Mel Alexenberg, From Digitalart to Cryptoart

Crypto art (also stylized as CryptoArt or cryptoart) is a category of art related to blockchain technology. 

Emerging as a niche genre of artistic work following the developing of blockchain technology. Crypto art quickly grew in popularity in large part because of the unprecedented ability afforded by the underlying technology for purely digital artworks to be bought, sold, or collected by anyone in a decentralized manner. (Wikipedia)

Mel Alexenberg launched Rembrandt-inspired cyberangels from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem through Tel Aviv on a virtual flight to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The cyberangels entered the museum through its café. It seems that museums that present art also sell food.

Mel Alexenberg, Pioneer in Digital Art

My pioneering digital artworks from the 1980’s are in the collections of thirty museums some of which are listed below. I created blog posts documenting my Rembrandt-inspired cyberangel artworks that can be seen at https://globaltributetorembrandt.blogspot.com. The original documents from these museums on adding my digital artworks to their collections are archived at the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; Museum of Modern Art, New York City; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York; National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama; Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio; University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington, Kentucky; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri; Midwest Museum of American Art, Elkhart, Indiana; University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Michigan; San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas; Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Canada; Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel;  Jewish Museum in Prague, Czech Republic; Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary; Museum of Modern Art, Vienna, Austria; Malmo Art Museum, Malmo, Sweden; Rembrandt House Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Art Museum of The Hague, The Netherlands; Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England; Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Tasmania, Australia.

On adding my digital artworks to their collections, the Museum of Modern Art and the National Museum of American History attest to their pioneering and innovative character. At the time, I was head of the art department at Pratt Institute and research fellow at MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies. 

MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK CITY

Mrs. Alfred R. Stern, Chairman of the Committee on Prints and Illustrated Books, wrote on adding Mel Alexenberg’s 1986 experimental digital multimedia artwork, Jacob’s Dream from the series Digitized Homage to Rembrandt to MoMA’s collection: “The members of the committee were pleased to accept this computer-assisted etching of Rembrandt’s imagery. As an example of the innovative technological experimentation taking place at Pratt Graphic Center, it will be of great interest to students of the development of graphic techniques.”

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY, WASHINGTON, DC.

Gary Kulik, Chairman, Department of Social & Cultural History at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. wrote about Mel Alexenberg’s 1986 computer-generated lithograph as a historic exemplar of the first digital artwork in its collection: “It gives me great pleasure to acknowledge, on behalf of the National Museum of American History, the receipt of "Digitized Homage to Rembrandt: Day Angels" kindly presented to our Division of Graphic Arts. This lithograph from a computer-generated image is a most valuable addition to our collection. It has been entered on our records as a gift from the Pratt Graphics Center. Please accept my thanks for your generous interest in the national collections.”