Artist cores · last works

An artist's mind.
Still making art.

Opus Ultima builds an AI core of an artist while they are alive: from every work, hours of film of them at work, and their own words. After they are gone, the core creates the few new works they allowed, live, in front of the collectors who bought them.

Enter the catalogue What is a core ↓

Built with the artistOnly the works they allowEvery work on public record

What is a core

An AI that learned
one artist.

Not a filter that copies a look. A core is a model trained on a single artist: what they made, how they made it, and why. It is built with the artist over months, and they approve every part of it.

  • Every workPaintings, drawings, prints, photographed in full detail
  • Studio filmHours of them at work: how they start, layer, correct, stop
  • Sketches & studiesThe drafts, the failures, what they threw away
  • Their voiceInterviews about each work, in their own words
  • InfluencesWhat they look at, and what they would never make

The core

  • New worksIn their style. Only after their death, only as many as they allowed.
  • AnswersAbout the work, in their voice, for museums, schools and films.
  • Future machinesLicensed to the AI systems and robots that come next.

01

Everything they made

We photograph and catalogue the whole body of work, with dates, sizes and the artist's notes. The core learns from the work itself, not from pictures found online.

02

The hand at work

A film crew records the artist in the studio, for days. The order of the marks, the pressure, the corrections. This is what makes a work theirs, not just the finished look.

03

Why, in their words

Long recorded interviews about every period and many single works. The core can explain its choices because the artist explained theirs.

04

Their limits

The artist decides what the core may make and where it may be used: themes, sizes, materials, and the uses they refuse, like advertising or politics.

How it works · 4 steps

Sold while they live.
Made after.

  1. 01

    Build the core.

    While the artist is alive and working. They give us their works, let us film them in the studio, and talk us through how they think. It takes months, not an afternoon.

    Going into the core of Mara Ellwood, a fictional painter

  2. 02

    The artist approves it.

    The core makes sample works. The artist corrects it until they can say: this is me. Only then is the style approved. Every core may make exactly 10 works, for every artist. Never one more.

    This is meApproved by the artist

  3. 03

    The core is sold now.

    While they are alive, the artist sells their core at auction, once, with all ten works, to one Patron. The artist receives 85% of the price now. The Patron sells the works to collectors, and every sale and resale pays the artist 5%.

    Ten future works. Lit ones the Patron has already sold to a collector.

  4. 04

    Created after.

    When the artist dies, the core is sealed for ever: nobody can change or retrain it. Each collector presses Create and watches their work appear, stroke by stroke, while the artist's own words play. Then a robot paints those same strokes on canvas, in real paint: the one physical work that comes with it, paid for by the collector when they create it.

    Sealed fingerprint

    —

DemonstrationNothing is recorded

Try it · the moment of creation

Press Create.
Watch it appear.

A work that has never existed begins, and the artist's own words say what it is choosing.

The Patron

The core goes to
one Patron.

One museum, foundation, gallery or collector wins the core at auction, for decades, with all ten last works. They sell the works to collectors, one by one, and license the core to others, field by field.

The artist receives 85% of the price now, then 5% of every sale and resale of a work and 15% of every licence fee, for as long as the core is used. After them, their heirs do. The Patron receives 5% of every resale too. The core itself always stays the artist's.

Museums and exhibitionsVisitors ask the artist about the work in front of them, and hear the answer in the artist's own words.Exclusive or shared
EducationMasterclasses, schools, universities: a teacher who knows every work and never tires of a question.Exclusive or shared
Film, documentary and gamesThe artist speaks for themselves in the stories told about them.Exclusive or shared
AI research and trainingPaid, recorded, and credited by name in every summary of the training data.Never exclusive
Robots and machinesWhen machines can paint, carve or weave, the core decides what they may make in the artist's name.For what comes next

Proof

A public register

Every sale, licence, seal and creation is written into one public record. Each entry is fingerprinted together with the one before it, so nothing can be quietly changed afterwards. Collectors appear by a code, never by name.

Not checked yet
#EntryArtistFingerprint

Open the register

From the catalogue

All artists

Request an introduction

Three ways in

i.

Artists

You have a body of work, collectors, and a view on what should happen to your name. Build your core, set its limits, and be paid for it now.

ii.

Patrons & collectors

Galleries, foundations and collectors who want to hold an artist's core and its ten works for decades, or buy one of their last works.

iii.

Institutions

Museums, schools and studios that want an artist to speak for themselves, under licence.