After the Art World, Part 1

Brian Droitcour argues that the art world is contracting and that digital collectibles are reshaping cultural value, so the post-internet model of seeking institutional legitimacy through online visibility no longer defines the field. He points to Evil Biscuit's Drifella III, a 2025 NFT work that merges collectibles and art and mobilizes the installation view used in post-internet art. Droitcour cites the Art Basel & UBS Survey of Global Collecting, which reports that young high-net-worth individuals rank collectibles as equal to or more important than fine art. He also references Ben Davis's concept of "quantitative aesthetics," which Davis describes as an elite culture organized around numbers and metrics rather than connoisseurship.