From 25th February, Christie’s is opening online only sale for bidding of what it described as the first ever purely digital artwork. “Everydays – The First 5000 Days,” by the American digital artist Beeple, consists of all the works of art that he has made over the course of 13 years. Christie’s in New York said that because the venture was so new for the auction house the bidding will start at just $100.
The sale signifies the important milestone in the development of the market for digital art. Everydays – The First 5000 Days is a monumental work consisting of 5,000 individual images, one made each day over the course of 13 years, from 2007 to 2021, giving viewers the opportunity to zoom in and witness Beeple’s often irreverent but always engaging evolution as an artist pixel by pixel. The artist showed his 13 years of work in a single work perfectly which shows the limitless nature of this medium.
On May 1, 2007, the artist set out to create and post a new work of art every day indefinitely, and has not missed a single day in 13 years. These works, which are now known as Everydays, form one of the most celebrated bodies of work in the history of digital art. The First 5000 Days comprises every single individual image from Beeple’s first 5,000 Everydays compiled into a single composition.
Beeple’s artwork is rich with brazen symbolism in his examination of social contradictions and absurdities. Utilizing his signature grotesque, hypnotizing digital style, the artist tackles themes such as society’s simultaneous obsession with and fear of technology, desire and resentment towards wealth, and of course, the political turbulence of recent years.The First 5000 Days is a purely digital work of art, which is a Non-Fungible Token. An NFT is a unique digital token encrypted with the artist’s signature, which is individually identified on the blockchain, effectively verifying the rightful owner and authenticity of an original digital creation.
Digital Art has a long established history as an artistic medium, but until the recent introduction of NFTs and blockchain technology, it was impossible to assign value to digital works of art given the ease of duplication. Beeple is one of the most sought after digital artists within this market, having recently sold a collection of 20 works at auction for $3.5 million on another blockchain-based platform.
Christie’s, the leading auction house by market share, is not known for its forays in experimenting with emerging markets. But with the current sale, the house seems to be changing course.