NFTs make Beeple the 2021 contemporary art ranking champion, so has NFTs become mainst
Summary:
Since 2021, the world has entered a new era of NFTs. With the first ever NFTs that set a record price at Christie's auction, the art market will be unable to stay out of this new world trend. NFTs are developing rapidly and at the same time, the purchase demand of the contemporary art market has rebounded, and the total turnover has reached a record high. Everyone began to discuss the interaction between NFTs and contemporary art. In 2021, auction companies including Sotheby’s will begin to accept cryptocurrency payments. Young crypto-rich newcomers will join the market. Artwork has become a value-preserving investment target during times of economic uncertainty. The growth of the Asian market will have a negative impact on the contemporary art market. What impact? This article will refer to the main results and data of the 2021 Artprice Contemporary Art Market Report, and will be divided into the following four directions to explore Discussion:
(1) How can contemporary art reach new heights in the post-epidemic era?
(2) How are the Eastern and Western contemporary art markets changing?
(3) What stars have been born in the art market?
(4) NFT and the Metaverse will become the most important keywords in recent years, can the art market stay out of it? Looking forward to summarizing and pointing out the future direction for the global art market in 2021 under the general trend of continuous wealth creation and new buyers entering the market.
(1) How can contemporary art reach new heights in the post-epidemic era?
At the end of last year, Artprice released the "2021 Contemporary Art Market Report". The global turnover of contemporary art continued to grow, saying goodbye to the severe setback caused by the epidemic in the previous year. Statistics from the second half of 2020 to the first half of 2021, the total global contemporary art turnover The amount reached a new high of 2.7 billion US dollars, an increase of 117%, more than double the previous year, and the contemporary art market began to move towards a new history. In addition to booming sales of sought-after works due to pent-up demand in the past, the crypto frenzy has indirectly propelled the global art market to record highs in 2021. It is worth noting that in addition to covering traditional media such as paintings, sculptures, drawings, photography, prints, video installation works by artists born after 1945,
It is also the first time that NFTs are included in the list of fine art media (although only a relatively small number of NFTs have been traded in traditional auction companies, most of the NFTs are actually traded on NFT-specific platforms such as OpenSea). It wasn’t just the 2021 NFT blockbuster that saw billion-dollar sales of sought-after works by Impressionist, post-war and contemporary artists, most of which were bought by the newcomers to the crypto scene.
The proportion of sales of various media of contemporary art, the picture is taken from Artprice. The global turnover of the contemporary art market (defined as artists born after 1945) increased by 50% in the first half of 2021 compared to the first half of 2019, with modern art (-8%) and post-war art (-4%) during the same period However, it has not returned to pre-Covid-19 levels. Contemporary art now accounts for 23% of total global art auction turnover, up from 3% 20 years ago. In terms of transaction volume, the recovery looks even stronger, with 51,616 contemporary works auctioned in the first half of 2021, a 32% year-on-year increase from the pre-pandemic first half of 2019, arguably the highest buying demand on record.
In terms of artists, the top three Asian contemporary transaction value in 2021 are: Yoshitomo Nara (sales value: 138 million US dollars; number of works sold: 358), Basquiat (sales value: 118 million US dollars; works sold) Quantity: 14 pieces), Liu Ye (sales value: US$55 million; number of works sold: 85 pieces). In March 2021, Christie’s Hong Kong sold Basquiat’s Warrior (1982) for US$41.6 million, setting a new Asian contemporary art record. Basquiat’s market will undergo significant changes in 2021, with major collections in Asia Homes can now bid for Basquiat’s most iconic and precious works in Hong Kong, where the artist generated a total of $118 million in sales, a third of which was sold in Hong Kong.
Yoshitomo Nara is a representative contemporary artist in Asia. His best works are all auctioned in Hong Kong, accounting for 80% of the world. Yoshitomo Nara was also the third-largest contemporary artist in the world in sales during the period (behind Basquiat and Banksy).
His works have doubled in price in two years, or sold for more than $10 million, often in the news, successfully reflecting the importance of comic book aesthetics in professional collections. Since Chinese artist Liu Ye joined the international gallery David Zwirner in 2019, the demand from professional institutions and global collectors has risen. After holding his first gallery solo exhibition in New York, his works have been sold for more than 10 million US dollars.
(3) What stars have been born in the art market?
Works that are often sold for millions or tens of millions of dollars constitute the economic foundation of the market, and the market atmosphere does need to be driven by such contemporary artists. It can quickly rise to the highest price within a short period of time. The "2021 Contemporary Art Market Report" announced that for the year ending June 2021, the top three contemporary single auction records are: Jean-Michel Basquiat's "In This Case (1983)" ( Sales: $93.1 million), Beeple (Michael Joseph Winkelmann) Everydays: The first 5000 Days (2021) (sales: $69.3 million), Chen Danqing’s Tibetan Paintings: Shepherds (1980) (sales: $25.1 million). Basquiat said the crown was not too surprising, but the auction results of two other artists making the top three contemporary works of the year confused the market. One is digital artist Beeple, creator of the first NFT auctioned at Christie’s, a whirlwind that has led traditional auction houses to embrace digital art. The other is Chinese-American artist Chen Danqing, whose masterpiece changed hands at a sky-high price of RMB 161 million at the 2021 Beijing Poly Spring Auction, making it the highest-priced Chinese contemporary art in history.
Beeple, still completely unknown to the art market in the past, is now one of the most expensive living artists, ranking third only after David Hockney and Jeff Koons. On March 11, 2021, a new chapter in the global art market was opened by the record-breaking price of the first ever public auction of NFTs. Beeple's "Everydays: The first 5000 Days (2021)" sold from $100 to $69.3 million. , For an artist with no gallery representation, no exhibition record, no auction record, the market is jaw-dropping (but Beeple has millions of followers on Instagram and the support of the long-established auction house Christie's). In addition to the sky-high price figures, the most special feature of this transaction is that it is an NFT (Non-Fungible Token) paid for online and paid in ether. The value of NFTs, which are highly collectible (Note 1), has soared overnight. In 2021, Beeple sold only two works, accounting for 3% of the global contemporary art market auction turnover. Digital NFT works now account for a third of online art sales and 2% of the global art market in 2021.
(Note 2)
Note 1: NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) are items that digital collectors store on the blockchain. Through the characteristics of open, transparent, secure storage and transmission technology of the blockchain, it replaces the guarantees of the traditional art world and constitutes a digital proof of origin and ownership. Specifically, when a collector buys an NFT work, he buys a token that represents the work (which may be an image, GIF, video, etc. file) or can be thought of as a kind of proof of title. The owner of the NFT is the sole owner of the content, even if the image archive is shared unlimited times online. For collectors, it's a way to obtain evidence of the rarity of a work. For digital artists, creators, or performers, it's a way to add value to their work. Note 2: This only includes the results of NFT auctions by art auction houses, excluding the transaction value of NFT online trading platforms. (4) NFT and the Metaverse will become the most important keywords in recent years, can the art market stay out of it?
Since 2021, the art world has been talking about the Metaverse world and NFTs. According to DappRadar, a research institute, the transaction volume of NFTs in the third quarter of 2021 reached as high as 10.7 billion US dollars, and the amount began to be much higher than the 1.3 billion US dollars in the second quarter and 1.2 billion US dollars in the first quarter. According to MorganStanley research estimates, the NFT market will grow to around $300 billion in 2030. The NFT market continues to expand, with monthly sales of OpenSea, the world’s largest NFT sales platform, reaching $5 billion in January this year, breaking a record since 2021, driven by popular topics such as Bored Apes or PhantaBear. It is particularly noteworthy that OpenSea's turnover in just one month has exceeded the total turnover of the contemporary art market for the entire year of 2021.
"2021 Contemporary Art Market Report" counts the world's top 500 contemporary artists (TOP 500 CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS BY AUCTION REVENUE) according to the total auction turnover, and 3 of the top 25 are NFT artists (in order, Beeple fifth, Larva Labs Sixteenth, PAK is the 25th). Before that, these digital artists and institutional groups may not have been on the list of the art world at all, but in 2021, when NFTs are shining brightly, they will rise to the top of the list as soon as they are listed. Based on the statistics of contemporary artists born after 1980, Beeple will be the first in total auction sales in 2021, with Larva Labs and Mad Dog Jones ranking third and tenth (if the identity of the unknown PAK is also born after 1980, he should be in fourth place). The influx of NFT artists into the rankings and the inclusion of fine art media, what does this mean for the traditional art market before the emergence of NFTs?
Since 2021, when the auction company’s first high-priced NFT work was born, the NFT market has developed unprecedentedly. Among them are the portfolio layouts of new riches in the crypto asset circle, grabbing current buyers, and more emerging young collectors. Think of NFTs as a new investment niche, when in reality, more collectors feel lost by missing out on projects like CryptoPunks, Bored Apes, and Art Blocks. When NFT took off, it set off a debate between the art market revolution or the digital art bubble. No matter what everyone thinks of the NFT field, it is certain that new forms of NFTs are still being created and the market continues to grow. These figures show that NFTs not only transcend the traditional web2 market, but also break through the established art market boundaries. NFTs have collided with the rapid evolution of the contemporary art market, the buying and selling habits of this market are changing, the concept of "collection" is being fundamentally shaken by NFTs, and the history of art itself is, to some extent, intermittently moving towards a larger generational shift , inclusiveness and diversity, the joining of new markets and a new generation of young people will make the entire art market subverted by this new normal.
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