01 Apr MARTIN LUTHER KING’S DEATH TO BE MARKED WITH AN NON FUNGIBLE TOKEN BY THE ARTIST BEN TURNBULL
The anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s death is being commemorated this year with the launch of an NFT by the celebrated British artist Ben Turnbull.
Turnbull’s artwork, entitled I have a dream, a reference to King’s historic address on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, is made up of hundreds of cut outs from American superhero comics for 1950s and 60s. This has been fractionalised into 10,000 parts, each of which is being sold to raise money for a raft of charities, including The King Center in Atlanta, Georgia.
Each fraction of the I have a dream NFT, which is a collaboration between the online gallery and publisher, Art808, and Ben Turnbull, will sell for £25. The currency is Polygon, and it can be purchased off ART808’s website. The other two beneficiaries are the Easton Cowboys and Cowgirls Sports and Social Club and Blueprint for All.
King was assassinated fifty-four years on 4 April 1968, at the Lorraine Motel, Memphis, Tennessee.
Of the work, Turnbull says: “Much of my work is quite tricky for the viewer, but this was something with an entirely heroic theme,” Turnbull explained. “Every comic I used was over 50 years old and because I take an almost journalistic approach to my work – which meant I began by researching King’s speeches – it is more than just a straightforward portrait; you have to look deeper to find out what’s underneath.”
A former craftsman working on film productions at Shepperton and Elstree studios, his 2007 show entitled Us Vs Them at London’s Lazarides Gallery kicked off an almost meteoric rise to fame for the self-styled ‘Angry Pop Artist’. He went on to stage solo shows at galleries in London, New York and Utah, attracting the attention of celebrity collectors including Jude Law, Harry Styles, Claudia Schiffer and Jared Leto.
Never afraid to tackle ‘difficult’ subjects, Turnbull has created sculptures featuring handguns and grenades carved into school desks, while his portraits have ranged from a movie poster-style image of Harvey Weinstein emblazoned with the slogan “Creepshow”, to Mad(e) in America, a Donald Trump portrait made up of cut-outs from the American satirical magazine Mad. Both were part of American History RemiX, a 15-year project culminating in a major show at the Saatchi Gallery, London, last summer.
Keen to honour King’s legacy, Turnbull, who has previously donated part of the proceeds from a book accompanying a retrospective exhibition held at the Lancaster Institute for Contemporary Art to the families of the firefighters lost in the 9/11 attacks, teamed up with publisher and gallerist Jon Lewis of Bristol-based Art808.
“In addition to the NFT sales, half of which will go to the named charities along, we have produced a very low run of limited edition fine art prints, which will be donated to the King Centre, Blueprint for All, Easton Cowboys and Cowgirls Sports and Social Club and other charities,” Lewis explains.
