Mosaic works of art have a long history in the world. At least, it is recorded that this type of craft existed in the Mesopotamian civilization—3,000 BC. As for the craft itself, there are many types, including handicrafts, textile crafts, and also mosaic crafts.
In the past, mosaics were considered high artwork. This is because of its function as decorative ornaments for shrines or places of worship, for example in churches and mosques.
Referring to the Big Indonesian Dictionary (KBBI), the definition of the mosaic itself is an art of decoration with colored pieces of hard material that are arranged and attached with adhesive. This mosaic craft is still considered rare and is rarely seen by most people. However, this mosaic work which has a fairly high level of complexity can be sold at a fantastic price.
So, what exactly is this mosaic work and how is it currently developing, especially in the NFT world? Let’s see the review below.
Understanding Mosaic Artwork: Concept and Development
In his term, a mosaic is a two- or three-dimensional work of art that uses materials such as glass, ceramics, or other media in its manufacture. As for the material or other media, it will be cut into pieces—it could also have been in the form of pieces, previously—and then arranged in such a way by being pasted on the plane.
Later, these steps will produce a pattern, picture, or painting with aesthetic value or artistic appeal. The uniqueness of the mosaic work is in certain motifs or scenes that will appear when this craft is completed later.
The basic concept of this work of art lies in, at least, two things. First is the arrangement. If seen, the arrangement in mosaic art often contains several colors and is arranged in gradations. Second, related to the diversity of forms. Some of the mosaic works that have been made are square, round, hexagon, to abstract shapes.
On the other hand, mosaic work does have a fairly high level of craft difficulty. Moreover, if this mosaic is made with hard materials, such as ceramics and granite. However, there are also other materials for making mosaics, namely paper chips, eggshells, ceramics, glass, leaves, stones, wood, etc. To make a mosaic, craftsmen usually need materials, including adhesives, cutting tools, and a surface area to attach pieces of material to. Over time, the work of mosaics continues to grow. The presence of increasingly advanced technology at this time has also changed the view of the way the craftsmen produce mosaic work.
If mosaics were present in the form of pieces of paper or glass in the past, now mosaics are also available in digital format and photographic mosaic (photomosaic). This is known to have occurred after the appearance of a poster entitled “Live from Bell Labs” by Joseph Francis. The poster shows a portrait of a woman designed from a number of small photographs. When the portrait is enlarged, you will see several photos that are smaller in size.
Uniquely, this series of photos can form a new object. That’s because the photos are arranged according to the appropriate color. To form a human face, for example, a number of photos with a brown base color will be selected, and so on.
NFT Beeple’s NFT Sale: When Mosaic Art Gets Back Gaining Hype
After being considered a setback—because of a lack of interest and attention to this type of craft—mosaic art has also gained hype or popularity again. This happened in March 2021 after the sale of Beeple’s Non-Fungible Token (NFT) at a fantastic price, which reached around $69 million.
The mosaic work with an “exorbitant” price is entitled “Everydays: the First 5000 Days”. The figure behind Beeple, Mike Winkelmann, has reportedly designed this mosaic work since 2013. Its uniqueness is that this mosaic has no physical identification at all.
In addition, all of his works and certifications are available in digital form via NFT. However, “Everydays: the First 5000 Days” has indeed been successfully sold through the world-famous auction house, Christie’s, at a fantastic price.
On the other hand, not only the format, but all aspects of the sale of this mosaic work also come in a digital format, including the sales transaction process. This mosaic work can also be purchased with the crypto asset Ethereum, according to a representative from auction house Christie’s. This was offered by Christie’s because they themselves saw an opportunity in transactions using crypto assets.
The recent booming crypto market, according to auction house Christie’s, is considered to be able to make collectors not have to hesitate to dig deeper to get an NFT work of art.
Furthermore, the success achieved by Beeple with “Everydays: the First 5000 Days” has also opened up opportunities for other mosaic artists to adopt NFT. With no art flow restrictions on NFT, mosaic artists are now able to be as creative as possible to unite many mosaics with other types of art.
