ArtNFT: Beginnings

Artnet’s first NFT auction will launch on December 15, 2021 and will center around the historical trajectory of early computer art, media art, video art and digital art over the past six decades—and its touch points with the development of NFTs. From early pioneers like Georg Nees and Herbert W. Franke, media artists such as Vuk Cosic and Miltos Manetas, to the inventor of NFTs in 2014, Kevin McCoy, and the genius minds behind Spells of Genesis, Twitter Eggs, rarepepes, MoonCats and CryptoPunks, Artnet's inaugural auction brings together a tightly curated selection of rare examples from within this burgeoning scene.

As a stand-alone feature within the fine art auction house landscape Artnet offers an on-chain auction hosted on its main auction site with a highly competitive buyer's premium flat rate of 10%.

Egg

ponderware

10 Aug 2017

Non-fungible Token

12 KB; 240 x 180 pixels

30 ETH - 50 ETH

MoonCats are the oldest “On-Chain,” Generative Art NFT built on the Ethereum blockchain and were launched by ponderware, a software engineering company, on August 9th, 2017. MoonCat #21, is one of the first ever MoonCats to be minted on launch day of the project’s smart contract and, therefore, considered an “early rescue.”

Salvadorpepe - Series 13 - Rarepepe

Finestrares

February 27th, 2017

Non-fungible Token

651.1 KB; 400 x 560 pixels

12 ETH - 18 ETH

With incomparable foresight in 2017, Finestrares created 20 Rare Pepes, a transfigurative project that has generated some of the most in demand NFTs today. Nodding to art history and embracing meme culture, Salvadorpepe - Series 13 - Rarepepe parodies Salvador Dali’s 1931 The Persistence of Memory.

Deep ASCII

Vuk Ćosić

Not Yet Minted

Non-fungible Token

1.7 MB; 51 minutes

12 ETH - 15 ETH

Vuk Ćosić, a pioneer of net.art, works to combine early critical media art with media archeology. An approach that capitalized on the 1990’s internet craze drove Deep ASCII, which features various graphics including a full length video of Deep Throat (1972), a film considered to be the birthplace of the contemporary porn industry.

SuperMario Sleeping (with butterflies)

Miltos Manetas

Not Yet Minted

Non-fungible Token

361.3 MB; 8 minutes 26 seconds

12 ETH - 15 ETH

Miltos Manetas manipulates video game clips to create machinima, or narratives that are independent or contrary to the intended graphic. In SuperMario Sleeping (with butterflies), the artist directed the always active, task-oriented Super Mario character to do just the opposite, to sleep through the entire length of the cinematic production.

Egg

Miltos Manetas

Not Yet Minted

Non-fungible Token

361.3 MB; 8 minutes 26 seconds

12 ETH - 15 ETH

Miltos Manetas manipulates video game clips to create machinima, or narratives that are independent or contrary to the intended graphic. In SuperMario Sleeping (with butterflies), the artist directed the always active, task-oriented Super Mario character to do just the opposite, to sleep through the entire length of the cinematic production.