Fine art, like other types of artwork, is artwork produced from an expression of one’s soul which is then realized through visual elements, ranging from points, lines, textures, colors, to fields.
As is known, the artwork itself can be enjoyed through the senses of the vision possessed by humans. In addition, this type of work has appeared for a long time, the present together with human activities in the world, especially since prehistoric times.
Starting from the creation of a simple row of tools, now humans begin to apply their aesthetics by making various forms of more complex items, such as artwork in the present.
The term fine art arises the first time in the Renaissance era aka the renewal century on the European continent, which is around the 14-17 century AD. This term is then identical to “high art”-as a differentiator of the term “low art” which is pinned to applied art.
The development of fine art continues with the presence of technology. In fact, this type of work is now also developed in the non-fungible token world (NFT). However, how does its potential for the future? Check out the description below.
What is fine artwork?
Basically, fine art is a matter of art that indeed only prioritizes beauty or aesthetics as a creative medium of expression. In the sense, in this type of artwork, the function is not the main thing.
Here, artwork usually serves only as objects/items enjoyed by beauty/aesthetics, which aim to provide inner/spiritual satisfaction. Therefore, a number of other elements in this work are only as complementary.
For fans/collectors of artwork, they can see ideas through the view of the artist’s life of the artwork created. That means the artist in this case does not connect his work with practical interests/purposes, aka really fine for art.
The fine artwork this example can be seen in paintings – a two-dimensional artwork that is usually functioned as a display. Then, fine art can also be seen in sculpture work, which is made in a three-dimensional format. Aesthetic forms presented by the artwork of sculptures are also one reason for art is called fine work. Because he only prioritizes beauty and not the item that has practical interests.
Next, there is also graphic/print art, which can be an example of Fine Art’s work. The artwork this one has its own uniqueness, which can be reproduced aka duplicated or even multiplied. Then, there is also Kriya art, which is a human handmade artwork, with various types, ranging from wood, skin, to metal. Other examples of Fine Art are choreography, relief, and graffiti.
So, what is the difference between fine art with applied artworks?
For information, applied art is a work of art that has a function in order to help human life not limited to display. Examples of applied artworks can be found in pottery, architecture, or ceramics.
Meanwhile, the difference between the two types of artwork is as follows.
- Fine art highlights beauty, while applied art prioritizes the usefulness/function of the work.
- Fine art prioritizes the inner/spiritual element of its creator by reaching aesthetic, while applied art reaches more elements of practical interests.
- The results of fine art are only visually enjoyed (Panca Indra, especially vision), while applied art has more functions in life even though it also has aesthetic value.
The development of adoption of NFT by Fine Art or fine artwork
As already mentioned at the beginning of this paper, fine art has also touched the realm of blockchain, especially the NFT world. The fine artwork industry has quickly adopted Blockchain technology in order to overcome transparency and speech problems.
The presence of NFT has also made a widely decentralized technology adoption throughout the world of art that was previously traditional. The first artwork has been given a token with Blockchain technology aka tokenization, namely a painting of Andy Warhol titled “14 Small Electric Chairs,” worth $ 5.6 million. Crypto art galleries in England and their technological partners, Maecenas, then auctioned ownership of the work and managed to collect $ 1.7 million in its sales.
Interestingly, this Blockchain art auction is fully run on the Ethereum network using Smart Contract technology. In this case, buyers can buy ownership of Warhol paintings with Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), or coin art. This process is also seen as the first sales of artwork to fully use NFT.
Then, the adoption of art to the realm of NFT also found the hype back after the sold digital art titled “Everyday’s: The First 5000 Days” belongs to Beeple. The artwork in the form of this NFT in March 2021 was sold in Christie’s and sold at a price of $ 69 million. The impact of the phenomenal sales value for the work, now the adoption of NFT continues to increase and participate in the Fine Art realm.
Beyond that, even though fine artwork is often the target of fans/collectors of artwork, artists aka fine art artists still need some considerations before joining the world of nft.
This is related to the existence of changes in attitudes and perspectives from the Fine Art artists and conventional art collectors about NFT. That’s because, through NFT, the collectors themselves will no longer be able to look at a work of art only based on the skills and raw materials used in making artwork. Here, there will be a variety of new things that turn out to be influential in determining the value of a NFT artwork.
Furthermore, not only to digitize fine art to the form of NFT, there are currently NFT Marketplace that is specifically provided for fine artists who want to plunge into the NFT ecosystem, namely artophicial – a collaboration result of Galleriest Vito Schnabel and the Vaynernft consultant bureau. The art official is known to have launched the NFT collection of paintings by Francesco Clemente, a famous Fine artist from Italy.
