A digital artwork that was tokenized and converted into NFT on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, it rises with a record on the blockchain: was sold for almost 70 million dollars through the century-old and traditional Christie's auction house.
This non-fungible token or NFT created by artist Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple, reached a record price for this type of digital pieces and this earned its creator the title of one of the most valuable living artists in the world.
Christie's, one of the most important auction houses of the world and founded in 1766, confirmed the transaction and detailed that the work, titled Everydays: The First 5000 Days (Everydays: The First 5.000 Days) one of many in a series he did for nearly 15 years. This piece sold for the exact price of $69.346.250However, he did not clarify whether payment was made in ETH, which was one of the options available to auction participants.
INVITE AND WINThe organizers reported everything through their X account (formerly Twitter). However, They preferred to keep the buyer's data anonymous and it is unknown if this is related to the Ethereum ecosystem, the cryptocurrency world in general, or if he is simply an art collector who became interested in NFTs.
Beeple's work was available for auction for 15 daysIt is a collage composed of five thousand images created daily by the author between May 1, 2007, and January 7, 2021. In other words, it is the result of almost 14 years of uninterrupted work (just over 5000 days) by the artist.
The work and its 5000-day retrospective in US society
The Everydays collage: The First 5000 Days It is, according to the auction organizers, a retrospective that encapsulates society's obsession, use, and fear of technologyHowever, it also shows human desire and resentment toward wealth. It also includes references to political and social tensions in the United States.
An aspect that underlines The surprising thing about the handling of digital art on the blockchain This refers to the price reached by this work. Christie's spokesperson announced that the auction began with an initial value of just $100. The piece, with dimensions of 21.069 x 21.069 pixels, equivalent to 319.168.313 bytes, translates to the following: which would be a physical fresco canvas or mural of approximately 100 square meters.
GO TO BIT2ME CARDThe auction took place in the context in which the NFT market is in full swing, since, at the time of the auction, the monthly volume of transactions with NFT reached a all-time record of just over $500 million.
A revolutionary artist in digital and physical art
Beeple is the pseudonym of Mike WinkelmannAlthough he achieved worldwide fame with Everydays: The First 5000 Days, he has produced numerous digital works that often explore futuristic, technological, and social themes.
In his artistic works, Beeple employs a variety of media such as painting, photos, magazine or newspaper clippings which he uses to create comical, ironic pieces full of ghostly and surreal elements that address political and social issues and in which he incorporates references to figures from urban life and pop culture.
Winkelmann was born on June 20, 1981, and spent his childhood in North Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. His life passed like other traditional: His father was an electrical engineer, and his mother worked at a senior center. Mike attended primary and secondary school in his hometown. But, He graduated in computer science in 2003 from Purdue University., in Indiana.
PREPARE YOUR WALLETFrom computing to digital art
Although experimented with urban art Since university, his works gained public value in 2019, when The complete series of Beeple's Everyday were part of the scene for Louis Vuitton's Spring/Summer 2019 ready-to-wear collection.
Were 9 of these pieces that were included in this collection that was presented during the Paris Fashion Week at the LouvreThe event's artistic decoration was provided by School of Motion, an online platform/academy for training in design and animation.
Were the directors of School of Motion who decided to choose Beeple's works for the major Parisian event. Days after the fashion shows, the artist confessed that he didn't know in advance how his works would be displayed, and after appreciating a model wearing one of his Everydays on his shirt She thought it was “something surreal and crazy.” But it wasn’t just one girl, but a series of girls, one after another, who wore the entire series that Winkelmann had created.
Further back, between 2009 and 2019, Beeple created VJ Loops, a series of short abstract digital art pieces, which he published under Creative Commons license, a platform for artists to manage their licenses online. In this case, The computer scientist and digital artist allowed its free use for any purpose. These clips have been downloaded, as of today, about 100 millions of times and have been used in thousands of live events around the world. Created, designed, and uploaded to the internet, they have become benchmark digital artworks for creatives worldwide. Beeple's VJ Loops number hundreds of pieces.
