How much does contemporary art cost? Which of the living artists enjoy the greatest recognition, the measure of which is banknotes? Artnet answered this question by analyzing the results of auctions from 2011 to 2015 and compiling a list top selling contemporary artists... Alas, there were no artists from Russia on the list.
10. Ed Ruscha
In the 60s of the last century, Ed, along with such famous nowadays artists as Andy Warhol and Jim Dine, took part in the historic event "A New Image of Common Objects." It was one of the first exhibitions in the emerging pop art style in America. To an unenlightened eye, Ruscha's paintings most of all resemble a stencil inscription against a background of landscapes or a cheerful splash of flowers. However, in 4 years, his creations were sold for a total amount of USD 129,030,255.
9. Richard Prince
Richard made a name for himself by re-photographing images from print ads, editing them in random order, and decorating them with biting slogans. Marlboro cowboys, celebrities, porn stars, nurses and biker girlfriends have suffered at his hands. He also paints the hoods of cars. The public appreciated his work in 146,056,862 dollars - it was for this amount that several of the artist's works were sold.
8. Yayoi Kusama
The mentally ill artist loves to cover surfaces with dots of paint - this is called "infinity webs." She managed to turn both this pea and her own illness into a trademark and is now the best-selling contemporary artist in the world (USD 152,768,689).
7. Peter Doig
One of the representatives of traditional landscape painting. His work is invariably popular with the viewer tired of hyperirronic postmodernism - after all, after the inscriptions, collages of photographs and polka-dot chairs, it is so pleasant to stop your gaze on a tropical night landscape. Paintings sold for 4 years 155,229,785 dollars.
6. Fan Zeng
Calligraphy lettering, transparent watercolor landscapes and traditional Chinese style portraits sell well too - USD 176,718,242 from 2011 to 2015.
5. Cui Ruzhou
This contemporary Chinese artist is renowned for his ink paintings of flowers, birds and landscapes. However, ordinary people cannot understand the mighty power of art - and in 2012, a cleaning lady at the Grand Hayatt Hotel accidentally threw one of his works worth $ 3.7 million into the trash. Cui Ruzhou's works have been sold over the past 4 years for USD 223,551,382.
4. Zeng Fanji
Complex multi-colored works by another Chinese artist, where living beings and objects either got entangled in a cobweb, or got lost in a winter forest, as well as sinister pioneers with bloody hands from 2011 to 2015, sold well too - for 267 949 220 dollars.
3. Christopher Wool
Christopher's trademark is huge white canvases with black lettering. Four of these letters, forming the word Riot, were sold at Sotheby's for $ 29.9 million. And in just 4 years, the artist's works were sold for an amount of $ 323,997,854.
2. Jeff Koons
The former husband of the Cicciolina porn star prefers to work in the neo-pop genre. He is especially famous for his sculptures made of steel, imitating toys made of oblong balloons.For one of the works (a steel orange dog), $ 58.4 million was paid at Christie's auction. Jeff also plans to put a crane in front of the Los Angeles Museum of Art, on which he will hang a steam locomotive so that it puffs and gives off puffs of smoke. From 2011 to 2015, Koons sold works for a total amount of USD 379,778,439.
1. Gerard Richter
In the first place in the rating of artists with the best-selling paintings is a master who does not even consider himself as such. According to Gerard, for a long time he created something that was not related to art, composition, color, creativity, etc. Namely, he covered the canvases with stains of paint using scrapers and spatulas. One of these paintings, entitled "Abstract Image", most of all reminiscent of a watermelon that died in agony, was estimated at Sotheby's for $ 43.6 million, and the artist's works in four years sold for a modest sum of USD 1,165,527,419.