Art on the Blockchain maps the collision of decentralised ledger technology and contemporary art practice, tracing how NFTs and Crypto Art have redrawn the boundaries of authenticity, ownership, and what can constitute a work of art.
About This Book
Blockchain technology has done more than create a new market for digital art — it has forced a reckoning with some of the art world's most foundational assumptions about provenance, value, and originality. Valérie C. Whitacre situates this shift historically, connecting Crypto Art's lineage to Fluxus, Conceptual art, photography, and performance, and showing that tools like the Certificate of Authenticity laid groundwork long before NFTs arrived. Written for a broad art-world readership, the book also addresses blockchain's emerging applications for physical works, where verification and valuation of traditional art objects are being tested and reimagined by curators, creators, and institutions alike.
Key Features
- 104 pages of accessible critical text tracing the history and mechanics of Crypto Art and blockchain technology
- Author: Valérie C. Whitacre
- Published by Lund Humphries Publishers, ISBN 9781848227217
What You'll Discover
- How NFTs function as instruments of authentication, provenance verification, and valuation for digital artworks
- The historical roots of Crypto Art in fine-art movements including Fluxus, Conceptual art, photography, and performance
- How the Certificate of Authenticity and other pre-blockchain collecting tools anticipated digital ownership models
- Emerging applications of blockchain technology for the verification and valuation of physical artworks, challenging traditional art market conventions
About the Author
Valérie C. Whitacre writes accessibly for broad art-world audiences on the intersection of technology and contemporary art. In this book, she draws on the innovations of creators, curators, and institutions working at the frontier of Crypto Art and blockchain technology.
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 104
- Dimensions: 130 × 200 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781848227217
- Publisher: Lund Humphries Publishers
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Art world professionals, digital artists, curators, collectors, and anyone seeking a historically grounded understanding of NFTs, Crypto Art, and the transformation of art ownership in the digital age.