If you were planning to get your hands on Yue Minjun\u2019s first NFTs, let\u2019s hope you were swift. Just two hours after the artist\u2019s debut Web3 collection featuring his celebrated \u201claughing man\u201d self-portraits dropped on August 8, it sold out, raking in $1 million.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That result, post-crypto crash, surprised even Yue himself.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI had little expectation,\u201d the Beijing-based artist told Artnet News. \u201cI just believed it an interesting time to pursue my digital concepts within Web3 while others are running from it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Titled \u201c<\/span>Boundless,\u201d the series is made up of 1,200 PFPs (profile pictures) centered on the same grinning mien, a Yue hallmark. The collection contains 999 variations of the laughing man\u2014his skin by turns pink, blue, and yellow; his head variously adorned with horns, sunflowers, and ladybirds\u2014created using a generative model based on hundreds of graphic layers.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis is what drew me to the generative model as a tool. I can reinvent myself 999 times in the digital medium, which would take me another couple of decades with painting,\u201d said Yue.<\/span><\/p>\n Yue Minjun, \u201cBoundless\u201d NFT collection (2023). Courtesy of LiveArt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n According to the artist, he had been toying with \u201cdigital concepts\u201d since the 1990s, even in the absence of the technology to realize them. He tended instead toward his painting practice, establishing his \u201claughing man\u201d motif across canvases and sculptures as an ironic representation of cynicism, and drawing widespread acclaim (and lately, ire from Chinese nationalists<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n By 2007, with the sale of his keenly political <\/span>Execution <\/span><\/i>(1995) for a record <\/span>\u00a32.9 million ($5.9 million) at Sotheby\u2019s,<\/span><\/a> Yue had become one of the bestselling Chinese contemporary artists.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He insisted, however, that his entree into Web3 was less about cashing in, speaking instead about a \u201cbrave new digital world\u201d limited only by his imagination. And with the crypto boom long past, he felt the moment was ripe for him.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI needed to see where [the Web3 space] would settle, how it would evolve, survive even. I needed to see a little more maturity and understanding that a space to collect digital art is not the same space where you can gamble on crypto,\u201d he said. \u201cNow that the speculative gambling culture is not as prevalent, will people respond to my digital work the same way they\u2019ve responded to my physical work?\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That the answer has been a resounding \u201cyes\u201d overwhelmed Yue, who has watched collectors share and discuss their acquisitions over social media: \u201cI\u2019ve never really felt this type of camaraderie [and] community around my art before\u2014it\u2019s quite an experience.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Yue Minjun, \u201cBoundless\u201d NFT collection (2023). Courtesy of LiveArt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBoundless,\u201d launched in partnership with digital art platform LiveArt (which was also behind <\/span>photographer Chen Man\u2019s NFT debut<\/span><\/a>), marks but the first \u201caccess point\u201d to Yue\u2019s larger Web3 project, dubbed <\/span>Kingdom of the Laughing Man<\/span><\/i>. Other drops are planned, as are initiatives such as the opportunity to acquire prints of NFTs and even a metaverse.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThink of it as Yue Minjun funland, but we also come together to solve world issues,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt sounds out there, but I\u2019ve been conceptualizing it for 30 years.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For Yue, his new digital practice remains separate from painting practice\u2014the former medium, after all, enabling him to create work that defies the paintbrush. He\u2019s here, he emphasized, for its \u201cboundless possibilities.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cObviously, most people in my world thought it a little crazy to go into the NFT space now. The market is nowhere near what it was\u2014for me, that\u2019s an opportunity,\u201d he said. \u201cIf Web3 is the future, now is the time to enter, after the hyped craziness. It has allowed me to reinvent myself in a new medium and connect with the next generation of collectors. It\u2019s tremendously exciting.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n More Trending Stories:\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n An 1837 Portrait of an Enslaved Child, Obscured by Overpainting for a Century, Has Been Restored and Acquired by the Met<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Rising Artist Ronan Day-Lewis\u2019s \u2018Punk Romanticism\u2019 Imbues Desolate American Landscapes With an Eerie, Cinematic Aura<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Why Did Yoko Ono\u2019s Arboretum Art Installation in New York Shut Down Early? \u2018Unfortunately, Trees Died\u2019<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n LGDR Gallery Splits Up After Less than Two Years as Founding Partner Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn Departs<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Photographers Recreate Old Master Paintings in Witty and Profound Ways in a New Show at a Princeton University Art Gallery<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Blue-Chip Artworks Seized From Top Portuguese Collector Will Be Featured in New Art Museum in Lisbon<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/news.artnet.com\/app\/news-upload\/2023\/08\/YMJ-pink_Boundless-853x1024.jpg\")
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