ArtMeta Launches the “Paintboxed - Tezos World Tour” - Invites Artists to Create New Artworks Using the Legendary 80s Digital Art Tool, the Quantel Paintbox

ArtMeta, a leading art fair for digital art and NFTs, has announced the launch of the “Paintboxed - Tezos World Tour” an upcoming series of interactive events that will offer visitors a unique chance to experience the history and artistry of one of the earliest digital art tools—the legendary Quantel Paintbox. ArtMeta will host the debut event in the series at the Pepe pop-up gallery “PepeFest Presents: Fake Basel 2024” at Modern Art Theory in Miami during Art Basel Miami Beach and will invite selected artists to create new digital artworks using the Paintbox. Artworks created on the Paintbox during the tour will subsequently be minted as NFTs on objkt.com, powered by the Tezos blockchain.

Launched to potential buyers in a hotel suite at the National Association of Broadcasters show in New York in 1981, the Quantel Paintbox was an innovative digital painting tool from the early 1980s that predated Adobe Photoshop by almost a decade. The Paintbox defined the visual landscape of the 1980s and it was used to create both the iconic MTV logo and the first CGI music video, “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits, released in June 1985. ArtMeta will celebrate this legendary 80s digital art tool during Art Basel Miami Beach, from December 5 to 7, by displaying a fully operational original Quantel Paintbox at the “PepeFest Presents: Fake Basel 2024”, a temporary exhibition designed to celebrate the iconic world of Pepe-themed digital and physical art. The installation will be accompanied by an exhibition highlighting the groundbreaking role of the Paintbox in digital art history, including its use in the creation of iconic album covers like Nirvana’s “Nevermind” and movie posters for “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Pulp Fiction,” and “JFK”. 

By hosting the inaugural presentation of the “Paintboxed - Tezos World Tour” within the Pepe context, it pays tribute to the early developments in Crypto Art, which in turn brought renewed interest to digital art since the 2021 NFT boom. Rare Pepes, early manifestations of crypto art inspired by Matt Furie’s 2005 Pepe the frog and its subsequent memes, were launched as a collection in 2016 and by 2018 had resulted in over 1700 variations created by hundreds of participating artists. The multiplicity of spin-offs by artists who continue remixing Pepes are celebrated around the world with Pepe pop-up galleries, temporary showcases that celebrate the world of Pepe-themed digital and physical art, curated to bring together rare and iconic Pepe works in interactive spaces featuring auctions, projects, installations and merchandise. The series’ return to Miami for its 2024 edition is organized by Scarce City, Pepe.wtf, Tez Pepe, Fake Rares, and Notable Pepes, while a similar concept has previously made appearances in New York and Basel. 

Speaking of the official launch, Aleksandra Artamonovskaja, Head of Arts at TriliTech, said, “The support for the project is a continuation of a longstanding commitment across the Tezos Ecosystem towards embracing and promoting pioneering digital artists and projects. The “PepeFest Presents: Fake Basel 2024” and “Paintboxed - Tezos World Tour” both share the mission of celebrating and inviting contemporary creators to be part of a historical movement, making it a natural alignment for its inaugural appearance.”

At Paintbox’s peak popularity, major broadcasters like ABC, NBC, and BBC adopted the Paintbox despite its enormous $250,000 price tag, equivalent to approximately $868,000 today. The Paintbox’s cultural significance reached new heights in 1987 when the BBC commissioned renowned artists such as David Hockney, Howard Hodgkin, and Richard Hamilton to create digital artworks for the “Painting with Light” documentary series. This marked Hockney’s first use of a digital tool, predating his celebrated iPad drawings by more than a decade. Keith Haring also experimented with the Paintbox in 1985, captured in a short ABC TV segment in New York. Many of these early digital works remain largely unknown. 

With the “Paintboxed - Tezos World Tour,” ArtMeta and the Tezos community are bringing this pivotal piece of digital art history back into the spotlight. The exhibition is enabled through loans from the extensive archive of artworks and memorabilia of artist and historian Adrian Wilson’s collection. Following Miami, the tour will make stops in Paris, London, and New York, where contemporary artists will have the exclusive chance to create new digital works on one of the few remaining Quantel Paintboxes. The tour will culminate in Basel, Switzerland in June 2025, where ArtMeta will host an expansive retrospective as part of the Digital Art Mile art fair.

“The Quantel Paintbox was a groundbreaking innovation in the 1980s when the personal computers were entering the market. Our visual culture in music, broadcasting and art was highly influenced by the Quantel Paintbox and many world famous artists who were not necessarily associated with digital art used it to create digital artworks,” concluded Georg Bak, co-founder and artististic director at ArtMeta.

About ArtMeta:

ArtMeta is a leading art fair for digital art and NFTs, dedicated to connecting artists, collectors, and digital art enthusiasts with innovative digital experiences. With a mission to bridge the gap between traditional and digital art, ArtMeta also produces exhibitions that celebrate both historic digital art and the forefront of blockchain-based art creation.

 About Tezos:

Tezos is a cutting-edge, energy-efficient blockchain. Tezos is used by thousands of artists around the globe to create and sell digital art, and cultural institutions including Serpentine, Musée d'Orsay, and LAS Art Foundation for their innovative approaches to cultural programming.

 About Objkt.com:

Objkt is a Swiss NFT art platform that connects artists, collectors and curators from around the world. Its mission is to make art accessible to everyone while empowering artists to create sustainable livelihoods using blockchain technology. Since its inception in 2021, Objkt has been a leading destination for digital art, focusing on building bridges and forming partnerships with museums, galleries and independent curators.