Conversation with Stéphane Lévy, co-founder of ArtMajeur by YourArt

When Maurice Lévy, an art collector and former CEO of advertising giant Publicis, launched yourart.art in 2023, he conceptualised a platform that would leverage the power of AI to create a new global community for artists and art lovers.

At the end of 2024, yourart.art, building on its vertiginous success, acquired the prestigious online art market space artmajeur.com

To understand the scope and ambition of the combined platforms, now “ArtMajeur by YourArt”, BBeyond had a conversation with Stéphane Lévy, co-founder of yourart.art

BB: Are you an art collector?

SL: I am an art lover rather than a collector.  My background is in engineering, data science and generative AI. I’ve also made films.

BB: Define the objective of YourArt – is it to demystify the art industry? Demystifying it would not sit well with the stakeholders – how else would they be able to sell a banana taped to a wall for $6m+?

SL: I would use the word “democratising”.  Our platform marries art and technology, more specifically semantic, vision and generative AI.

In the first phase of development, we were seeking to engage artists primarily and support them through making AI available as a tool that offers not only research, but also stimulates the creative process.

The real democratisation is in that AI will empower everyone to make art; to be creative; to experiment.

<<ART IN THE HANDS OF EVERYONE>>

BB. Please elaborate on this

SL: The platform is equipped with an AI assistant, IRIS, that has the capabilities of analysing any art work based on 12 bullet point criteria.

The characteristics of the art work provide references, some art history-related; others new and unexpected, but all AI-powered.

AI proposes, it suggests, and it leads to experimentation. Every artist will react to it in a different way and find something different that’s relevant to them personally.

We place art in the hands of everybody. That is to say, we make the tools available to everyone.

<<Art creation is also there to be enjoyed>>

Many people who use the tools are not commercial artists at all. Many more still use the tools to learn and educate themselves.

BB: Is the platform geared to art buyers/collectors and professional stakeholders?

SL: Absolutely. Art buyers can browse images and entire catalogues by filter. They can, for example, discover the next emerging artist. AI guides and makes recommendations; it builds links between artists, highlights relationships between different artists – with the similarities being calculated and built by AI, from classic to contemporary art.

Galleries are currently not empowered by AI.  We want them to have avatars and to invite users into their online galleries. The avatar, fed by a LLM (Large Language Model) which will be fine-tuned to the works in the gallery, will engage with visitors spontaneously. Furthermore, it would narrate interviews with the relevant artist, even if they precede the opening of the gallery, providing this added dimension live, during the visit.

BB: What are the other notable features of the platform?

SL: We have built an AI assistant, Iris, that the user can interact with in various ways. Iris provides an all-round cultural experience. YourPortrait is one of Iris’ features.  

YourPortrait functions as a game in two versions: one for beginners and another for art buffs. It offers a personality test in three sections and art-related filters. Based on the user’s input, Iris may recommend a museum, or a film, or a music piece, any and all of which could be relevant. Iris also offers an analysis of the images of an artist’s portfolio, with many art history references. It also generates images based on the artist’s work, as variations or sketches.

We want AI to be ethical on our platform. The images generated using Iris are low res and not usable for any other purpose other than research and creative process stimulation.

“Creative blends”

This is another tool available to the artist app users. They can store their data and create “blends” by mixing and changing their images, with suggestions from Iris about the creative direction.

Art experimentation

AI offers a multitude of THEORETICAL possibilities, in fact, including recreating the 3D surface of an art work.

True Innovation, however, is not within the capabilities of AI.

<<AI is capable of “thinking”, of a chain of thought, rather, but it lacks the creative sensibility of a human >>

BB: Why would an established commercial artist, say, for example Jeff Koons, join the platform?

SL: An established artist could engage in a totally new co-creation process, involving AI and his or her fans, building something experimental and totally unique together.

The collaborative nature of this could also appeal to forward-thinking art collectors. Whether using the AI tool in a strong, supervised fashion, i.e. driving it, or with little supervision, a collector could generate AI-powered works that also reflect his or her vision and that are completely unique and innovative.

The signature on such a project would be a statement: namely that you commit yourself to a world in which AI co-exists with us; that you see AI assistance in a positive way.

The aim of the platform is to create a link between art and tech, to stimulate the artist’s creative process and research.

<<AI does not create anything; only the artist does>>

BB: How do you see the future of the combined platforms?

SL: ArtMajeur is already a leader in the field, especially as a marketplace. ArtMajeur by YourArt will be enhanced and empowered by AI, acting both as a curator and a guide, and as a fantastic brainstorming agent. We will build the biggest art platform for visual artists (mainly non-digital, analog artists), art lovers, collectors and art industry professionals – a platform that creates a link between art and tech. We have great ambitions.