The sale of the EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS artwork collection as a unique token for $ 69.3 million last month was a success. In addition, she made Beeple the third most profitable living creator behind Jeff Koons and David Hockney.
That being said, Hockney, who holds the record for the cost of works sold as a living artist, is not a fan of NFT. On the contrary, he sees innovation as «a tool for international fraudsters and swindlers.» Hockney spoke about his attitude to the rapid growth in the popularity of NFT in art on the air of the next issue of the podcast Waldy and Bendy’s Adventures in Art.
Let’s start with an explanation. NFTs are unique tokens that exist on the blockchain of Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. They are not interchangeable, that is, you cannot find two identical coins. The NFT tokens themselves are encrypted and tied to a specific work in the form of a song, image or video. The same can apply to a painting from an auction, because you can associate real items with a token from the real world.
Since blockchains are transparent and immutable, users can easily prove their ownership of a particular item and make sure that they own the original and not a fake. The connection of all this with cryptocurrencies has made the NFT art niche one of the main trends this year.
The theme was picked up by the stars. For example, the famous artist The Weeknd put up his work for sale over the weekend. They were completely sold out.
NFT works from The Weeknd
A unique video in a single copy was purchased for the equivalent of 490 thousand dollars.
Unique NFT from The Weeknd
However, all this is not enough to change the point of view of critics.
Why don’t they like NFTs?
The renowned artist still seems to be unable to grasp the basic concept of unique tokens. Here is his line, in which he shares his misunderstanding of what is happening in the world of blockchain and art today. The cue is from Decrypt.
What do they actually own? I do not know.
David Hockney, 83, remains skeptical about innovation and has no intention of capitalizing on it. And this is quite expected – the artist has no money problems. His most famous work, «Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)», sold at auction in 2018 for a record $ 90.3 million.
Hockney’s page at Christie’s
Hockney doesn’t think NFTs make sense at all in the long run. Here is his line.
Something can get lost in the computer, right? And in the future, NFTs will be lost on the computer even when the cloud is up and running. There will be so many things, how will you find it?
As a result, the creator admits that sooner or later the works and data about them will be lost. And this is a key mistake in perception, since information in the blockchain is stored forever, in addition, it cannot be changed. Obviously, David did not even understand the theory of NFT tokens and immediately made a negative impression on them. This position is easy to understand: after all, the artist belongs to the older generation, so it is clearly not easy for him to understand the blocks and standards of tokens.
David Hockney
Beeple, by the way, also does not arouse admiration in the artist. He continues.
I saw his paintings, but they look like something funny and incomprehensible. I never realized what it really was.
As a reminder, the $ 69.3 million NFT picture looks like this.
Note that Hockney is also a digital artist in some way, as he creates his paintings on the iPad. True, all his works are then printed and exist in physical copies.
We believe that due to his age and adherence to traditions, the artist does not want to succumb to a new trend and understand all the intricacies of NFT. However, contrary to his opinion, the sphere of unique tokens continues to break new records and attract even more investors.
In addition, as the representatives of the cryptocurrency community pointed out on Twitter, if the older generation criticizes your product, then you are doing everything right. At least with Bitcoin and the dislike for it on the part of bankers and officials, everything turned out exactly like this.
