Speaking about the CryptoPunks, Michael Bouhanna, also said: “In the anti-establishment spirit of the early days of the blockchain movement, the CryptoPunks were conceived as a collection of misfits and non-conformists in an ode to the 1970s London punk scene. And, just as the Punks themselves belong to a movement, so too do those who collect them. The appeal of CryptoPunks has transcended beyond the world of Crypto-enthusiasts, to ‘traditional’ art lovers too. Here, in this sale, we have a group of unique Punks, each defined by their own eccentric characteristics, made even more special by their accompanying prints. This is where the digital art world meets the traditional.”
All five Punks to be offered later this month have been carefully selected from private collections by Swiss curator and digital art expert, Georg Bak—two of them were originally shown at Larva Lab’s first-ever exhibition. Bak was the first to exhibit a collection of nine CryptoPunk print editions as part of the group show, Perfect & Priceless: Value Systems on the Blockchain at Kate Vass Galerie in 2018.
Speaking to the CryptoPunk movement, Georg Bak said: “When I first met John and Matt, they modestly shied away from being called ‘artists’, totally charmed to have been invited to debut their physical Punks as part of the Perfect and Priceless exhibition. Yet though they didn’t perceive themselves as artists at the time, for me, their bold experimentation in this medium immediately drew parallels with past movements, which saw provocative artists revolutionizing the art world. Take, for instance, Marcel Duchamp who’s infamously rejected Fountain by the Salon of Independent Artists in 1917, simultaneously came to symbolize one of the most shocking moments in art history yet at the same time, the birth of Conceptual Art. Just as revolutionary Duchamp’s urinal was over 100 years ago, the CryptoPunks have propelled the NFT onto a global stage, which continues to shake the art world today.”
