Editorial by thierry Ehrmann

thierry Ehrmann, President and Founder of Artmarket.com and its Artprice division

Our review of the global art market in 2021 reads very much like a happy and exciting ending to what was – (we hope the past tense is appropriate) – a historic tragedy (the pandemic) that will forever remain etched into the history of the modern world.

As the data for the past calendar year shows, in this sanitized and normalized world, collectors and consumers of art are more than ever appreciating the singularity of artists, especially those who can adapt to a new paradigm and reposition themselves at the center of the art market’s processes.

In a year marked by recurrent waves of Covid, the famous online Collins Dictionary considered the term “NFT” – elected word of the year – to have ‘broken through’ the lexical shroud that grew around the pandemic. It is therefore with this highly controversial term – which carries within it the seeds of a digital revolution already impacting the art market in a way not seen in the past five centuries – that I dedicate this 2021 editorial.

To fully comprehend the historical impact of NFTs on the art world in 2021, we must go back to the Renaissance when a similar paradigm shift occurred. Thanks to Johannes Gutenberg’s printing house, artists were – for the first time – able to print their first editions. This represented a major transfer of power into the hands of the artists.

This evolution allowed artists, for the first time in their history, to generate income and to control their own production in their workshops and factories. Today with NFTs, we are experiencing a similar paradigm shift with the same historical importance.

With twenty-five years experience analyzing the economy of free creativity, Artprice’s Metaverse will contribute to the emergence and liberation of artists everywhere on the planet. Artists will be able to free themselves from obstacles such as technological barriers, to be free in their creativity, whether alone or in their FabLabs.

The Metaverse is not about 3D or 2D. It is about the dematerialization of the physical state to a new world where once impossible experiences are now accessible.

During this 21st century of the Enlightenment, the art world will be reconfigured around creation and the virtual, but very real, economy, and it will finally provide the necessary physical support for a much larger population of creators.

Singularity remains the most beautiful signature, even in the virtual world of the Metaverse.

Artprice by Artmarket’s Metaverse will allow the emergence of a virtuous interaction between creators, dealers and collectors. The new environment will generate a new social narrative where artists and artistic communities can grow and develop, broadening the spectrum of creativity and constantly pushing the art market deeper into the Metaverse.

The experiences within Artprice’s Metaverse will be increasingly immersive with artists having an easier and cheaper access to all kinds of technologies, generating a virtuous economy.

In sum, the dematerialization of the Art Market via the Internet has taken roughly 30 years; with the world of NFTs and the Metaverse, the internet is no longer just a transit vehicle for the Art Market… it is where the art itself will be created and exchanged. We are entering a totally new dimension.