This graphic designer is revolutionizing the art world
Graphic designer Mike Winkelmann
Graphic designer Mike Winkelmann from the American provinces is stirring up the art world - with digital art in the form of NFTs that are selling for many millions of dollars. But what the hell are NFTs and what does Bitcoin have to do with them?
39-year-old graphic designer Mike Winkelmann from Charleston, South Caroline has been an artist for a long time. For over 13 years he has been publishing a new work of art every day under his artist name Beeple, initially drawings, now computer-generated images and videos.
He was well respected in the digital art scene, but completely unknown to the general public - until last week he didn't even have a Wikipedia entry. He has now received this because of one of his more recent works, a ten-second video clip that shows an oversized Donald Trump lying in a meadow.
Insults such as “Loser” can be read on Trump's naked body, animated people walk past on the sidewalk, idyllic birds chirping in the background. Anyone can view the work with the name “Crossroad” at any time, as often as they want and for all eternity, free of charge on the Internet. Last week it sold for $ 6.6 million.
What does this have to do with Bitcoin?
“Crossroad” is an NFT, a “non-fungible token”, roughly translated as “non-exchangeable souvenir”. NFTs rely on blockchain technology, just like cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Their creation and their transfer are recorded in the blockchain in a publicly visible manner.
But the Bitcoin is exchangeable, as is a must for a currency. Just as the 10-franc note in your own wallet is identical and interchangeable with the 10-franc note in your colleague's wallet, a Bitcoin is also identical and interchangeable with another Bitcoin.
This lack of uniqueness has also previously been a problem with digital art. A digital file can be copied and multiplied without loss - it can never really belong to anyone.
Of course, copyright law could be used to try to prevent works of art from simply being copied without permission, but the actual act of copying cannot be prevented. The “Mona Lisa”, on the other hand, will never be duplicated.
NFTs guaranteed uniqueness
However, an NFT is unique, not interchangeable, and cannot be copied. A work like “Crossroad” only exists in the blockchain and there only once - and who owns it is also recorded there. Of course you could download the video clip, but that would not have the actual work in your possession - it would be like a photograph of the “Mona Lisa”.
But NFTs are by no means limited to art. A lucrative field are digital trading cards and especially “NBA Top Shot”. The trading cards consist of short video highlights from games of the American basketball league NBA, such as a particularly spectacular dunk. Each trading card is numbered, has a limited edition and can be resold. In some cases, prices in the six-digit range have already been achieved for a particularly coveted card.
Is it all just a bubble?
But back to Beeple. He sold "Crossroad" in October for $ 66,666 to art collector Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile, who last week sold it for $ 6.6 million. Such dramatic increases in value in such a short time are rather unusual even in the overheated art market, which is why quite a few observers at NFTs see a huge speculative bubble at work.
Fortunately for Beeple, however, rules for individual NFTs can also be written into the blockchain. For example, in the case of Beeple's artwork, one says he must get ten percent of the revenue from every resale. In December, Beeple auctioned further works for a total of around $ 3.5 million.
On the same level as the very big ones
These days it has become clear that Beeple alias Mike Winkelmann has finally arrived in the art world. The auction of his work "Everydays: The First 5000 Days", of course as NFT, ran at Christie's auction house - where da Vincis and Picassos are usually sold - until March 11, 2021.
It shows a collage of the 5000 daily works of art that Beeple created in his 13 years of artistic activity.