Hilma af Klint’s famous series of paintings of a spiral temple gets the NFT treatment on Pharrell Williams’ Web3 platform
If there isn’t yet a playbook for launching a high art NFT platform, the Gallery of Digital Assets (GODA) may be compiling one. It goes something like this: start with a founding team that brings together big names from crypto, entrepreneurship and celebrity; take a star artist as an adviser; curate selectively; make access to drops exclusive; and build a website and a purchasing process that is normie-friendly.
These qualities are on full display for the platform’s upcoming Hilma af Klint release, due for release on November 14. Founder Pharrell Williams is quoted as praising the Swedish artist, as is KAWS. The 193rd Paintings for the temple NFTs are offered in an edition of two, but one will remain with Stolpe Publishing, which produced a seven-volume catalog on the Swedish artist. Those new to NFTs can contact Magic Eden, which offers a concierge service.
More than a century ago, af Klint completed her huge series of bold and colorful automatic paintings, works she dreamed would reside in a giant spiral building. The Guggenheim made this fantasy a reality with its 2019 blockbuster, “Paintings for the Future,” the best-attended exhibition in the New York institution’s history. It’s doubtful she envisioned her paintings being digitized and flogged across the internet, despite KAWS’ claim that “she painted for the future. She painted for us!”
Hilma af Klint, Paintings for the temple 6 NFT. Photo courtesy of GODA.
Six months after launch, GODA’s fourth drop (the previous three sold out, generating more than $20 million in sales volume) hopes to reach a wider audience. Unlike previous sales, the platform’s NFT Mint Pass, ownership of which provides exclusive access, will not be required. “Success would be introducing more traditional art collectors into the Web3 space,” co-founder Shaun Neff told Artnet News, “bringing more legitimacy to this medium and helping them understand the importance and potential NFTs have in the digital art world.”
The project was partly made possible through KAWS’ relationship with Acute Art, which specializes in collaborating with contemporary artists on works using the latest digital tools. It recently released VR and AR experiences of af Klint’s work for Frieze London. The NFTs are essentially a collectible extension of this project and Stolpe Publishing’s catalog – the original works themselves belong to the Hilma af Klint Foundation and may never go on the market, making them, in Neff’s words, “a perfect fit to be given the NFT treatment .”
“Hilma af Klint was a metaphysical artist. She clearly envisioned forms of art that have nothing to do with physical objects, Daniel Birnbaum, Acute Art’s artistic director, told Artnet News. “The experience she expected appears to be substantially compatible with virtual space and digital technology.”
Hilma af Klint, Paintings for the temple 1 NFT. Photo courtesy of GODA.
Although the NFT boom began with digital native artists, momentum seems to be gathering around imprinting the work of established artists, perhaps as a push to traditional collectors. Saint Petersburg’s State Hermitage released Kandinsky and Monet NFTs last year, Vienna’s Belvedere Museum fractionated a digital image of Gustav Klimt The kiss into 10,000 NFTs, and the French platform laCollection has worked with the British Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston on digital collectibles.
After decades of critical and public neglect, af Klint receives posthumous attention and asserts his place among the great abstract artists of the 20th century. The seventh volume of her catalog was recently published, as was a new biography of the Swedish mystic, and a biopic hit theaters in October.
Follow Artnet News on Facebook:
Do you want to be at the forefront of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest news, eye-opening interviews and sharp critiques that drive the conversation forward.
