Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 10: On-Chain Era (2020s)

2023

MoMA Announces NFT Acquisitions

Artwork · North America

A red circular figure with white eyes appears against a black field in Ian Cheng’s 3FACE.
Ian Cheng, 3FACE, 2022. The acquisition was announced by MoMA in 2023. Artwork: Ian Cheng. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Outland Art; object 763.2022.a–d. Image source.

In October, along with its MoMA Postcard launch, a major breakthrough in on-chain generative art history took place when The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) expanded its digital art collection to include NFTs. The acquisitions included works by Refik Anadol and Ian Cheng, underscoring MoMA’s commitment to artists exploring emerging technologies, building on a legacy of innovative exhibitions like The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age (1968), Information (1970) and Thinking Machines (2017).

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

Sources

People

Ian Cheng, Refik Anadol

Movements

NFT Art, Blockchain Art, artificial intelligence

Filed under

Ideas
collecting, digital art, institutions, legacy, museums
Technologies
NFTs, on-chain, on-chain generative art
People
Ian Cheng, Refik Anadol
Works
MoMA Postcard, Postcard
Exhibitions
Information, The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age
Organisations
MoMA, October, Thinking Machines

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