"That’s Amazingly Too Weird!"

In light of the recent events taking place in the digital arena of the art world, weird imagery of digital paintings has come to the attention which honestly brings up the question “Do I know anything that’s happening in this painting?”. Weird creatures manufacturing humans, a different evolution taking place on another planet, a unicorn with wheels, and a man driving his car using his legs. If you think that’s bonkers, wait till you see the paintings. The collection of these art pieces are under the name “The Mastery of Eternity” and is available for private sales since mid-April and is rumored to attract over $120 Million in value. All the artworks in the lot collectively feature a series of sequentially stacked, progressive storylines presented digitally for esoterically-inclined collectors. The collection draws inspiration from one of the most mysterious books ever made – the Codex Seraphinianus. It is a guide to an unknown world, 400 pages of descriptions and explanations for an imaginary existence, all in its own uniquely unreadable alphabet, complete with thousands of drawings.

Who's Behind the Sale?

The collection is being sold by a Mumbai-based arthouse and art-tech company, Basilica Art House, that specializes in buying, selling, commercializing, creating, and sourcing art with divine depths. They believe that art is the instrument through which the unknown higher power residing in the world speaks to us. They have formulated a completely new methodology of evaluating the value of art, especially digital art, by giving a strong inclination towards understanding the emotional, intellectual, conscious, and subconscious factors of the art piece. As an Art House, they believe that digital art has more to offer the world than traditional art and hence can be valued accordingly. The potential of digital art is so incredible that it will likely become the majority preference within the next decade. Not only does digital art allow for widespread distribution, but art experiences themselves will transform. Imagine an art gallery where viewers can wear VR headsets to shrink and enter the artwork, enjoy a scene played in front of them like a movie.

The Man Who Created The Collection

Since the aim of Basilica Art House has always been to find art with emotional and intellectual depths their team is constantly on the lookout to find artists whose work might or might not appeal to the world but sure speaks a lot. Finding such unique artists and artworks is also looked out by them as the signs of higher investment returns in the future. The artist of the Mastery of Eternity goes under the name of Cleo Black although that’s not his real name. The move of encrypting his name was made by Basilica to save the creator from any form of public attention due to his mental condition. He adored the images in Codex Seraphinianus and tried to convert meaningless text into useful insights on evolution through his collective insights from his pursuits with mystical literature. He believed that the book represented secrets of evolution and metamorphosis that even greats like Darwin could not capture. It was hard for him to explain it to any common man, what he saw, what he felt, and what he thought. What started as a mere hobby, later got converted into a knack for converting his ideas and derived meanings into forms of digital art as expression. However, his run as a digital artist was cut short by his first & last ever adaptation – that of the Codex Seraphinianus.

Before beginning to create the art, he had long conversations over the book with Basilica at which point they agreed to commission and represent him. Before creating each of the pieces in the collection, he would read and observe the entire 400-odd pages at lengths. He slowly started having extremely vivid dreams, social withdrawal, and episodes of loud self-talking. His obsession with this book and his creations led to a mental breakdown followed by a serious illness.

Currently, Basilica Art House is holding private discussions for the sale of the art collection and its future scope but we are yet to find out which visionary will end up owning this amazing collection. They have also promised that a percentage of the sales amount will also go as charity to the cause of mental illness and schizophrenia as a homage to Cleo Black.