Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 9: AI Era (2010s)

2018

Christie’s First Sale of an AI artwork

Event

Portrait of Edmond de Belamy, the GAN-generated print sold by Christie's in October 2018 for $432,500; this is the auction image Christie's published for the lot.
Portrait of Edmond de Belamy, the GAN-generated print sold by Christie's in October 2018 for $432,500; this is the auction image Christie's published for the lot. Obvious, Portrait of Edmond de Belamy, from La Famille de Belamy, 2018. Christie's, New York, via Wikimedia Commons.

This sale could in some ways be considered the initial spark that lit the fuse of the upcoming NFT craze, peaking in 2021. Kate Vass spoke to this author (Peter Bauman) about how this sale spurred her to put together the legendary Automat und Mensch a few months—and moments on this Timeline—later in May, 2019. The sale itself remains controversial, as it was an AI artwork, Portrait of Edmond de Belamy by Obvious but based on Robbie Barrat’s open-source code.

Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random, fact-checked September 2026.

Sources

People

Kate Vass, Robbie Barrat

Movements

artificial intelligence, Machine Learning Art

Filed under

Ideas
ai art, ai authorship, authorship, hype cycles, institutional recognition, institutions, market
Technologies
open source
People
Kate Vass, Robbie Barrat
Works
Portrait of Edmond de Belamy
Exhibitions
Automat und Mensch: A History of AI and Generative Art
Organisations
Christie's, Obvious

Related moments

Echoes across time

Le Random editorials

Explore all Le Random editorials and artist interviews

Le Random podcast