an art NFT under the tree

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

Since 2021, traditional artists have invested in the field of NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens), these unique digital identifiers linked to a digital file (image, video, etc.) that serve as ownership certificates . So, why not offer – or offer yourself – a work of art associated with a Christmas NFT? Remember that art NFTs or Crypto-art can be bought in foreign currency with a bank card or in cryptocurrency through an electronic wallet (Crypto Wallet like Metamask for example) on special platforms.

Prices have dropped significantly

The fall of cryptocurrencies, which inflated the bubble around NFTs, according to specialists is a good opportunity to get NFTs from artists that were previously inaccessible, such as the series of pixelated flowers. Murakami flowers by Takashi Murakami launched in May during 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 the Sotheby’s Metaverse platform and on sothebys.com, NFT sales results were lower than last year, with total dedicated sales falling from $9-10 million to $1-2 million on average. added Sotheby’s NFT specialist Brian Beccafico.

Frank Stella, Geometry XIV, ©Courtesy of the artist and ARSNL-Studio

” Falling prices are a sign of a maturing market. This is the opportunity, for example, to own a work by the American artist Frank Stella at unbeatable prices in the traditional art market. Last September, it launched a series of NFT Geometries, white virtual 3D objects that the buyer has the right to color and 3D print. “, said Fanny Lakoubay, adviser of Art crypto. Originally sold for 0.1 ETH, each digital token is now also sold between 0.5 and 14 ETH on Opensea. ” Other conceptual works are of interest to established artists who make movement, such as Marina Abramović The Hero 25 FPS launched in July, offering to capture the video portion of its iconic performance The Hero of 2001,” he added. The short film, filmed in 25 frames seconds, is cut into 6,500 images related to an NFT, sold for £150 each on the Circa platform.

• Frank Stella, GeometriesArsenal of Opensea
• Marina Abramovic, The Hero 25 FPSCirca

Shared ownership of works of art

” NFT makes it possible to freeze ephemeral art forms, such as a performance or a work of Street Art, by allowing them to be placed on the market “, decrypts Benoit Couty, artistic director of the NFT Factory, a place dedicated to digital tokens inaugurated in Paris last October. So the Street Artist Pascal Boyart “marked” a mural destined to disappear: The Underground Sistine Chapel, a contemporary version of Michelangelo’s masterpiece created in 2020 in a former gold foundry in the suburbs of Paris. Each NFT of 400 fresco characters of Final judgment sold on Openea between 1.6 and 1000 ETH (for the Virgin Mary…), inaugurating a new form of shared ownership of works of art.

• NFT Factory, 137 rue Saint-Martin, 75004 Paris
• Pascal Boyard, The Underground Sistine ChapelOpenea

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

Traditional art lovers prefer a physical work of art accompanied by its digital twin, such as the series possible by Chinese artist Yang Jiechang launched in October, combining ink calligraphy on paper and canvas in NFT digital editions sold for €2,000 on the laCollection.io platform in collaboration with the Art and Tech consulting platform Aika and the magazine “Connaissance des Arts”.

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

Another original initiative, the successful dialogue between the László Moholy-Nagy Estate and the generative artist Dmitri Cherniak, who created an algorithm inspired by the Hungarian artist’s photograms to create 100 NFTs finished in a silver gelatin print. Brian Beccafico explained. Light Year will be reverse auctioned (from 70 to 10 ETH) on December 1, 2022.

Dmitri Cherniak, Light Years #009, 2022. Edition 1/1 © DLC Arts LLC, 2022. All Rights Reserved. Light Years was created in collaboration with the Estate of László Moholy-Nagy.

NFT on Foundations

” An NFT with a physical twin is more difficult for buyers to understand because there is the issue of assigning value. What is original: the object or the NFT? warned Benoit Couty. With his project “The Currency”, the English artist Damien Hirst solved this problem by offering his collectors to keep one work on paper or the NFT, and destroy the other. As for the Calder Foundation, it entrusted motion graphic designer Raoul Marks with the task of creating animations from the five. mobiles by Alexander Calder (The Calder Question, sold for 10 ETH). To have stars – digital – in your eyes this Christmas…