“In a move likely to transform the Indian, Arabic and world art markets, the first NFT of an artwork by iconic Indian painter M.F. Husain will soon be available to collectors.”
NFT DROP HAS BEEN DELAYED – Stay tuned.
Story behind the LightningNFT
In a move likely to transform the Indian, Arabic and world art markets, the first NFT of an artwork by iconic Indian painter M.F. Husain will soon be available to collectors
LightningNFT is the digitized form of the most well-known, widely published painting of the celebrated Indian-Qatari master, Maqbool Fida Husain. The 60-foot-long mural “Lightning” was made in 1975 to serve as a backdrop to a historic speech by then-Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, delivered at a tumultuous time for the nation. Commonly referred to as the “Guernica” of India, the emblematic masterpiece was kept by the artist from 1975 until 2002, then purchased by a collector from the U.S. The Asia Society Museum on Park Avenue in New York devoted a rare solo exhibition and catalogue to Husain’s “Lightning” in 2019, garnering worldwide publicity and praise for the mural.
*Artwork shown is for illustration purposes only. The actual NFT totals and art may have different traits.
The work’s twelve massive panels, vivid and Cubist in style, feature wild, white horses charging across a space rich with visual references to India and to the 1970s, aptly capturing the political climate of the new nation. To some players within the art-collecting and NFT communities, eager to broaden the quality of NFT art, the LightningNFT drop is anticipated with a similar excitement to the buzz that met artist Damien Hirst’s hugely successful 2021 NFT drop, “The Currency.”
LightningNFT, will be a digital drop of (TBD) NFTs with 62 unique traits. (Each NFT represents one of the painting’s 12 panels with its own trait.) NFT sales are randomly generated but collectors are invited to attempt to form a straight flush — 12 panels each sharing a single trait, say, a green mat with black frame, for example.
Collectors who do will have the option to exchange those 12 NFTs in for an extremely rare single NFT image which includes all 12 panels. (The individual NFTs will be burned.) This option will remain open till 11:55 pm EST December 31, 2023.
After the completion of the public sale, secondary sales will be available on OpenSea.io. Sales of NFTs on OpenSea, the top trading platform, crossed $10 billion in November 2021.
Lightning artwork has never been offered as a print or a digital artwork. This is the first time that such an iconic work is being offered as an NFT.
Husain’s works hold the records for the highest prices paid for an Indian artist at auction. His artistic life was marked by multiple awards and distinctions. He was a founding member of the influential Progressive Artists Group of Bombay (now Mumbai). Husain was a special invitee, along with Picasso, to the São Paulo Biennial, Brazil in 1971.
The New York Times, in its huge 2011 obituary of the “dashing, highly eccentric” 95-year-old artist, noted that Husain’s “modernist reinterpretations of mythic and religious subjects made him India’s most famous painter. He “applied the formal lessons of European modernists like Cézanne and Matisse to scenes from national epics.”
Husain’s art has been collected and exhibited by The Victoria & Albert Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, The Peabody Essex Museum and others. There is a major permanent installation devoted to him in Doha, Qatar’s Education City, commissioned by the Qatar Foundation. This exhibition, meant to highlight the journey of Arab civilization, features Husain’s iconic horses with moving automobiles.
His work continues to be exhibited in many institutions across the globe.
Digital NFT
Artwork by: MF Husain
NFT created by: LightningNFT
Blockchain: Ethereum
Contract: ERC-721.
Mint Pricing
Pricing shall be determined 7 days prior to mint date. NFTs will be minted randomly from our website on presale and on public sale date. Stay notified via social media.
Event
NFT token shall serve as your membership/entry to the LightningNFT community event/s in 2022. We are building a community for all the token holders to belong and strengthen together.
Sales
Presale and whitelist will be open to those who expressed interest. Any remaining tokens will be available in the public sale.
About the Artist
MF Husain was coined as “Picasso of India” by Forbes in 2006. He was born in India and later he became a citizen of Qatar. MF Husain was widely known as the most celebrated global artist of India. Current NFT is a digital copy of the painting “Lightning” which was created in 1975 in 12 panel artwork.
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