NFT Art — A Watershed Moment in the History of Art
In the history of art, whenever a new medium emerged, a new genre of art soon followed. Before the invention of photography, artists mostly focused on verisimilitude: accurately documenting what the human eye saw. After the invention of photography, artists started to turn to subjective experience and the contours of human consciousness. Impressionists like Monet used techniques like stippling and broken color to depict a new vision of what art could be.
This takes us to the present moment and the rise of NFT art. A lot of people are confused, dazzled, appalled by the rise of NFTs: what does it mean, and why is it arising now?
We believe NFT art is the result of another shift in the art world: the rise of Internet culture.
Financially, art is like any other commodity—the value of the art is decided by however much a collector is willing to pay. For centuries, physical galleries and auction houses served as the canonical marketplace for art. However, this legacy system has largely ignored digital art, favoring physical objects like paintings and sculptures.
There are two reasons for this. First, the internet has only been around for a few decades. Digital art (VR/Animation/Processing) has not existed for much longer. The business models of art galleries have all formed around the assumptions of physical spaces. While galleries have started to adapt by incorporating digital art into their programs, it is still a clunky sideshow. Second, there is the perennial critique of digital art: you can always copy and paste a digital file—it does not possess the obvious scarcity and uniqueness of physical art.
Since digital art is less suited to this legacy system, there have been few marketplaces for this new form of art. And without a functioning marketplace, there is less incentive for digital artists to create. This is a cold start problem: the lack of marketplaces discourages artistic entrepreneurship. (Passionate artists are always creating and sharing on platforms like Instagram, but most cannot make a living from their art.)
NFTs are a system of ownership and a global marketplace that was designed with the assumption that of course digital files have real value. An NFT token on a public blockchain guarantees a piece’s uniqueness, scarcity, and authenticity. Secondly, blockchain’s permissionless aspect makes this marketplace global, eligible to any collector anywhere in the world (as Internet culture is itself global). And on the collector’s side, NFTs democratize the act of collecting: as long as you have an Internet connection, you have just as much access to the exclusive gallery world as anyone else. These were the missing pieces for a global marketplace for digital art.
Many from the traditional art world have criticized NFT art. They claim that NFT platforms are trying to displace art galleries. This is a misplaced concern. The invention of photography did not displace realistic paintings, and Airbnb did not displace the hotel industry. The universe of NFT art will exist in parallel with the traditional art world. Indeed, we are starting to see participation in the NFT world from galleries and auction houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s.
Aren’t NFTs kind of bubbly right now? Absolutely. But this is natural for the development of the crypto industry — the discovery of a new market excites creators and collectors alike. Over time, the industry will figure out how to understand pricing and the balance of supply and demand. Only a few thousand works in the traditional art world are ever written into history, and the same will be true for NFT art.
But what we have seen is the beginning of a paradigm shift in art history. It’s only beginning. We still need better infrastructure, more education for collectors and creators, and participation from art institutions to close the gap between traditional art and the NFT world.
Today, we are pleased to announce the launch of TR Lab (Tabula Rasa Lab), a new platform for discovering and collecting NFT art, incubated and backed by Dragonfly Capital. We have collaborated with Xin Li-Cohen (Deputy Chairman of Christie’s International), and the founders of of Artsy, Shanghai Rockbund Art Museum, and ART021 (one of Asia’s largest art fairs) to jointly establish TR Lab. Its first drop will be created by a yet-to-be-announced internationally renowned artist. This first drop will be released in May, and more details are forthcoming.
The full name of TR is Tabula Rasa, a Latin expression meaning “blank slate.” Every technology is born as a blank canvas: the Internet, blockchain, and now NFTs. They become what artists make of them. TR Lab is dedicated to helping creators better understand and make use of this blank canvas.
Whether you are a creator, institution, collector or developer, we welcome you to join the conversation at trlab.io.
Thanks to Xin Li-Cohen, Sue Mengchen Xu, Haseeb Qureshi, Lynette Lee, and Celia Wan for their feedback and contributions to this piece.
