Picasso & NFT
Credit: Milad Fakurian
What’s in common between Picasso and NFT?
Counter-culture, of course!
But what else?
Time.
Whether it’s zeitgeist or the fourth dimension, it’s about keeping track of history.
In 1916, when Picasso showed Les Demoiselles d'Avignon at the Salon d'Antin, Paris, people were appalled. They said he abandoned traditional art and challenged the ideal of beauty. But when I learned of this, I was thrilled! Furthermore, I’d say they left out an important piece, which is time. Picasso painted figures viewed from different perspectives in the same frame, which cannot be observed without the dimension of time. He was already living in the 4D.
Sold: 25,000 francs, ~1924
Valuated: $1.2 billion, 2018 (speculative)
Coincidentally in 2021, Beeple sold the first piece of NFT - Everydays: The First 5000 Days, which documents his creative journey across time. That single piece of work is a combination of many works in one. Even before then, he has been contributing free media to the creative community with VJ LOOPS. So yeah, credit rightfully deserved 🙌
Sold: $69M, 2021
Valuated: Unspecified
On a visit to MoMa in 2006, I noticed that I could take photos of any Picasso or Van Gough artworks, but not the digital printed artworks. Even the kind that looks like wallpapers sold at IKEA, frankly. I had a crazy revelation relevant at the time: There is NO rights protecting genuine art in the digital age!
Also in 2004, when I posted one of my digital illustrations online, possibly MySpace, someone stole it and made it a profile image. My friend caught the user and told her to remove it, which she did and apologized.
Rights in the digital world have always been ambiguous. Previously, digital artists had to turn their virtual work into physical objects to obtain monetary value. On the other hand, physical art looks terrible in digital displays. Wonder how to bridge?
NFT is the first step in proclaiming digital rights.
Though the blockchain technology is relatively new and is meeting bottlenecks left and right. With a bit of reformation, it’ll thrive. And thus, in the development of Metaverse, we’ll also witness an entirely new immersive economy. This may very well be connected to the physical world.
