How much does contemporary art cost? Which of the living artists enjoy the greatest recognition, the measure of which is banknotes? The Artnet website answered this question by analyzing the results of auctions from 2011 to 2015 and making a list top selling contemporary artists. Alas, the creators from Russia were not on the list.
10. Ed Rushey
In the 60s of the last century, Ed, along with such well-known artists as Andy Warhol and Jim Dine, took part in the historic event "A new image of ordinary objects." It was one of the first shows in the nascent pop art style in America. To the unenlightened look, the paintings of Rushey most resemble the inscription under the stencil against the background of landscapes or a cheerful burst of flowers. However, over 4 years of his creation were sold for a total of 129,030,255 dollars.
9. Richard Prince
Richard made a name for himself by photographing images from print ads again, mounting them in random order and decorating them with gritty slogans. Marlboro cowboys, celebrities, pornstars, nurses and biker girlfriends suffered from his hands. And he 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
An artist suffering from mental illness loves to paint on surfaces with dots of paint - this is called the "network of infinity." She managed to turn this pea and her own illness into a trademark and is now the best-selling contemporary artist in the world (152,768,689 dollars).
7. Peter Doig
One of the representatives of traditional landscape painting. His work is always popular with the hyper-ironic postmodern viewer - after all, after the inscriptions, collages from photographs and polka-dot chairs, it is so nice to stop looking at the tropical night landscape. For 4 years, sold paintings on 155,229,785 dollars.
6. Fan Zeng
Calligraphy inscriptions, transparent watercolor landscapes and portraits in the traditional Chinese style are selling well too - 176 718 242 dollars from 2011 to 2015.
5. Cui Ruzhou
This contemporary Chinese artist is famous for his ink work depicting flowers, birds and landscapes. However, ordinary people cannot understand the powerful power of art - and in 2012, a cleaning lady at the Grand Hayatt hotel accidentally threw one of his works at the price of $ 3.7 million into the trash. The works of Tsui Ruzhou over the past 4 years have been sold for 223 551 382 dollars.
4. Zeng Fanji
The complex multi-color works of another Chinese artist, where living creatures and objects either got entangled in the web, or got lost in the winter forest, as well as sinister pioneers with bloodied hands from 2011 to 2015, also sold well - for 267 949 220 dollars.
3. Christopher Wool
Christopher's trademark is huge white canvas with black letters. Four of these letters, forming the word Riot ("rebellion") were sold at Sotheby's for $ 29.9 million. And in just 4 years, the artist’s works were sold in the amount of 323,997,854 dollars.
2. Jeff Koons
The former husband of the porn star Cicciolina prefers to work in the "neo-pop" genre. Especially famous for its sculptures made of steel, imitating toys from 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 a steam locomotive hangs to puff and emit puffs of smoke. From 2011 to 2015, Koons sold works totaling 379 778 439 dollars.
1. Gerard Richter
In the first place in the ranking 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 paint stains with the help of scrapers and spatulas. One of these paintings, entitled "Abstract Image", most resembling a watermelon who died in agony, was evaluated at Sotheby's for 43.6 million dollars, and the artist’s work for four years sold for a modest amount of 1 165 527 419 dollars.
