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Graham Murtha
Section A
Sebastian Smee’s interpretation of Beeple’s piece “First 5000 Everydays” proves that opinion writers on the topic of art must not make any of their own, and only look at the “industry” through a commercial lense. Beeple, for those who don’t know, is a world-famous artist/graphic designer who is known to his fans as someone who invests 4-5 hours of everyday to make Cinema4D artwork. To everyone else, he is the artist who sold the largest NFT and 3rd most expensive artpiece in the world. Smee has an astonishingly agreigious, damning look on Beeple’s art, for two main reasons. His first objection is that because it is digital and non-tangible, it does not count as art. I guess this means that every movie Smee has ever seen is also not considered art either. His second point is that the sale of this piece only proves that Beeple is a succumbent to late stage capitalism, as if he is not paid heavily by the Washington Post to spite artists. What Smee’s point fails to acknowledge about this piece is that 5000 daily artworks equates to near 14 years. I think it is inspiring that an artist such as Beeple could love their craft enough to spend 13+ years of their life consistently investing a massive chunk of their time into an unpaid passion. It seems like poetry that Beeple, after almost 14 years, would finally be enabled by Metakovan (the buyer) to make this passion an occupation, a dream that millions of artists around the world have. “First 5000 Everydays” is certainly cause for discussion on what “Fine Art” is these days, or raises the question of how to categorize digital collage (Beeple’s medium). However, it is an outright ridiculous claim to denounce his work as art in any form, as an immense amount of skill, creativity, and determination go into Beeple’s 3D digital collage work.
Smee, Sebastian. “Perspective | Beeple’s Digital ‘Artwork’ Sold for More than Any Painting by Titian or Raphael. but as Art, It’s a Great Big Zero.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 17 Mar. 2021.