Live data from Hacker News

All 5000 Images in Beeple’s $69M Magnum Opus:What I Found Isn’t So Pretty

news.artnet.com

171–180 of 271 posts

Re: All 5000 Images in Beeple’s $69M Magnum Opus:What I Found Isn’t So Pretty

#171
post #18
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a reason why the painting I linked is $85mil, and the Beeple NFT isn't? My argument is that the value of a collectible (NFT, painting, baseball card) is actually because of what it represents, rather than the object itself.

> My argument is that the value of a collectible (NFT, painting, baseball card) is actually because of what it represents, rather than the object itself. Well... yeah? Has anyone ever argued that the Mona Lisa is worth whatever its raw materials are worth? The real question is if the Beeple work is interesting as art or is if just a speculative bubble. https://www.ft.com/content/1563d643-332f-3887-8c6e-caf7435f3...

Many would argue that the Mona Lisa required an immense amount of skill and technique, and is a very high quality piece of art. Modern art (squares and circles) that anyone can make, I just don't see why it has the same value.

But it does! And that's my point about NFTs.

Re: All 5000 Images in Beeple’s $69M Magnum Opus:What I Found Isn’t So Pretty

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Quantity over quality? Isn't focusing on quantity the only reliable way to improve quality? See also, the usual Ira Glass quote: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/309485-nobody-tells-this-to... .

Sure, but the point of the practice is to produce quality, and then display the good bits of your production because mixing the few good ones into the deludge of average works isn't very helpful for the audience.

Like no artists have released behind the scenes work or b-sides.

Re: All 5000 Images in Beeple’s $69M Magnum Opus:What I Found Isn’t So Pretty

#173
post #5

"We didn't need a preview": the content of the art isn't important. Like most NFTs, it's just a url that you can sign a hash of for dollars. What's more interesting is the allegation that this is "tape painting": sold to an accomplice for the purpose of promoting the NFT "art" market.

In the art world it's a pretty straightforward formula: -Buy out the estate of a 3rd tier artist who once drank a beer with a famous artist -Created slick marketing materials written by an art critic who was paid a lot of money to hold their nose -Place several key pieces up for auction and an accomplice buys them at inflated prices -Market is cornered, established prices are high, nothing left to do but sell to buyers who are too lazy to form a critical opinion and who instead rely on the manufactured signals from steps 1, 2 and 3. -Once all the best pieces are picked through you still have a bunch of inflated junk that you can use as collateral for other nefarious schemes. Source: worked in a gallery for many years.

Re: All 5000 Images in Beeple’s $69M Magnum Opus:What I Found Isn’t So Pretty

#174
post #69

Modern “art” is very often offensive, but usually that is seen as a good thing. It’s “irreverent”, it “challenges norms”. I suppose the problem is that this particular hack challenges the wrong norms?

You can find largely equivalent content and messaging in political comics sections of a daily newspaper. What norms is this work challenging?

Apparently the author of this article felt that he challenged PC norms.

Re: All 5000 Images in Beeple’s $69M Magnum Opus:What I Found Isn’t So Pretty

#175
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being one of the highest prices ever paid at auction for a piece of art, i think it would definitely raise a lot of eyebrows. If not more. At least as an nft, it can be attributed to the crypto bubble. If an art book from a completely unknown artist sold his art at a Christie's auction for $69m, i think everyone would assume something nefarious was going on.

Beeple isn't a "complete unknown", pretty much every 3D artist knows him, he's produced and published more digital art than anyone else. He's arguably the Andy Warhol of 3D rendering. It's only now that somehow people found a way to make money from all these 3D renderings that the general public pays attention.

> Beeple isn't a "complete unknown", pretty much every 3D artist knows him, he's produced and published more digital art than anyone else. He's arguably the Andy Warhol of 3D rendering.

I cannot stress enough how much of an overstatement that is. He's not the first, the biggest, the best, the most popular, or most prolific artist, he's not very well known in the space, and I think few, if any, professional 3D artists would hold him in high regard. And I would be surprised if, prior to the current media blitz, more than a small minority of 3D artists had actually even heard of him.

You're right, he's not a complete unknown, and he's certainly had some successes, but he's just one of an enormous number of artists working in that space. And by no means a standout along any metric.

Re: All 5000 Images in Beeple’s $69M Magnum Opus:What I Found Isn’t So Pretty

#176
post #147
post #69

Modern “art” is very often offensive, but usually that is seen as a good thing. It’s “irreverent”, it “challenges norms”. I suppose the problem is that this particular hack challenges the wrong norms?

I don't see him challenging the norms, so I'm gonna guess "no". It seems to be that his art is a dime a dozen sort of low quality crap. Crap is in itself unsurprising -- most of everything is, see Sturgeon's Law -- but what's surprising is the amount paid for such low quality, low effort crap. No sign of norms being challenged here.

Of course it’s low quality, but so is Pussy Riot or any equivalent leftist “art”.

Surely the author of the article felt that drawing a “black dude” etc was un-woke?

Re: All 5000 Images in Beeple’s $69M Magnum Opus:What I Found Isn’t So Pretty

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your observation: > I bet someone would buy a preserved notebook of someone semi-famous with 5000 pages of drawings, mostly regardless of contents ...is, I think, kind of what the article author is trying to get at. Beeple is arguably semi-famous not for his art, but for getting a staggering price for these 5000 images. It's as if someone bought a preserved notebook with 5000 pages drawings for tens of millions of do…

Any situation where money meets art doesn't make any sense. Is the original of a Banksy painting any nicer to look at than a copy? Is a rare vinyl pressing of a record any nicer to listen to than an mp3 you can download for free?

Well a different sort of sense. Price is not just about how nice something is - it's about things like supply and demand too. There is a limited supply of original Banksys and an infinite supply of copies.

Re: All 5000 Images in Beeple’s $69M Magnum Opus:What I Found Isn’t So Pretty

#178
post #165
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? No, it's a critique of the art. It points out that the images are unfunny satire, or earnest political right-on-itude, or just trying out photoshop filters. Honestly, they could have just posted the images and that would have been condemnation enough. I mean, good for him for making money, but let's not pretend this is interesting art for anyone over fifteen.

> No, it's a critique of the art. It points out that the images are unfunny satire, or earnest political right-on-itude, or just trying out photoshop filters. Humor is a matter of personal taste. Art isn't craft.

Sure! People who forward Facebook posts for their biting political wit will love this stuff, and who am I to disagree?

Re: All 5000 Images in Beeple’s $69M Magnum Opus:What I Found Isn’t So Pretty

#179
post #50

Long after we’re all dead this work will be reviewed by historians for it’s significance. Mocked by present day critics, reviled by many. Nonetheless a curated work that defined the times that we lived through, in a series of pictures. He’s an Artist. It’s his chosen vector of expression. Leave him be. His work will be discussed long after we’ve become worm farmers.

I think this is right. I remember in various art history courses certain pieces were described as causing a huge uproar not only in the art world but within the general public of its era. I’d sit there wondering just how or why, not fully appreciating the context of the time it was made. I think this “piece” if you will follows that. It’s super controversial because of what it claims as fine art - an NFT of crude ima…

[deleted]

Re: All 5000 Images in Beeple’s $69M Magnum Opus:What I Found Isn’t So Pretty

#180
post #9

I'm not sure I get this point of view. We know that famous artists did random rude and badly-satirical drawings for fun. Their dick drawings were contained in some old notebooks and trashed. But I bet someone would buy a preserved notebook of someone semi-famous with 5000 pages of drawings, mostly regardless of contents. This is pretty much the equivalent of that - daily fun which went to the internet bin rather than…

> "it’s fun to draw black people" - what is it an example for? The author is oblivious to the fact that he can't think his way around his pangs of identity guilt. He doesn't realize the mere mention of black people isn't a taboo for most people.

>He doesn't realize the mere mention of black people isn't a taboo for most people.

I'd guess he realizes it and that's the point. A lot of his stuff has taboos.

Post reply on HN