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This Tuesday the 11th of October, contemporary artist Damien Hirst burnt hundreds of his artworks when collectors bought them as NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) at his The Currency Exhibition.
About a year ago, Damien Hirst sold 10.000 NFTs, corresponding to his 10.000 beloved spot paintings and gave the option to the collectors to swap these NFTs with the original physical work or to keep it. He then said that he would destroy the physical copies of the pieces bought as an NFT.
Out of the ten thousand artworks from his collection, almost half of those works were bought as an NFT, with the price of $2.000 (€2.070) each.
NFTs are digital assets that are like certificates of authenticity and ownership, meaning, if a collector buys an NFT, they will be the owner of that digital artwork whether it is a drawing, video or even music. Plus, depending on the demand on the art market, you can sell your ownership to another collector for a higher price, so it is somewhat an investment.
THE CURRENCY: DAMIEN HIRST, 2021-2022
The Currency was introduced to the public as Damien Hirst’s first NFT project in July 2021 where Hirst produced 10.000 NFTs. As mentioned the buyers were given a choice to keep the NFT or not. The exchange period closed on 27 July 2022.
On this Tuesday, he live-streamed the event as he burnt 1.000 of his works in fireplaces in the gallery and said;
“It feels good, better than I expected.”
when he was asked how it felt to burn his own artworks.
He was wearing shiny metallic-gray heat-resistant gloves with matching overalls on a white t-shirt.
CRYPTO ART AND CONTROVERSY
Hirst is one of the most controversial artists of England and maybe even the contemporary art world where he polarizes his audience and critics into opposite opinions.
He got a lot of criticism because of burning his physical artworks to change them into an NFT.
“ A lot of people think I’m burning millions of dollars of art but I’m not,” he says. “I’m completing the transformation of these physical artworks into NFTs by burning the physical versions.”.
All of those spot paintings made in 2016, on handmade paper that were not requested as physical copies will be burnt by their artist until his exhibition, The Currency, ends on 30 October.
BLUE CHIP ARTISTS: INTO THE WORLD OF NFT
Blue Chip artists, whose artworks go for more than one million euros in the art market while they remain constant on the market, are rapidly getting into the world of crypto art.
Big names such as Jeff Koons, world’s richest living artist, have stepped into the world of crypto art. Jeff Koons is well known for his physical art, however, after he presented his initial plans for launching NFT projects, he indicated that passage to crypto art is a natural evolution.
Others like Takashi Murakami, Banksy, and JR had started to modernize, some might say, their work by selling them as NFTs.
With more traditional and street artists joining the NFT world, it is difficult to say how these changes will affect the art world as a whole.
