Guest post by Vinciane Jones (Verisart) in collaboration with the Lee Mullican estate
In the mid-1980s, Lee Mullican, an American painter, brought art and technology one step closer together through his pioneering digital works. For the artist, the parallels between working physically and digitally were apparent, “I examined why I thought the computer was for me. Even in my paintings, I was always working with pattern and line, and color. I’ve had a built-in computer ever since I’ve been doing art.”
Lee Mullican, Person, 1988, courtesy of the Estate of Lee Mullican and Marc Selwyn Fine Art
Over the past decades, technology evolved from being a tool to a medium, to finally becoming the artwork itself. Today, digital art no longer needs to justify why it should be art. Artists recognize the possibilities of technology and collectors understand the mastery and conceptual thinking that underpins the art. From digital paintings and digital photo manipulation to AI, creative algorithms, and 3D modeling, the digital art space is bigger than ever before. We’re now in a world where the code is the work, as demonstrated by the explosive growth of generative art where lines of code written by the artist create the image. The explosive growth of the NFT art market, from $20 million in 2020 to $2 billion in 2021, was a catalyst for widespread engagement with digital art.
The unbounded creativity of digital art today was made possible by the artists who dared to take the first step. Artists who saw beyond the functional aspects of technology and harnessed it to create art. Artists of the 60s, 70s, and 80s paved the way by believing digital art could be the future before it was even accepted by the art world, let alone the general public.
Lee Mullican, UCLA, 1987, courtesy of Marc Selwyn Fine Art, photo by Basil Langton
Lee Mullican (1919-1998) was one of these pioneering artists. Primarily a painter, Mullican embraced the possibilities offered by emerging digital technologies of the time. At the age of 67, Mullican began working with UCLA’s Program for Technology in the Arts to explore how his signature painting style could be translated to the digital realm. The resulting works seem to pulsate on the screen. The interplay of rich, jeweled colors and dark backgrounds along with the repetitive patterns encourage us to look and look again. Thirty years after their creation, they still have the power to mesmerize.
Lee Mullican and NFTs
Today, for the first time, the world has the opportunity to own a piece of digital art history as Mullican’s digital works are being offered as NFTs. In an exclusive partnership with the Estate of Lee Mullican and Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Verisart is delighted to present 15 NFTs by the artist. All the works are certified NFTs minted on Verisart, an independent NFT minting and blockchain certification platform. The auction runs from November 20 to December 4.
Lee Mullican…
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