Yoyo Maeght - NFT - Art of tomorrow - NEW

See my video for TDXx on NFTs here

While strolling through exhibitions, museums, art fairs or galleries, have you ever asked yourself this question: Would I like to have this work at home? Would I like to hold it, own it? What relationship would I then have with her and will my view of her change?

Do we have to own the art or is it enough to have access to it?

The question may seem surreal, but isn't it up to me, brought up by the surrealists, to ask it and try to answer it.

Questions, I have always asked.

Surrealist questions to surrealists, like here to Jacques Prévert and Pablo Picasso, yet I am only 3 and a half years old!

It must be said that having a visionary like Aimé Maeght as a grandfather and having Prévert, Chagall, Braque, Picasso, Yves Montand or André Malraux as uncles gives you tremendous strength, freedom and audacity. .

These geniuses not only transmitted their knowledge to me, they gave me this taste for the history of art.

They made me understand that art is constantly in motion, that it advances, forks, takes side roads, sometimes highways or small steep paths. But advance inexorably feeding on any innovation.

But what would art be without sharing?

My grandfather, who had started from scratch, an orphan, to show and offer his tastes and artistic discoveries to as many people as possible, created his own Foundation in the sun of Saint-Paul-de-Vence...

Helped in this by his artist friends who were all passionate about the project: Braque the first, then Giacometti, Chagall, Calder and above all Miró, who, by deploying his Labyrinth there, endowed the Foundation with a garden-museum.

Miró is the one who taught me the most, he showed me nature and its relationship with art, he sharpened my curiosity and answered each of my questions and encouraged me to always ask more, as no doubt here, in 1966, under his benevolent gaze filled with tenderness, which says a lot about our complicity.

It is undoubtedly thanks to him that I have this appetite for discovery. So it's not surprising that I look into any form of modernity, creation or proposal, including technology and to look ahead, far ahead!

It is by doing this that today, I can tell you that we are experiencing the beginnings of a revolution in the art world, and this upheaval will come from NFTs.

Who knows about NFTs?

When did the term NFT enter our everyday language?

It's very recent, it's in March 2021 when the artist Beeple - Mike Winkelmann - became known worldwide because his work, “ Everydays: the first 5,000 days” , sold on the blockchain the equivalent of 69 millions of dollars. We discover crypto Art .

It is a shock for the media of the planet: mass media, written press, society, people, feminine, sports, audiovisual, web, TV, radio, all covered the info, often ignoring what it is. acted.

But beyond the communication on the record price, little has been said.

So some explanations are in order.

NFTs (Non-Fungible Token) are digital assets held uniquely on the blockchain. Cryptographic and virtual elements, they are unique identification codes for author, signature, date, title.

In short, the blockchain makes it possible to create a kind of unique deed of ownership or certificate, encrypted and therefore not falsifiable, which can be attached to various goods: Real estate, collectibles, domain names, brands and, of course, Art.

An NFT Art is an encrypted certificate attached to an image. So only one person holds the certificate of ownership of an image that is visible to all.

You haven't understood everything between holding and having access. ?

So a little demonstration with the world's first NFT.

It dates from ? Let's see, its date of creation is debated, it is probably 1516.

Oh that surprises you? But no, because I consider the Mona Lisa, the famous Mona Lisa, as the first NFT in the world.

You find, that I kept the spirit of my surreal mentors!

Let's see why I call Mona Lisa an NFT.

When I talk about NFT I get "billionaire speculation and snobbery".

But I retort, "rather less than François 1er with Leonardo da Vinci, who was basically a great publicity stunt!"

The young 22-year-old king wants to show Europe that he is the most powerful and up to date with novelties and technologies. Thus in 1516, at the request of the monarch, Leonardo joined France to become the first painter, engineer and architect of the King of France. Leonardo will complete Mona Lisa at Clos Lucé and will sell the painting to François 1er for the royal collections. It is also at this time that the contemporary art market was created, previously contemporary works were orders and were almost never resold.

Nice operation for France because, out of about fifteen paintings whose paternity of Leonardo is certain, 6 are in France! What a good investment and one that still pays off.

Why is Mona Lisa the world's first NFT?

Let's do a comparison:

  • The image is immediately identifiable, like the NFTs, and is known even to those who have never been to the Louvre.
  • Its creator mastered both the brush and new technologies.
  • The owner ? We don't really know who it is and we don't care, since we have access to the work. Only one owner has a deed of ownership. It's the Louvre or more exactly France, that's a very strange notion. Today we could speak of "investment funds".
  • Only one owner but the work is accessible to all. Like an NFT.
  • Who could set the price if it were put up for sale: the buyer .
  • It could even be sold and not move from the Louvre .

What if NFTs offered a real and total democratization of art, total sharing, going even further than Mona Lisa.

Let me explain, let's always keep in mind our dear Mona Lisa.

  • Free access
    • NFT art can be viewed by everyone on the web via distribution platforms such as SupeRare, Opensea, Nifty Gateway . While the Louvre is paying.
  • Timelessness
    • There is no access schedule. No closing day, unlike the museum.
  • Globalization
    • wherever you are on the planet, all you need is an internet connection. No need to move.
  • Quality of the work consistent with its creation
    • The work was conceived on a screen and it is visible through the glass of a screen, yes, behind glass, like Mona Lisa.
  • Unlimited imaginary museum
    • To compose our collection of NFTs for free, all you have to do is collect our favorite images or videos, you don't even need to hold the certificate. The images are free to access.
  • Market transparency
    • All transaction history appears on platforms, dates, prices, acquirers. The artists are thus informed of all the transactions and receive royalties on each one.

So, isn't this the advent of art for all? It is easier and cheaper today to have a smartphone or a computer than to come to the Louvre.

Art now accounts for 20% of NFTs.

However, will NFTs put more conventional art on the sidelines? The one that I could call materialized?

The history of art, as I said, has several paths, one not excluding the other. I give you an example.

1914 : Claude Monet paints one of the monuments of the history of Art, the Water Lilies . Eight panels of two meters high for a length of 91 meters. They are thus exhibited at the Orangerie, in the Tuileries in Paris, in two oval rooms to symbolize the sign of infinity.

It is this same year, 1914 , that the work of Marcel Duchamp " The Bottle Holder " sees the light of day. This work is considered the first Ready Made, since it is an ordinary object bought by the artist at the Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville.

It is clear that the History of Art has various components that coexist perfectly. Les Nymphéas and Le Porte Bouteilles, both from 1914, are essential in the history of Art.

Today painting, sculptures, drawings, installations and NFT have their place in the history of Art.

Some, like Aki Kuroda, sublimate the painting,

And yet, since 2000, he has been able to create digital exhibitions. None of this has ever materially existed .

New Artists

A new generation of artists is emerging via NFTs. The visual variety of the creations is incredible and the subjects endless, Manga, science fiction, ecology, hyperrealism, poetry and animated images

Among these new artists, more than thirty of them have already acquired immense notoriety, including:

CryptoPunk - Hackatao - Android Jones - Mark Inducil and of course Beeple

You see, the expressions, the styles are rich in variety.

Do we have to own the art or is it enough to have access to it?

Today technology allows us not to choose. Let us have works on our walls and works on our computers.

It's exciting, or should I say it excites me and confess:

In Art, as in life, everything that does not interest me bores me!