Beeple, aka Mike Winkelmann, is the de facto face of the NFT movement. Right after another epic sale (his hybrid physical / digital generative sculpture, “Human One” sold at Christie’s for US $ 29 million on November 11, 2021), Winkelmann spoke to Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show to explain how he went from creating daily digital artwork for 14 years to selling NFT for millions of dollars.
What’s in a name? It would be hard to find someone who hasn’t at least heard of Beeple by now – but where did the name come from? Winkelmann found his pseudonym in a toy from the 1980s called Beeple. “It was an ewok-like object that beeped and lit up – it was never very popular,” he says.
Winkelmann has created digital artwork with Cinema 4D and has grown its audience over the past 20 years, but until the recent emergence of NFT (non-fungible tokens) technology, there was no way to collect his works as one collects a Warhol or a Rembrandt. When NFTs finally hit the mainstream (the first NFT project dates back to 2015), they enabled virtual ownership, so that art collectors were able to start buying Beeple’s works like they do with physical pieces such as paintings and sculptures. Things took off quickly for Winkelmann, and the rest is history.
Winkelmann rose to fame by selling his “Everydays: The First 5000 Days”, the first NFT artwork to be auctioned at a major auction house, for a record US $ 69 million in March 2021. Before that ? The maximum price he had sold coins for was $ 100 here and there. This sale made Winkelmann one of the three most valuable living artists in the world.
He explains, “I wasn’t trying to sell works like this – you can sell prints, but artists usually don’t do that too much. They just weren’t that enthusiastic about it, whereas as NFTs are natively digital, people are very enthusiastic. “
Winkelmann’s latest sale, “Human One”, is a fascinating glimpse into what the future of art might look like. Part digital and part physical, this work is a kinetic video sculpture to which corresponds a dynamic NFT. It is designed to permanently display works of art that will evolve over time under the leadership of Beeple himself; he will have remote access to the work and creative control over its content forever.
“I think what’s exciting about this piece is that it’s closer to the future of art in that we will have pieces in our homes that keep changing. It’s not just a static painting that exists and is what it is – I think we’ll get more stuff like that, ”Winkelmann told The Tonight Show.
For anyone looking to break into the digital art scene and become creators themselves, Winkelmann adds, “There is a ton of tutorials and free software out there; it’s something that takes a lot of work and It’s not something that happens overnight. I think we’re going to see a lot more artists take this approach as a way to monetize their work and make a living. “
Watch Mike “Beeple” Winkelmann’s full conversation with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show here.
The original article posted on Maxon’s site here.