The Rhinocervs, 1515: its Frankenstein like appearance patched together from a chain of whispers, the stories of others who voiced their experience. The sailor, the merchant, the aristocrat, on the journey across new lands to discover and seek fortune, but more-so to seek a story. Dürer pieced those stories together and out of it formed the beautiful image of a Rhinoceros. It’s not perfect by any standards - it’s a completely imperfect mongrel of a creature, and that’s why it is the best Dürer woodcut. For the strangest of lockdown circumstances I found myself at Caeser’s Casino and Resort on the Vegas strip staring at an iconic woodcut on the walls of the new Park West Gallery.
A tweet pops up on my iPhone screen, news of Philip Hoar’s upcoming release of his book “Albert and the Whale,” about Dürer’s mission to see a whale with his own authentic eyes. Looks brilliant. I scrolled down to see I had sold my first NFT, Part I of a collaboration with the oil painter Sima Jo and my poetry, called “Childish Force Of Nature.” The buyer was another artist, Cr24ti7e. An amazing feeling, every artist of any medium should experience this! I asked myself “what questions would people have asked in the time of Dürer’s woodcuts about reproductions on paper?”
Above are Parts I-VI of Childish Force Of Nature (as well as an exclusive look at part VII), most of the NFTs are sold to NFT collector JAX13579 (our other collectors include Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokno) but you can still check them out here https://opensea.io/collection/elysium-verto-v2
I scrolled further, John Cleese has released the most hilarious NFT of all, a ridiculous sketch of the Brooklyn Bridge - which must have taken all of five seconds to make. Not that brevity got in Picasso’s way. But I hope Mr. Cleese the comic, and cultural icon whose work across several mediums has more than inspired me since childhood, doesn’t mind me saying that his talents have yet to extend to draughtsmanship, in this case and that was certainly not his intention here anyway. But I still bid on it. I have since unfortunately been outbid by an NFT collector named JeffBezosForeskin to the tune of $36k.
I scroll further to see two of my favorite art critics chiming in on the huge Beeple NFT sale at Christies of $69M splashing across the headlines, they say the price is ridiculous, these are bubble prices and it can’t possibly be worth that much. Makes sense. They end by with the message that maybe eventually NFTs will be a good thing and more of a stable market that makes sense, but it will take time.
I sell the first ever Shakespearean performance as an NFT for $600 to collector NFTBUZZ. Here’s why: One of my favorite characters in any story, Iago is the master of manipulation and pulls apart the house of cards he sees around him. I wouldn't want to be his friend for all the world, but it's delicious to watch him weave his web around Venice and around us.
I remember when I was first starting out as an actor being obsessed by the great actor's audition stories, Laurence Olivier's tutor walked up to him afterwards and pressed his finger between his eyes saying that he had an insecurity above his nose. I was so curious to see everyone's audition pieces when it was my turn to do the rounds, the myths that were created in those moments. This was one of my Drama School audition pieces before I got into Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and the journey began.
I ask Jerry and Waldemar’s opinion on Elysium Verto Collection, championing Fine Art and poetry in NFTs, they like and wish me luck. I scroll on:
What Jerry says here really resonated with me and I thought about it more today:
Because Andy Warhol blasted Neon across the reproduction market, did it dull the shine of a Matisse lithograph or the emotional impact of a Lucian Freud etching?…
This movement has been a long time coming, philosophically since John Berger’s Ways Of Seeing. What we found since then was that nothing can replace the value of the original. However, the reproduction has its benefits particularly for non-Squillionaires to participate in the growth of the legacy of already established artists. Nor does the reproduction necessarily take away from the original. NFTs now offer the collector the option of purchasing authentic digital prints of their oil paintings, for instance, so they can take their collections with them wherever they go. Digital galleries are now opening up for collectors and artists to display their work on screens. The possibilities are limitless.
My enthusiasm must be taken in the context of the reproduction market as a whole, NFTs do what etchings and lithographs have always tried to do. As someone who both currently owns and has previously traded in a private collection of hundreds of etchings and lithographs including artists like Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Goya, Rembrandt, Dürer and Kathe Kollwitz. The purpose of reproductions is to offer greater flexibility to the collector than they might have with their oil painting collection, NFTs solve all those problems. Whenever a new mediums like this comes around there are inevitably the cross overs with artists over more traditional mediums and if they already have a career going it tends to do well, but there are also some like Goya, Dürer and Käthe Kollwitz whose etchings and woodcuts were of a better quality than their paintings and who found greater possibilities for story telling in that medium. Though they are the outliers.
I remember my interest in Philip Hoare’s novel “Albert And The Whale,” Japan returned to commercial whaling this year. When I first heard the news I began writing a novella called “The Fortune” - about an heir to a modern whaling dynasty who is attacked on board the Nisshin Maru in the Southern Ocean and must escape to Leith Harbor on the Island of South Georgia, where his consciousness is transformed by the whale’s song. It got into a couple of the writing competitions Launch Pad Prose Writing Competition and ScreenCraft Cinematic Short Stories. I also sold it as part of an NFT collaboration with with my mother the painter Stephanie Fuller. The collector was NFT whale LouGainz. I had the chance to speak with Louis on the phone and he told me how he was transforming the music industry with his new company Blockchain Music Entertainment. We began to hatch our next project together…
Waldemar Januszczak taught me (via Twitter) a few years ago, that the vision is the most important thing, not the medium. The medium and the market are external factors that the artist just needs to place a context for their internal vision. Not more important their vision. This is why Japanese contemporary art genius Takashi Murakami’s first NFT drop, leaves much to be desired, as he fell pray to the overwhelming pixel aesthetic of most NFTs instead of honoring his own visions. Let’s see what Damien Hirst brings to the space.
Markets will fluctuate and that’s the only thing I’m sure about in that arena. However, as a medium, the usefulness of NFT’s and the options they provide are too good not to completely disrupt the reproduction market moving forward. Potential investors; do not listen to me, I am a creative entrepreneur not a financial advisor, listen to registered financial advisors, do your research, be sensible - know that the majority of collectors right now have already been in the crypto space. So research the market first. Then, after that, check out some NFTs.
And when you do, click the gif below to check out the my collaboration with Johan Andersson, we found our way into some of the top NFT collector’s wallets including Loopify, Niwin, thefunnyguys, taylor, JeffBezosForeskin, BillyMcSmithers, BobAmor, rssi, artbygabeweis, NFT.NYC and thebeautyandthepunk :
