Beeple, Beeple, Beeple…You must’ve heard the name of this American artist who recently sold his NFT entitled Everydays: the First 5000 Days, for the eye-watering sum of $69.9 million! Today, KAZoART is looking down the microscope, in meticulous detail at this incredible digital mosaic, in order to uncover all its secrets!
Everything you Need to Know about Beeple
American artist, Beeple, whose real name is Mike Winkelman, was born on June 20, 1981. He grew up in Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Purdue, specializing in computer science.
Today, Winkelmann lives in Charleston in South Carolina, with his wife and children, where he once worked as a web designer.
Until just last year, Beeple was a prominent figure in the world of computing, but unknown within the Art world. Just over a year ago, he had never sold a single work of art.
With over 2 million followers on Instagram, Mike Winkelmann is known throughout the digital world thanks to a lot of collaborations with prominent brands such as Louis Vuitton or Nike.
Beeple’s Artistic Projects
Bored and fed up with his web designer job, the crypto artist decided to take up the challenge set by British artist Tom Judd. This creator decided to complete a sort of artistic journal where every day, he would draw something new on each page and would do so for one whole year, without fail!
It’s thanks to this ingenious idea that Winkelmann started his daily experiments on 1 May 2007.
By following this strict regimen, he ended up creating his exclusively digital NFT piece “Everydays: the First 5000 Days“, which is made up of a mosaic of his first 5000 vector images and gifs ( animated images).
Initially online for the price of 100 dollars, the NFT version was put up for auction in March 2021 at the prestigious Auction House, Christie’s, for a period of 14 days. However, during the last ten minutes of its sale, the price of the digital piece skyrocketed, before capping off at $69,3 million!
The sale of this specific NFT was a major first for the prestigious auction house, truly the first of its kind. Moreover, it marked the first time that a piece of art had been sold using crytocurrency.
Beeple’s Artwork in Detail
This ensemble of digital images is organized in a chronological order, spanning his earlier works to his most recent ones.
You can see in the upper left hand corner of the NFT, his very first vector drawings on paper. His first works are portraits or colored abstract forms. Beeple tries and experiments with the creative tools at his disposal.
At the bottom right of the composition you can see his latest digital works made with Adobe Illustrator or with the CINEMA 4D software program.
A Dystopian Cyberpunk Universe
At first glance, the scenes depicted take place in a sort of science fiction looking landscape, more specifically, a cyberpunk world.
In these landscapes, we find fictional or real life characters, robots or fantastic beasts. These figures evolve in cities with robotic structures, distopian skylines or post-apocalyptic landscapes.
A Satirical Depiction of Prominent Political Figures
Politics, mainly American, is one of Beeple’s favorite topics. We find Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, or foreign presidents such as Kim Jong-un, but also influential personalities such as Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk.
These characters, leitmotifs of Beeple’s digital work, are ridiculed, caricatured or put in horrifying situations.
These illustrations highlight Beeple’s political activism. Thus, they show the feelings he has toward these polarizing political figures.
A Plethora of Popular Symbology
Beeple is largely attracted to the many symbols imbedded within pop culture. Indeed, through his works, the artist appropriates emojis, video game characters, cartoons but also celebrities.
These characters, the artist mercifully inserts into dystopian universes he brings to life. He stages them in a frightening world in the the not-so-distant future. He depicts them in blood baths, often decapitated, ugly, either committing a crime or being the victim of one.
This popular more juvenile symbology aims to point out the horrors of our society, past or future. Could his trashy and gory imagery be a reflection of his inner anxieties?
KAZoART launches its “Genesis NFT“ collection
After our 1st NFT sale that happened back in April 2021, KAZoART has launched its “GENESIS NFT” collection: more than 300 exclusive and unique NFTs made by 20 talented KAZoART artists!
Currently available on Opensea.io, this collection was officially launched through KAZoART’s Virtual Gallery Opening in the Metaverse via Cryptovoxels, on the 22.02.2022. Go check it out!
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