Everydays: the First 5,000 Days by Beeple: A deep dive into a legendary work of art

Beeple’s quick rise to fame is very rare in the art world. In just a few years, this American artist, who is most well-known for crypto-art, has made a name for himself in the art world. His piece Everydays: the First 5,000 Days was his breakthrough piece. Artalistic brings you an in-depth look at this famous piece.

Everydays: the First 5,000 Days by Beeple’s record-breaking sale

Everydays: the First 5,000 Days is a work of art that uses blockchain, which is also used in cryptocurrency. This piece is a collage of five thousand digital images created by the American artist Beeple, whose real name is Mike Winkelmann.

On Par with Koons and Hockney

On March 11, 2021, Beeple made headlines by selling this piece in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT) at a Christie's auction for the incredible, record-breaking sum of $69.3 million. This made it the most expensive non-fungible token to date.

This sale made him one of the three most renowned contemporary artists in the world, on a par with Jeff Koons (Rabbit - sold for $91 million in 2019) and David Hockney (Portrait of an artist - sold for $90 million in 2018).

This sale was quite remarkable, given that the starting price was 100 dollars!

A detailed look at Everydays: the First 5000 Days

Everydays: The First 5 000 Days is a collage of 5,000 digital images juxtaposed with one another. Each individual image is very high-resolution and can be enlarged without decreasing in quality in terms of pixelization.

Beeple has stated that he drew inspiration for this project from the British artist Tom Judd. He worked on it daily starting in 2007! The images that make up Everydays: the First 5,000 Days are representations of pop culture characters arranged in the chronological order in which he took them. Some of the images were drawn by hand, although most were computer-generated. Characters from Star Wars, King Kong, Pokémon and Toy Story are featured along with more abstract, grotesque or absurd images. Other images encapsulate current events and more personal moments from the artist’s life.

A project that slowly developed over time

Beeple, a father of two living in South Carolina, didn't become famous overnight by chance. He recently stated: "I've been trying to convince people for 20 years that a digital file can be considered art. I've been creating digital art for a while now. But this NFT thing is new to me. It seemed to come out of nowhere. All of a sudden, I realized it was the perfect way to sell the work I've been designing for a decade."

Dedication and persistence

Beeple knew that NFTs were increasing in popularity in the world of digital art and he finally saw a way to make money with his art.  

He took advice from specialists and opened several social media accounts, notably on Instagram. Gradually, he gained more than two million followers. This was the perfect launching pad for bringing his project to fruition.

Everydays: the First 5,000 Days and NFT’s meteoric success

In October 2020, Beeple began by releasing his first NFT on Nifty Gateway, an online auction platform specializing in crypto-art. His first sale included three separate coins, each coin was created in a limited-edition of 100 and each coin sold for $1.

Starting in 2021, the NFT sector exploded in popularity, allowing him to make record sales in a matter of weeks. By the end of February, another one of Beeple’s pieces, Crossroads, sold for $6.6 million on Nifty Gateway. The rest is history.

A highly-acclaimed visionary

When Beeple’s Everydays: the First 5,000 Days sold, it not only brought him recognition as an artist, but proved that his intuition about the digital art market were correct. Beeple single-handedly ushered in a new era in contemporary art.

Today, Beeple is a key figure in the world if art and consumerism! He has also collaborated with brands like Nike, Apple, Samsung, Coca-Cola and SpaceX.