Director Nicholas Bruckman’s documentary, Minted, which is now available on PBS Independent Lens, offers an illuminating account of the phenomenon, which straddled the worlds of art and technology and increasingly seems like a fizzled fad.

Read the full review on the Wall Street Journal here.

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Director Nicholas Bruckman’s documentary offers an illuminating account of the phenomenon, which straddled the worlds of art and technology and increasingly seems like a fizzled fad.

One of the savvier ways in which the documentary “Minted” explains the very recent phenomenon of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) is to take us back to the late 1950s and the French artist Yves Klein. “Klein always understood that the way his work was bought and sold would be an aspect of the experience of the piece,” says artist and interviewee Mitchell Chan. During one Klein exhibition, titled “Zones of Immaterial Pictorial Sensibility,” people would enter a gallery in which there was nothing hanging on the walls. The “works” were put up for sale. “Whenever you bought one of these,” says Mr. Chan, “you would get in exchange a certificate. And each one is unique. And, crucially, that certificate is not the art. It is a token that indicates you own the art. But it is not the art.”

When Mr. Chan adds that the phenomenon of NFTs—which exist on the online ledgers known as blockchains—is something that has been cooking for decades, he’s right. When he calls them “a huge step forward in what’s possible for artists,” he’s also right: Director Nicholas Bruckman focuses on several artists whose careers, and lives, were changed enormously by their entrance into the NFT realm, at least before that ephemeral market went down in virtual flames. Among them are the large-format photographer Justin Aversano, whose entry into the NFT universe eventually led to an auction at the real-world Christie’s; and the Cuban painter Kina Matahari, whose profits allowed the artist and her daughter to escape her repressive homeland.