LACMA Acquires Line of Generative Art NFTs – ARTnews.com

by James · February 13, 2023

LACMA has acquired 22 NFTs of generative artworks, all donated by the mysterious and prolific NFT collector who goes by the pseudonym Cozomo de’ Medici, the museum announced Monday.

Represented in this collection are some of the most sought-after generative artists in the NFT game, including Dmitri Cherniak, Cai Guo-Quiang, Matt DesLauriers, and Monica Rizzoli. Collectable NFTs from the Crypto Punk and World of Women collections were also included in the donation.

The donation, de Medici said ART news was motivated in a recent interview by a desire to start a new movement at LACMA, similar to the effect William Randolph Hearst had when his donation of hundreds of works of art essentially converted LACMA from a history museum to an art museum.

“I was introduced to Michael [Govan] and Elizabeth [Wiatt] at LACMA, and they have had a long interest in innovative, digital artwork,” said de’ Medici. “I told them about my collection, which tells the story of art on the chain, our evolution so far. That conversation sparked an idea to make a donation of a significant part of the collection to LACMA that would help get a robust digital art collection there.”

LACMA has taken a number of steps to highlight digital art, including their current exhibit “Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952–1982” and a Paris Hilton-backed fund to purchase digital artworks by women artists.

“For decades, artists have incorporated technology into their practice, and the intersection of art and technology has been central to LACMA’s programming since the 1960s,” said Michael Govan, LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director, in a press release. “As one of the first museums to support artists’ experimentation with technology, it is fitting that LACMA will receive the first museum collection of blockchain art.”

LACMA isn’t the only museum buying NFTs right now. Center Pompidou announced late last week that they had acquired a small collection of NFTs. Last November, Yuga Labs donated a Crypto Punk to ICA Miami.

LACMA and de’ Medici have made a conscious move to refer to these works as blockchain art, art imprinted on the blockchain, or art on the chain, as opposed to NFTs.

“The term NFT has a stigma attached to it, so we’ve moved away from it,” de’ Medici said. “The digital art world is divided into two categories, I call it the great divide. And the great divide separates the first category, PFP NFTs, and the speculation mania that [is associated with PFP NFTs]from the other category, which is digital art like what we have seen from the generative art projects.”

Generative art – works of abstract art created with code imprinted on a blockchain – has come to represent the most artistic contribution the NFT scene has had to offer, especially in the heady days of 2021’s NFT boom.

LACMA will include several other works of embossed generative art in their collection beyond de’ Medici’s cache of donated pieces. John Gerrard donated one of his works in the Petrol National series, which was shown at Pace last year. Erick Calderon, founder of the generative art NFT platform Art Blocks, Tom Sachs, Jessica Wimbly and others have also had their NFTs included in LACMA’s collection.

For Calderon, this is a full-circle moment. Art Blocks almost single-handedly put generative art on the map at a time when cartoon animal profile picture NFTs were flooding the market. Calderon’s own generative artwork, Chromie Squiggles, was the first to be embossed on Art Blocks. That collection has since become a historical marker in the short history of the NFT boom. After two years of minting Squiggles, Calderon will donate the last one, number 9,999, to LACMA.

“I met Michael Govan at Art Basel Switzerland, and it was the first time I talked to someone from the art world who didn’t need me to explain blockchain and its impact on art,” Calderon shared ART news. “We were on the same page.”

After a long conversation with Govan, Calderon came up with the idea of donating the last Chromie Squiggle to LACMA. He wasn’t sure how the offer of a donation would be taken, but to his pleasant surprise, Govan was eager to take the job. The donation passed the board’s approval and now Calderon is getting ready to stamp the work and send it to LACMA.

“Of course we are [at Art Blocks] didn’t invent generative art, but it provided a home for generative art in a way that allowed for a conversation and a community around it that was just absent before, Calderon said. “I’m just very humbled to have played a part in that process.”