Portrait of Edmond Belamy

Details

Year: 2018
Artist: Obvious
Url: https://news.artnet.com/opinion/gray-market-obvious-portrait-1381798

Description

‘We found that portraits provided the best way to illustrate our point, which is that algorithms are able to emulate creativity’ — Hugo Caselles-Dupré of Obvious

Edmond de Belamy is a generative adversarial network portrait painting constructed in 2018 by Paris-based arts-collective Obvious. Printed on canvas, the work belongs to a series of generative images called La Famille de Belamy. It achieved widespread notoriety after Christie's announced its intention to auction the piece incorrectly as the first artwork created using Artificial Intelligence to be featured in a Christie's auction. It surpassed pre-auction esimates which valued it at $7,000 to $10,000, instead selling for $432,500.