Yue Minjun to Release Laughing Head NFTs
Yue Minjun, a work from the 'Boundless' series (2023) in the Kingdom of the Laughing Man collection. Courtesy LiveArt in partnership with iv gallery.
Chinese political pop artist Yue Minjun will bring his trademark laughing figures to the digital realm for the first time with the collection Kingdom of the Laughing Man.
‘I’ve explored numerous media with my art over the years,’ Yue said in a statement. ‘This new digital frontier excites me the most as I can bring my art to life in a way that I haven’t been able to with physical media.’
Alongside Fang Lijun and Liu Wei, both of whom have previously produced NFTs of their own, Yue Minjun is regarded as a leading figure of the Chinese Cynical Realism movement that emerged in the 1980s as a parody of state-endorsed Socialist Realism.
The Kingdom of the Laughing Man collection will launch with ‘Boundless’, a series of 1,200 unique NFTs in the PFP (Profile Picture) format made popular by Cryptopunks and the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
Presented in collaboration with Los Angeles based iv gallery, the first drop from Yue’s collection will take place on 8 August on the LiveArt platform.
Presales open from 5am PDT, with prices starting from 0.35 ETH (US $645 at time of writing).
Prices for art-related NFTs peaked in 2021, and total sales fell from $2.9 billion in 2021 to $1.5 billion in 2022 according to The Art Market Report 2023.
Nonetheless, artists and institutions continue to mint and collect NFTs.
Museums including LACMA and Centre Pompidou acquired NFTs in 2023, while American sculptor Maya Lin minted her first NFT works in March.
Yue Minjun described the NFT sale as an opportunity to engage with ‘the next generations of art collectors shaping the art world of the future.’ —[O]
Main image: Yue Minjun, a work from the 'Boundless' series (2023) in the Kingdom of the Laughing Man collection. Courtesy LiveArt in partnership with iv gallery.
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