Sotheby’s Debuts Its First NFTs, Playful Rainbow ‘Chromie Squiggles’
Image via Sotheby’s Metaverse
Art auction house Sotheby’s made a notable leap into digital reality upon the launch of its own metaverse, a marketplace for artists to sell their NFT and digital art pieces.
On Monday, the auction house announced its first in-house generative NFT project, Chromie Squiggles. If you’re thinking that it sounds a bit like a kids’ cartoon, you may be delighted to know that the art pieces evoke the same mood: playful rainbow hues traversing the piece in a way that can, really, only be described as a “squiggle.”
These were brought alive by artist Erick Calderon, also known as Snowfro, and are being hosted on Art Blocks, another well-known name in the realm of NFT-related art projects. This platform allows for generative art, like the Squiggles, to be created directly on the Ethereum blockchain.
Image via Sotheby’s Metaverse
Like many other generative NFT projects such as Cryptopunks and the Bored Ape Yacht Club, each piece will have a set of unique traits that determine its visuals. For the Squiggles, the randomized aesthetics include its starting and end colors, ribbed color, segments, height, color spread, and color direction.
Additionally, there are six types of Squiggles, which further determine their rarity. These span the likes of normal, ribbed, bold, fuzzy, pipe, and slinky.
Image via Sotheby’s Metaverse
The catch, if it is one, is that only upon purchase will the artwork be completed. This makes the buyer part of the artwork in a way not many other projects can offer, and adds an element of surprise: They’ll be “unaware” of the specific traits their piece will have until the very moment it’s minted.
This also means that there’s no way of knowing just how valuable and rare the piece might turn out to be. If the fates decide so, a piece bought for less might end up exhibiting a rarer combination of traits than another that sold for twice its price.
But for better or for worse, buyers won’t have to worry too much about it: only 10 iterations of Squiggles are being auctioned, and the highest bidder will get all of them.
Image via Sotheby’s Metaverse
No fret, though, there are 10,000 possible combinations and Squiggles, so it’s not to say that this will be the only chance at obtaining a colorful slinky piece for yourself.
Sotheby’s has myriad ways to describe its innovative new project. A “kaleidoscopic serpent existing in a digitalized form, the Chromie Squiggle is a psychedelically writhing motif,” the firm writes. It’s also simultaneously “the perfect suggestion of the artist’s hand as they craft their code.”
And of course, the individual Squiggles traits make them “wholly unique and original,” while being a “uniquely recognizable visual idiom.”
Image via Sotheby’s Metaverse
Bidding for the Squiggles opened December 6, and will run through 2pm ET on December 13.
Sotheby's and Snowfro @ArtOnBlockchain proudly present an iconic sale for an icon of generative art. Chromie Squiggle: MINT IT! features one lot of 10 unminted, never before seen Chromie Squiggles. Bidding is open now through Dec 13 https://t.co/hZvYIkO3xx pic.twitter.com/9iHcb6rJ3Z
— Sotheby's Metaverse (@Sothebysverse) December 6, 2021
[via Input, images via Sotheby’s Metaverse]
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