović with The hero 25 FPS launched last July, offering to purchase part of the video of his iconic performance The hero of 2001,” she adds. The short, filmed in 25 frames seconds, was edited into 6,500 images linked to an NFT and sold for £150 each on the Circa platform.

• frank stella, geometriesArsnl on Open sea
• Marina Abramovic, The hero 25 FPS, About

Joint ownership of works of art

” The NFT makes it possible to freeze ephemeral art forms, such as a performance or a work of street art, by having them brought to market ” decodes Benoit Couty, artistic director of the NFT Factory, a space dedicated to digital tokens inaugurated in Paris last October. Here’s how street artist Pascal Boyart “tokenized” a mural destined to disappear: The underground Sistine Chapelcontemporary version of the masterpiece by Michelangelo Manufactured in 2020 in a former gold foundry in a Paris suburb. Each NFT of the 400 fresco marks of Last Judgment will be sold on Opensea between 1.6 and 1000 ETH (for the Virgin Mary…) and opens up a new form of shared ownership of artworks.

• NFT factory137 rue Saint Martin, 75004 Paris
• pascal boyard, The underground Sistine Chapel, Open sea

Pascal Boyart, Underground Sistine Chapel #169 “The Irreverent” Image file, Blockchain Ethereum unique piece, ©Courtesy of the artist and NFT Factory

Lovers of traditional art will prefer a physical work of art accompanied by its digital twin, like the series Possible by a Chinese artist Yang Jiechang Launched last October, it combines ink calligraphy on paper and canvas with digital NFT editions, sold for €2,000 on the laCollection.io platform in partnership with art and tech consultancy platform Aika and Connaissance des Arts magazine.

Yang Jiechang, God/Oh God, 2022, calligraphy on paper and canvas, ink on Xuan paper, dimensions variable, approx. 25 x 30 cm – approx. 60 x 100 cm © Yang Jiechang/ Felicitas Yang

Another original initiative the successful dialogue between the László Estate Moholy Nagy and generative artist Dmitri Cherniak, who developed an algorithm inspired by the Hungarian artist’s photograms to create 100 NFTs using a gelatin silver print ‘ explains Brian Beccafico. light years will be re-auctioned on December 1, 2022 (from 70 to 10 ETH).

Dmitri Cherniak, Light Years #009, 2022. Issue 1/1 © DLC Arts LLC, 2022. All rights reserved. Light Years was created in cooperation with the estate of László Moholy-Nagy.

NFT of foundations

” A physical twin NFT is harder for buyers to understand because of the value attribution issue. What is the original: the object or the NFT? warns Benoit Couty. With his project The Currency, the English artist Damien Hirst solved this dilemma by offering his collectors to keep either a work on paper or the NFT and destroy the other. The Calder Foundation hired motion graphic designer Raoul Marks to create animations out of five cell phones by Alexander Kalder (The Calder question, sold for 10 ETH). To have stars – digital – in the eyes at Christmas…