Artwork: Domain of Arnheim, Rene Magritte / Writings: The Domain of Arnheim Edgar Allen Poe

The American master of gloomy romanticism Edgar Allen Poe notes in his writings The Domain of Arnheim that “No such mixture of scenery exists in nature as the painter of genius may invent”. Magritte’s artwork Domain of Arnheim is his own interpretation of the perfect domain formed in the mind’s eye. Poe imagines this is his story.

Where to see it: Gelender Gallery, New York

Artwork: I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold, Charles Demuth / Writings: The Great Figure, William Carlos Williams

This artwork made with graphite, ink, oil and gold leaf on paperboard is one of eight abstract portraits of friends by Charles Demuth. The initials W.C.W. the names Bill and Carlos with an allusion to Williams’ poem The Great Figure ( in which a fire engine painted with the number 5 rumbles through a dark city); are all used to signify poet William Carlos Williams.

Where to see it: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Artwork: Mad Tea Party, Salvador Dalí / Writings: Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

For artwork to accompany Lewis Carroll’s equally hypnagogic Alice in Wonderland, Dalí’s surrealism is a perfect complement. The Mad Tea Party is part of a set of 12 heliogravures, one for each chapter of the book. The rarely seen images are beautiful, drawing you down the rabbit hole into Carroll’s enthralling (and horrifying) universe.

Where to see it: William Bennet Gallery

Artwork: Myself and My Heroes, David Hockney / Writings: I Hear It Was Charged Against Me, Walt Whitman

A youthful Hockney slouches next to two of his idols, American poet Walt Whitman and Mahatma Ghandi, in the painting Myself and My Heroes. The sentence “For the dear love of comrades” (from Whitman’s poem, I Hear It Was Charged Against Me) is inscribed above the haloed Whitman. The words, “I am 21 years old and wear glasses” are above Hockney’s self-portrait, on the other hand. The self-deprecating and funny tone is typical of Hockney. The sentiment is familiar to many new artists who may be under the pressure of expectation from those who came before them.

Where to see it: Tate Collection, London

Artwork: Ophelia, Sir John Everett Millais / Writings: Hamlet, Shakespeare

Ophelia, a character from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is in this 19th-century oil paint on canvas artwork by Millais. She is singing just before drowning. Many admire Millais’ picture for its realism in landscape and is one of many depictions of the doomed damsel in distress.

Where to see it: Tate Britain, London

Artwork: Ubu Tells the Truth, William Kentridge / Writings: Ubu Roi, Alfred Jarry

Ubu Tells the Truth, a short theatrical film by William Kentridge. It combines documentary footage of South African state police charging unarmed apartheid demonstrators with pictures, moving puppets, and violent animated drawings to create a short dramatic film. The film was initially made in 1997 for the multi-media theater piece Ubu and the Truth Commission. The work is was partially based on and alludes to French writer Alfred Jarry’s proto-absurdist play Ubu Roi from 1896. It holds everyone responsible for human rights violations during the apartheid era, including institutions that fostered it, bystanders who were complicit by their inactivity, and even the viewer.

Where to see it: Tate Modern, London

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NFTs are certainly something you’ve heard about by now. If you haven’t already: An NFT is a one-of-a-kind coin that lives on a blockchain and represents (or points to) other data, such as an image or video. NFTs are easy to track because they are stored on a blockchain, usually Ethereum.

This tracking enables for the authentication of their legitimacy, as well as their previous owners and history. NFTs are smart contracts, usually ERC-721, with which users interact by calling them and receiving proof of interaction.

CryptoPunks from Larva Labs, for example, was the first NFT and ERC-721 smart contract. It’s made up of 10,000 24-by-24-pixel photographs of punk characters from all around the world.

This price is determined by the supply and demand for the network’s processing capacity required to complete the transaction.

You could no longer produce (or “mint” in crypto terminology) new CryptoPunks once 10,000 had been claimed. As a result, the smart contract capped the supply from the start. The contract became a legally binding agreement once it was placed on the blockchain, setting how many punks can exist, how much they are sold for, and how to obtain one.

The NFT market has seen tremendous growth since the end of February this year. Beeple recently sold The First 5000 Days for $69 million at Christie’s, setting a new auction record.

Digital sports collectibles are also booming, with the NBA Top Shots platform, which is based on the NFT, topping $200 million in sales last month. Clearly, this is turning into a profitable market.

Assuming you’re a digital artist who produces photographs or films. What methods can you use to monetize your content? You may use the internet to sell signed prints or other items. You could also make a painting, scan it, and then make changes to it online.

The question is then, which one is the original? Is it the original painting or the altered digital copy? Is there an original digital copy if a digital copy exists?

NFTs are useful in this situation especially for artists. An NFT is essentially a smart contract that states that this digital artists item is the original and that all others are copies (or “digital prints,” to use a real-world analogy). In other words, the NFT is made up of your digital artwork and a blockchain contract stating that you did indeed produce the piece and that it is the original.

The digital original (i.e., the NFT) can then be sold, and it will be registered on the blockchain. The transaction is also recorded on the blockchain if the individual who acquired it from you resells it. You can monitor how your work is traded on the secondary market and get access to the complete transaction history.

However, NFTs can help artists in other ways as well.

The opportunity to earn from the secondary market is a unique feature of NFT-based art that does not exist in the offline art sector. Once you sell your artwork offline, it is no longer available. If and when it resells for more, you don’t actually receive anything out of it.

However, in the crypto world, you can set up a fee (typically between 5 and 10%) that you receive every time someone resells your work. You get compensated on each resell, that’s right! So, if you sell your original work for a dollar and it is resold for $1 million ten years later, you can still make $100,000.

This feature is the single most important reason why NFTs are beneficial to artists and content creators. It allows them to concentrate on creating art rather than worrying about the first sale price. If their works become well-known, they may be able to make a living solely from the secondary market in the future.

It’s never been easier to get started in the world of NFTs than it is right now. OpenSea, Rarible, and Foundation are the three largest marketplaces right now. In a moment, we’ll look at what makes each of these unique, but first, let’s speak about how to make an NFT.

You’ll need a Metamask first. This is a Chrome extension that acts as a virtual wallet and connects you to platforms where you may buy and sell your artwork on the blockchain. It can be used as a wallet and an e-signature at the same time.

To begin, download Metamask, setup a wallet on it, and then send some ETH to it. On exchanges like Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance, you can buy ETH with your credit card. You can send it to Metamask once the transaction is complete and you’ve been validated.

This procedure can take up to five days, but it’s only necessary when you’re just getting started. Everything becomes easy once you’ve completed that task.

Now it’s time to mint and buy NFTs!

NFT markets allow users to share their original work as well as purchase other people’s work, which is a fun journey. Furthermore, looking at what other people are selling can give you a decent idea of what’s hot right now.

BEST NFT MARKETPLACE

There has never been a better way to display and sell digital creations from the standpoint of a content producer. If you’ve ever been fascinated about blockchain, NFTs, or cryptoart, this guide is a great place to start. You can enter the market and begin creating a following today for a pretty cheap investment.

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Buzz Spector has collated a list of what we consider to be the most famous paintings across the world.

1485: The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli

The Birth of Venus is the oldest picture in our list and a contender for most sensual alongside The Kiss. This artwork was most likely commissioned by a member of the wealthy and art-loving Medici family.

Botticelli produces an outstanding figure with the Goddess of Love coming from a giant scallop shell.

The Birth of Venus differs significantly from most of his contemporaries’ works in two ways. Botticelli began by painting on canvas rather than the more common wood. Second, nudity was uncommon at the time, so Venus’ long, flowing hair and a hand (just) covering her most private bodily parts, was brave.

Visit The Birth of Venus at the Le Gallerie Degli Uffizi in Florence, Italy.

1498: The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci

The Last Supper was painted during a time when religious imagery was still a popular artistic theme.

Napoleon’s forces used the wall of the refectory on which the fresco was created as target practice. The fresco has withstood two wartime attacks. When the roof of the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan was devastated by bombs during World War II, it was exposed to the air for several years.

The painting is 4.6 meters tall and 8.8 meters wide.

The Last Supper can be viewed at Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan.

1503: Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci

It should come as no surprise that this is the most famous artwork in the world. But it’s one of the few things we know for sure about this work of art.

Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Florence merchant Francesco del Giocondo, is assumed to be the woman sitting in the painting. However art experts aren’t 100% certain this is the case. According to the Louvre the painting is the oldest known Italian portrait to focus so intensely on the sitter in a half-length portrait.

According to historians, the Mona Lisa was scarcely known outside of art circles before to the twentieth century.

An ex-Louvre employee, however, stole the painting in 1911 and kept it hidden for two years.
Since then, the theft has helped to solidify the painting’s place in popular culture while also introducing millions of people to Renaissance art.

You can view The Mona Lisa at The Louvre in Paris.

1512: Creation of Adam by Michelangelo

Michelangelo’s most famous work covers a part of the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling, and you have to look up to see it. God and Adam are depicted with outstretched arms, their fingers almost touching.

Today, The Creation of Adam is is one of the most extensively reproduced photos in history.

Michelangelo’s other talent is evident in Adam’s strong shape; David is arguably the most recognized sculpture in the world. This colossal marble statue may be seen in Florence’s Galleria dell’Accademia.

Among other things, years of exposure to candle smoke had tarnished the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling. People were surprised to see the vivid, lively colors Michelangelo originally used after a long, intensive cleaning that completed in 1989.

You can view Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, Rome.

1656: Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez

Madrid is the only city in our collection where two of the top ten most famous paintings can be seen, the first being Guernica and the second being Las Maninas. Las Meninas is not just Diego Velázquez’s most famous painting, but also one of his largest, and it is housed at the popular Prado.

For generations, art critics and the general public have been captivated by the work’s complexity. The picture serves as both a portrait and a landscape. It’s a group picture of Spanish nobility that also acts as a self-portrait of Velázquez at work .

King Philip IV of Spain, (who reigned from 1621 to 1665) commissioned Las Menina. It was kept at the royal palace until 1819, when it was transferred to the Prado.

You can view Las Meninas in Museo del Prado in Madrid.

1665: Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer

This fascinating classic is frequently compared to the Mona Lisa. Aside from the artistic distinctions, Girl With a Pearl Earring is known as a ‘tronie’ a Dutch word for a picture of an imaginary woman with exaggerated features; rather than a portrait.

The simplicity of the oil on canvas masterpiece is stunning. With only a black backdrop behind her, the girl in a blue and gold turban and a huge pearl earring is the sole emphasis. The reason why smiles are rarely shown in art history

Between 2012 and 2014, the Mauritshuis was undergoing renovations, and Girl With a Pearl Earring went on tour throughout the United States, Italy, and Japan. It attracted large audiences, cementing its reputation as one of the world’s most famous pieces of art.

You can view Girl with a Pearl Earring at the Mauritshuis, The Hague in Netherlands.

1889: The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh

Van Gogh’s creative and forceful use of thick brushstrokes is exemplified in this rather abstract picture. For decades, artworks fans have been captivated by the famous paintings vibrant blues and yellows, as well as the dreamy, swirling mood.

When Van Gogh painted The Starry Night he was being treated for mental illness in a mental institution in Saint-Rémy, France. His room’s window provided him with inspiration.

The Starry Night can be viewed at New York’s at Museum of Modern Art.

1893:The Scream by Edvard Munch

There are two famous paintings, two pastels, and an unspecified number of prints, according to a British Museum blog. The works are on display at the National Museum and the Munch Museum, with one of the pastels fetching about $120 million at auction in 2012.

Daring robberies of the two painting versions of “The Scream” (1994 and 2004) helped raise public awareness of the artworks, similar to the case of the “Mona Lisa.” (Both of them were finally discovered.) Everything you thought you knew about ‘The Scream’ was incorrect.

What if I told you that The androgynous figure in the foreground of the Art Nouveau-style picture is trying to block off a piercing screech coming from nature, rather than making the scream. It was inspired by a true experience Munch had while on a sunset stroll in Oslo, when his senses were assaulted by a striking red glow.

You can view The Scream at the National Museum in Oslo, Norway and the Munich Museum.

1907: The Kiss by Gustav Klimt

Klimt delivers a “wide metaphorical remark about love being at the centre of human existence,” according to the Upper Belvedere museum. People appear to agree, based on its magnetic appeal. While The Kiss is not for sale, other Klimt pieces are frequently purchased and sold for large sums of money.

You can view The Kiss at the Upper Belvedere Museum in Vienna, Austria.

1937: Guernica by Pablo Picasso

This is the newest of famous paintings on the list, and it depicts the German aerial bombing of Guernica, a Basque village, during the Spanish Civil War.

The painting has that characteristic Picasso style, and its uncompromising study of war’s tragedies made it an important element of twentieth-century culture and history. A visual history of combat through paintings, protests, and propaganda.

During World War II, “Guernica” was transported to the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York for safekeeping. Picasso proposed that his stay be extended until Spain regained its democracy. In 1981, six years after the death of longstanding Spanish tyrant Gen. Francisco Franco, it was eventually returned to Madrid.

It can be viewed at the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid.

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