Deconstructing Webzee’s NFTs
INTRO & OVERVIEW
Webzee’s World is a collection of 438 Digital Art NFTs. These unique visual artworks feature Webzee’s distinct style, which while being highly distinctive, also draws inspiration from neo-expressionism, cubism, and street art, amongst many other artistic movements. Webzee’s pieces are also avant-gardistes and capture the zeitgeist of our age, featuring several NFT and Crypto culture allusions and tropes, but also abound with references to the past through the inclusion of various art history homages, that only true insiders or connoisseurs may notice at first glance.
Each and every Webzee artwork is a 1-of-1 layered masterpiece, made up of a series of superimposed and juxtapositioned attributes. They include 35 Backgrounds, 67 Character Faces, 33 Marks, and 33 Epigrams. Each piece also features a distinct and stylised Webzee signature in the lower right corner of the digital canvas.
Every attribute has its own special, playful, and at times thought-provoking name, such as “Vaporized Space Time”, “Physical or Digital Mundo”, or even “Road to Metaverse City”. Some Attributes are rarer than others, conferring greater scarcity to specific Webzee NFT pieces, and thus making these more particular.
Viewing a Webzee’s is far from a passive experience, but rather a deliberate two-way interaction between the viewer and artist. These layered works reveal themselves slowly as the viewer is encouraged to study them more closely, and to discover each layer by layer to truly experience the piece in its entirety. Webzees are the sort of artworks that you can revisit again and again, while each time pleasantly discovering something new, unexpected, or that you had not previously noticed or paid attention to.
The Background — Main Building Block on top of which every Webzee is constructed
Unlike other NFT backgrounds — The collection features 34 different backgrounds, which vary greatly in terms of style, brush and stroke textures, color palettes, and varying levels of complexity. Unlike background elements that feature in most NFT digital art collections, Webzee’s backgrounds are far from monochromatic or plain. Even seemingly uncomplicated and sobre backgrounds, such as “Out At Sea” and “Lights Off”, are themselves layered, featuring glimpses of the undercoat lighter color tones that are faintly visible upon a closer inspection.
Contrast of Light and Darkness — The play and melange of colors, opacity, and textures, which create a clair-obscur effect, or contrast between light and dark elements, is a recurring characteristic of many of Webzee’s backgrounds. In “Vaporized Space Time”, the electric neon-esque light blue undercoat scintillates through the darker top coat, as though the latter has been scraped off or worn down, conferring it a greater physical rather than digital sensibility.
A Physical and Textural Sensibility — The background elements entitled “Prehistoric Noise” (Ref Image 2 and Ref Image 3) and “Historic Noise” (Ref Image 1) are close cousins, and mimic the visual appearance of illegible and worn off wildstyle graffiti (example in Ref Image 4) on a physical surface, such as a wall. These confer to the pieces they are incorporated into a greater sense of textural depth, and a feeling of surface grain which is rare and uncommon in digital art.
Possible Hidden Conceptual Elements — Other backgrounds, utilise the play of color contrasts to grant the piece a distinguishable conceptual aspect which evokes borrowed ideas from earlier Cubist and even Italian Futurist paintings. The top portion of “Dusty Sunset” (Ref Image 5), which mixes yellow and darker tones, features strokes, deliberate fading, and geometrical elements that remind one of elements from Giacommo Balla’s “The Car Has Passed” from 1913 (Ref Image 6) or Ivo Pannaggi’s “Speeding Train” painted in 1922 (Ref Image 7). In this particular background, such textural effect confers a sense of shadowing to abstract structures, or even a sense of motion and dynamism. What is also intriguing is the contrast between styles even within backgrounds, and which is very noticeable in “Dusty Sunset”, where the bottom right quadrant features wilder and seemingly more chaotic and erratic brush strokes closer in style to later abstract expressionism.
Influenced by Abstract Expressionism and Neo-Expressionism — Characteristics of abstract expressionism appear in several of Webzee’s backgrounds. “Sulfuric Acid” (Ref Image 8) and “Glamorous Glimpse” (Ref Image 9) contain seemingly spontaneous, action packed, gestural and energetic strokes reminiscent of Willem De Koening. “Bulky Dreams” and “Baroque Bass” on the other hand are more close in style to the works of Franz Kline. However, they are very much still distinct in their own right as they make use of more contemporary, more explosive colors.
Some of the backgrounds have been created through a layering of more or less precise horizontal and vertical thicker roller brush-like strokes. “Mythical Mayhem” and “Drifting Daydreams’’ borrow somewhat, in terms of brush stroke style, from Jean Michel Basquiat.
Iconic Color Palettes — The deliberate use of certain colors and color pairings in some of the backgrounds can also shed light on the possible artistic influences that have played a role in shaping Webzee’s work and style. Several Webzee backgrounds are characterized by the prominence of the color blue. The blues in “Baroque Bass” and “Linear Introspection” are somewhat close to the famous Majorelle Blue or Yves Klein Blue. In “Inertial Camouflage”, the contiguity and overlay of darker and lighter blues afford the background a deliberate disruptively patterned aesthetic. This notion of disruptive pattern reappears in different interpretations in “Mare Tranquillitatis”, “Happy Thoughts”, and to a greater extent in “Caffeinated Consciousness”. Although highly distinctive in its own right, the color palette in “Relatively Regular” (Ref Image 16) is suggestive of the earthy tones in Mark Rothko’s “№22 (REDS)” (Ref Image 17) and “Orange and Tan” (Ref Image 18).
The Faces — The main character at the center of each Webzee piece
A blend of unique styles — Webzee’s Faces appear in several unique style families that are particular to the artist. “Bearded Buccaneer” (Ref Image 19) and “The Professional” (Ref Image 20) are constructed with several layers of different colors, textures, and shades, which give structure and a sense of shape to these faces. They also feature thin, discontinuous, white contour lines which lightly delineate the face structure. “Somerton Man” (Ref Image 21) is somewhat similar in spirit but features a double contour, made up of a thick underline pink line, and a thinner dark blue set of contour lines above. The system of two-tone contour lines reappears in “Saintly Figure” and “Smudged Cubist Blue”, amongst others.
The Influence of Picasso on Webzee — In some of the faces, Webzee draws inspiration from past masters. In particular, Webzee’s homages to Pablo Picasso, one of the pioneering figures of the cubist movement, are quite noticeable and playful in their interpretation. The body, hat, and hair in “Cubist Who-dis?” is evocative of Picasso’s “Woman with Orange Beret and Fur Collar” and “Femme au béret et à la robe quadrillée”. However, Webzee strays away from a traditional Picasso-esque cubist face, and opts for a re-interpretation by opting for a blue mask over the visage of his protagonist. Webzee’s tribute to Picasso is even more obvious in his “Demoiselle Bleue” (Ref Image 21) and “Demoiselle Mandarine” (Ref Image 22) which resemble one of the characters in arguably one of Picasso’s most famous paintings, “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” (Ref Image 23).
It is of great interest that Webzee incorporates elements of masks and primitive art in some of his faces. In particular, “Man in the Stone Mask” (Ref Image 24) and “Geppetto’s First” (Ref Image 25) have aspects to them that resemble style elements drawn from 3rd and 2nd century BC Iberian sculptures (Ref Image 26). Although this may seem trivial at first glance, it is important to note that Picasso and his work was heavily influenced by early Iberian art.
Webzee and Basquiat — The influence of Basquiat is also noticeable in Webzee’s faces. Webzee’s “La Vie en Rose” (Ref Image 27) offers a re-imagination of Basquiat’s protagonist in his painting entitled “Glenn” from 1985 (Ref Image 28). Rather than incorporating a piano like pattern on the forehead, Webzee’s character features a series of pictograms resembling a simplified drawing of a blockchain, with 4 blocks and arrows connecting them to one another. The influence of Basquiat is also visible in “Hommage”, where the skull takes stylistic elements from the skull in Basquiat’s painting “Untitled” from 1982.
The inclusion of NFT art tropes — Webzee’s work is also informed by recurring themes that are singular and unique to NFT art. Webzee’s “Artificial Artifact” (Ref Image 29) features 2 beams of what seems to be light, disseminating from the eyes of the face. These are reminiscent of the laser eyes attribute which is a re-appearing trope in many NFT character art collections, including the BAYC Apes (Ref Image 30), Gutter Cats (Ref Image 31), and many more. In a similar vein, Webzee’s “Lord Fire Beard” also features a recurring topos of NFT character art, in particular the fire hair attribute.
Anthropomorphic Elements — Although most are humanoid in spirit, a few of Webzee’s faces are anthropomorphic in nature. Webzee’s “Mendel Gen 1” (Ref Image 32) and “Mendel Gen 2” (Ref Image 33) are flowers with highly expressive eyes and possibly a mouth or moustache. However, unlike Takashi Murakami’s flowers (Ref Image 34) , Webzee’s flowers are not perfectly symmetrical, and have a more restrained and less lively color palette. Webzee’s flowers, with unevenly sized petals seem therefore more close in spirit, at least in their imperfect nature, to Warhol’s flowers (Ref Image 35) than Murakami’s. There are two other anthropomorphized characters in the Webzee’s face collection. However, these are animals rather than flora. They are “Wolf in Wolf’s Clothing” and “Rabies Rabbit”.
The Skull, a recurring theme — The skull is a design element that appears several times in Webzee’s faces. “Yorick” (Ref Image 36), “Morbid Misery” (Ref Image 37), “Buff Bones” (Ref Image 38), and “Smudged Skull” (Ref Image 39) all offer different interpretations of the same thing. It is important to note that not only do they differ in terms of color palette, but also in their varying levels of flatness and sense of 3D. “Yorick” and “Morbid Misery” for example are far more simple, while “Smudged Skull” has a greater sense of three-dimensional depth thanks to a fair amount of shadowing and color contrast.
Non-conformist by nature — An non-conformist above all else — One of Webzee’s face attributes that stands out is “Headless Sartorialist”, which, surprisingly does not have a head and therefore also no face. This deliberate choice tells us something about Webzee as an artist, that Webzee does not conform to his own rules or set standard, and that Webzee is therefore a bit of a contrarian.
Overlaid Marks — secondary elements and characters that enhance the works
The use of words and text — A reappearing idea in the marks is the use of text and the written word. At times, text is simple and minimal, with only a few letters, whereas in other Webzee mark elements, text plays a more substantial role. In “When Dyson Sphere” (Ref Image 40) and “Bake Cookies” (Ref Image 41), which are both stylistically similar in many other aesthetic respects, the text length is in the range of an entire paragraph. Despite their similarities, the text on both of these marks differ heavily in substance, with the text on “Bake Cookies” being fairly trivial and low brow, while the text paragraph on “When Dyson Sphere” poses a series of semi-philosophical questions to the viewer.
Conscious editing — In other marks, text elements and words are deliberately crossed out. In “Neither Here Nor There”, the words “Global” and “Local” are crossed out, while “Metaverse Born” remains untouched. In “Not Fungible”, the term “Fungible” is striked out. The crossing out of words in “Framing Art” is accompanied by the inclusion of new words, which transform the meaning of the text through this very conscious editing. A probable explanation is that in these cases, the crossing out of text is a wilful choice to create new meaning or reject the association of the crossed out term.
Repeated NFT and Crypto theme Motifs — Several key terms and motifs appear over and over again, either repeated within a same mark element, or across several mark elements. The term “Bull Run” re-emerges in “Start Up to Bro Down” (Ref Image 42), “Creation Innovation” (Ref Image 43), and aptly named “Bull Run” (Ref Image 44), while the pictorial image of a bull and simplified humanoid stick like man also appear frequently. The imagery of a bull is probably a conscious one, particularly due to its financial and market connotations, and its use in daily lingo in the NFT and Crypto communities.
Crypto and NFT references are not reserved to the imagery of the bull. In “Talking Shit”, Webzee depicts stylised versions of the Discord and Twitter logos, two popular social media platforms through which most NFT artists and communities interact and exchange information and ideas. Other more or less subtle references to the metaverse are noticeable in several other marks.
Highlighting Artists, Scientists, and Technologists — Beyond this, other marks make references to important names and figures from the past, in particular from the spheres of art and the sciences. In “Lovelace Turing” (Ref Image 45), Webzee invokes the names of “Babbage”, “Lovelace”, “Boole”, “Turing”, all important figures who have contributed to the field of computing. In “Da Vinci Fibonacci” (Ref Image 46), Webzee’s mark carefully only contains 2 words, “Fibonacci” and “Da Vinci”. These two names are of particular interest as they invoke both science and the arts. Fibonacci, also known as Leonardo Bonacci, was a 12th and 13th century mathematician whose legacy includes the Fibonacci sequence which is associated with the golden ratio, a notion that has had a significant influence on the world of art. “Da Vinci”, the other name that also features on this mark, is also a figure who embodies the duality of science and the arts.
Could it be that in highlighting characters that embody this combination of art and science, that Webzee seeks to highlight the extent to which NFT art itself also contains both such aspects, in other words aspects of traditional art and the benefits of technology and blockchain.
Abstract and Geometrical Shapes — Other marks seem to be more decorative in nature. “Red Petals” (Ref Image 47) and “Obvious Equations” are fairly abstract in their aesthetic, while “A Field of Flowers” is more figurative. Other marks have elements that resemble smudges which create contrast over the backgrounds. In “Black Smudges”, the dark shadowing seems more so stylistic, while in “Mist Over Cowboy Country” (Ref Image 48), the shadowing and light grey smudges are integral parts of the greater story unraveling within the mark, and are clearly used to depict fog or mist. At times, marks incorporate highly geometrical shapes. “White Frame”, “Textural Layers”, and “Defunct Blockchain” feature deliberate right angles and squares, while circles emerge in “Dream Catcher” and “Neither Here Nor There”.
Vivid Colors — Certain bright colors appear across various marks. Bright orange in particular appears in 7 Marks, and Webzee uses warm vivid reds and pinks, and sharp blues at other times. This is most likely a wilful visual choice and makes these Marks stand out more in the general NFT composition.
Epigrams — The upper most chalk like layer
WTF is an Epigram? — Every Webzee’s World NFT artwork features an Epigram, a top layer element made up of white color drawings and text. The stroke lines on the Epigram do not vary that much in size, and lines are rather thin and have a chalk like quality and texture. Depending on the Background, Face, and Marks on the digital canvas, various elements of the Epigram are more or less noticeable.
It’s (almost always) all about text — Text is an important recurring element in the Webzee Epigrams. In fact, only 5 of the epigrams do not contain any text or letter elements (Ref Images 49 and 50, examples of 2 Webzee Epigrams with no text, respectively “Primordial Masks” and “Bovine Hallucinations”). Text also varies in font size from piece to piece. In “Fibonacci” and “I Art Therefore I…”, the text font is larger than usual, while in other pieces, text is very small, which means that the viewer needs to make a greater effort to decipher and discover the text. In most epigrams where text is present, words and paragraphs are floating or exist in their own right as standalone sub components. However, in some pieces, notably in “Crypto Juice” (Ref Image 51) and “Aha Moment” (Ref Image 52), text elements are integrated or rather components of graphical objects and drawings. This is most pronounced in “Crypto Juice” where the text is featured on the labels of the two beverage containers, and on the framed signage object.
Repetitive Text As a Means to Add Emphasis — Another recurring pattern in several epigrams is repetition. Deliberate text repetition is present in 14 of Webzee’s Epigrams. Given the chalk-like texture of the stroke lines, the text repetition resembles the Bart Simpson chalkboard (Ref Image 53), where the same terms, sentences, or sentence fragments appear more or less neatly in rows below each other. It is safe to assume that repetition is used by Webzee to emphasise or highlight the text. The added effect is that it allows the text of the epigram to be visible across different NFT artworks where it is present, in spite of the varying other elements (Background, Face, Marks) that may be obfuscating part of the Epigram.
Common and recurring ideas and themes — Similarly to the Marks, the text in the Epigrams also revolve around certain common themes. They include art, crypto and NFT culture, ideas revolving around existential and philosophical themes, and science, amongst others. At times, for example in “Cold Pine Wood” and “Eth to a Summer’s Day”, the text’s meaning seems trivial or almost somewhat random. On the other hand, in certain Epigrams, such as “Spirit of Adventure” (Ref Image 56), “Space Exploration” (Ref Image 57), and “Tyrants”, the text seems to pose existential questions of greater substance and depth.
Signatures — Every Webzee has a signature
Every Webzee’s World NFT artwork features an artist’s signature in the lower right corner of the digital canvas. All signatures are not identical, and there are in total 17 variants. Although the Webzee signature handwritten font and text is similar, some signatures are fairly simple and minimal while others feature more colors, and even at times pictorial elements. Every Webzee signature attribute is also named, and the names are all based off of the names of cities or interesting locations. Examples of names include Las Vegas, Bora Bora, and Berlin amongst others.
Overall Observations:
The Webzee’s World NFT art collection stands out as one of the more unique NFT collections in the space. With deliberate and interesting references to past masters such as Picasso, Basquiat, and others, it is fair to say that Webzee as an artist must be someone with an art history background and the ability to understand, appreciate, and reinterpret past influences. However, Webzee’s works are very much novel in many respects, and are characterized by a unique and noticeable style and aesthetic.
Like other NFT projects, Webzee’s World makes use of an art assembly method, superimposing and juxtaposing modular handmade attribute elements. In Webzee’s case, these include Backgrounds, Faces, Marks, and Epigrams. Webzee’s pieces are particularly captivating on several levels. Their handmade and physical sensibility is quite unique, and something that is quite rare to find amongst NFTs and digital art. Beyond the aesthetic consideration, Webzee’s artworks are also at times thought-provoking and contain evocative and conceptual aspects which the user can discover and ponder upon after closer examination. Webzee’s works are also highly engaging pieces, as they are covered in small details and draw in the viewer, who is encouraged to increase dwell time and playfully discover the piece and all its hidden elements.
In short, Webzee’s World NFT artworks are closer in spirit to the realm of fine art, and are far more sophisticated than the usual NFT PFP project.
Additional Notes:
All of the 160+ design attributes (backgrounds, faces, marks, epigrams, and signatures) have unique and compelling names. In future, this article could be updated to include an in depth analysis solely dedicated to the names of all the Webzee attributes in the collection.
More information on Webzee’s World NFT Art Collection can be found on the artist’s official website www.webzee.co. It is important to note that the text on the site appears to be purposefully playful and nonchalant. The playful and fun nature of the artists is also what makes this collection special.
The public sales is scheduled for the 7th of December at 6 pm EST time on the Webzee website: www.webzee.co
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This article does not constitute financial advice. Price of NFTs may go up or down. Only spend what you can afford to lose.
