The AI Art Boom

The AI Art Boom

New York, 25.9.2019

The theme of the Christie’s Art + Tech Summit held in New York in June was „The AI Revolution.“ This meant works of art created with artificial intelligence. No doubt – since then the new art movement has been experiencing a hype.

In October 2018, Christie’s New York sold an algorithmically generated print that resembled 19th-century European portraits, called Edmond de Belamy, by La Famille de Belamy, for the amazing sum of 432,500 dollars, almost 45 times his high estimate. The print of the French collective Obvious had never been exhibited or sold before it went to auction, and its sale surprised the art world.

In March, Sotheby’s sold an AI video installation by German artist Mario Klingemann, Memories of Passersby I, for $51,012. Last spring, the HG Contemporary Gallery in New York’s Chelsea district hosted the first solo exhibition dedicated to an AI artist, with the exhibition „Faceless Portraits Transcending Time,“ a „collaboration“ between an AI and its creator, Ahmed Elgammal, a computer science professor at Rutgers University.

Prominent art institutions and collections around the world are paying attention. Speaking to Barrons magazine, Marisa Kayyem, Program Director for Continuing Education at Christie’s Education, said: „When we look at the wider landscape of what’s happening in the art world, and not just in sales, there is a lot of dynamism and institutional support for what’s happening,“ stressing, „Collectors are getting more and more used to it. „Just as photography never disappeared, I’m pretty sure that AI will establish itself as a new media format. ”

But despite the humming, many in the art scene struggle with some open questions. For example: If the artwork is created by an algorithm, who is the artist – the programmer or the computer? Since many works of AI art are digital, how do you appreciate a creation designed to live natively on the Internet and be widely distributed? And where exactly is the market heading for this new kind of work? There are few clear answers.