home → New statuses Paintings by contemporary artists of the world. Artists of modern painting

Paintings by contemporary artists of the world. Artists of modern painting

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 compiling a list best selling contemporary artists. Alas, there were no creators from Russia on the list.

10. Ed Rusha

In the 60s of the last century, Ed, along with such now famous artists as Andy Warhol and Jim Dine, took part in the historical event “New Image of Ordinary Objects”. It was one of the first exhibitions of the emerging Pop Art style in America. To the unenlightened eye, Rushei's paintings most resemble a stenciled inscription against the backdrop of landscapes or a cheerful splash of flowers. However, within 4 years his creations were sold for a total of $129,030,255.

9. Richard Prince

Richard made a name for himself by re-photographing images from print advertisements, editing them in random order and embellishing them with punchy slogans. Marlboro cowboys, celebrities, porn stars, nurses and biker girlfriends have all suffered at his hands. He also paints car hoods. The public appreciated his works $146,056,862– this is exactly the amount that several of the artist’s works were sold for.

8. Yayoi Kusama

Suffering mental illness The artist likes to cover surfaces with dots of paint - this is called “infinity networks”. 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 ( $152,768,689).

7. Peter Doig

One of the representatives of traditional landscape painting. His work enjoys constant popularity among viewers who are tired of the hyper-ironic postmodernism - after all, after the inscriptions, collages of photographs and polka-dot chairs, it is so pleasant to stop your gaze on the tropical night landscape. Over the course of 4 years, paintings were sold for $155,229,785.

6. Fan Zeng

Calligraphic inscriptions, transparent watercolor landscapes and portraits in traditional chinese style They sell well too - $176,718,242 from 2011 to 2015.

5. Cui Ruzhou

This contemporary Chinese artist is famous for his ink paintings of flowers, birds and landscapes. However, ordinary people are unable to understand the powerful 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 for 4 recent years were sold for $223,551,382.

4. Zeng Fanzhi

Complex multi-color works by another Chinese artist, where living beings and objects are either entangled in a web or lost in winter forest, as well as sinister pioneers with bloody hands from 2011 to 2015 also sold well - for $267,949,220.

3. Christopher Wool

Christopher's trademark is huge white canvases with black lettering. Four of these letters spelling out 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 porn star Cicciolina prefers to work in the neo-pop genre. He is especially famous for his steel sculptures imitating toys made 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 install a crane in front of the Los Angeles Museum of Art on which a steam locomotive will be hung so that it puffs and emits clouds of smoke. From 2011 to 2015, Koons sold works for a total amount of $379,778,439.

1. Gerard Richter

In first place in the ranking of artists with the best-selling paintings is a master who does not even consider himself such. According to Gerard, for a long time he created something that was not related to art, composition, color, creativity, etc. Namely, he covered canvases with stains of paint using scrapers and spatulas. One of these paintings called “Abstract Image”, most reminiscent of a watermelon that died in agony, was valued at Sotheby’s auction for $43.6 million, and the artist’s works sold for a modest amount of $1,165,527,419.

"Scenery Birch Grove road" 120x100
Palette knife, oil, canvas
Konstantin Loris-Melikov

21st century art
— omnivore,
cynical, ironic-sarcastic, democratic - called the decline of a great era.

Postmodernists are in a situation where everything has been said before them. And all they have to do is use what they have created, mix styles, create, albeit not new, but recognizable art...

the brightest directions:

Neorealism;

Minimal art;

Postmodern;

Hyperrealism;

Installation;

Environment;

Video art;

Graffiti;

Transavantgarde;

Body art;

Stuckism;

Neoplasticism;

Street art;

Mail art;

No-art.

1. NEOREALISM.
This is the art of post-war Italy, which fought against post-war pessimism.

The new front of art united
abstractionists and realists and lasted only 4 years. But from
Famous artists came out of it: Gabrielle Muchi, Renato Guttuso, Ernesto
Treccani. They vividly and expressively depicted workers and peasants.

Similar trends have appeared in other
countries, but the most striking school is considered the school of neorealism, which
appeared in America through the efforts of monumentalist Diego Rivera.

Watch: Renato Guttuso

Frescoes by Diego Rivera - Presidential Palace (Mexico City, Mexico).

Detail of Diego Rivera's fresco for the Prado Hotel in Mexico City, “A Dream of a Sunday in Alameda Park,” 1948

2. MINIMUM ART.
This is the direction of avant-gardeism.
Uses simple forms and excludes any associations.

Carl Andre, 1964

This trend appeared in the USA at the end
60s. The minimalists called Marcel Duchamp their direct predecessors.
(ready-made), Piet Mondrian (neoplasticism) and Kazimir Malevich
(Suprematism), they called his black square the first work
minimal art.

Extremely simple and geometric
correct compositions - plastic boxes, metal bars,
cones - made at industrial enterprises according to sketches by artists.

Look:

Works by Donald Judd, Carl
Andre, Sol Levita – Guggenheim Museum (New York, USA), Museum
contemporary art(New York, USA), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York,
USA).

3. POSTMODERN. This is a large list of unrealistic trends of the late 20th century.

Vanchegi Mutu. Collage “Genital organs of an adult woman”, 2005

Cyclicity is characteristic of art, but
Postmodernity was the first example of the “negation of the negation.” At first
modernism rejected the classics, and then postmodernism rejected modernism, as
he had previously rejected the classics. Postmodernists returned to those forms and
styles that existed before modernism, but at a higher level.

Postmodernism is a product of the era
the latest technologies. Therefore it characteristic feature- this is a mixture
styles, images, different eras and subcultures. The main thing for postmodernists
became quotation, deft juggling of quotes.

See: Tate Gallery (London,
Great Britain), National Museum contemporary art Center Pompidou
(Paris, France), Guggenheim Museum (New York, USA).

HYPERREALISM. Art that imitates photography.

Chuck Close. "Robert", 1974

This art is also called Superrealism,
Photorealism, Radical Realism or Cold Realism. This appeared
direction in America in the 60s and 10 years later became widespread in
Europe.

Hyperrealism, photorealism, Don Eddie,

Artists of this movement are exactly
copy the world as we see it in the photo. In the works of artists
one can read a certain irony over the man-made product. Artists mainly depict
stories from the life of a modern metropolis.

Richard Estes- love of depicting reflections of the metropolis in shop windows, on the hood of a car or on a cafe counter

Look:

works by Chuck Close, Don Eddie, Richard Estes - Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guggenheim Museum (New York, USA), Brooklyn Museum (USA).

5. INSTALLATION.
This is a composition in a gallery that can be created from anything, the main thing is that there is a subtext and an idea.

Fountain (Duchamp)

Most likely this wouldn't happen
directions, if not for Duchamp’s iconic urinal. Names of the world's main
installers: Dine, Rauschenberg, Beuys, Kunnelis and Kabakov.

"Jim Dine. From the collection of the Pompidou Center"

The main thing in the installation is the subtext and the space where artists collide banal objects.

Look:
Tate Modern (London, UK), Guggenheim Museum (New York, USA).

6. ENVIRONMENT.
This is the art of creating a 3-dimensional composition that emulates a real environment.

As a movement in the art of Environment
appeared back in the 20s of the 20th century. A few ahead of its time
decades, the Dadaist artist, when he presented to the public his
the work “Merz-building” is a three-dimensional structure made from various objects and
materials, not suitable for anything other than contemplation.

Edward Kienholz

History as a planter

Half a century later, this genre became
Edward Kienholz and George Siegel worked and succeeded. Into your work
they necessarily introduced a shocking element of delusional fantasy.

Look:
works by Edward Kienholz and George Siegel
— Museum of Contemporary Art (Stockholm, Sweden).

7. VIDEO ART.
This trend arose in the last third of the 20th century thanks to the advent of portable video cameras.

This is another attempt to return art to
reality, but now with the help of video and computer technology.
American Nam June Paik made a video of the Pope passing through the streets
New York and became the first video artist.

Nam June Paik's experiments influenced
TV, music videos(he stood at the base of the MTV channel),
computer effects in cinema. The works of June Pike, Bill Viola did it
the direction of art is a field of activity for experimentation. They put
the beginning of “video sculptures”, “video installations” and “video operas”.

Look:
video art, ranging from psychedelic to social
(popular in China, Chen-che-yen on Youtube.com)

8. GRAFFITI.
Inscriptions and drawings on the walls of houses, carrying a daring message.

Appeared for the first time in the 70s in Northern
America. Gallery owners from one of the districts were involved in their appearance
Manhattan. They became patrons of the creativity of those who lived next door to them.
Puerto Ricans and Jamaicans. Graffiti combines elements of urban
subculture and ethnic.

pop art genius Keith Haring

Names from graffiti history: Keith Haring,
Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Mathom, Kenny Scharf. Scandalous famous person
- British graffiti artist Banksy. There are postcards with his works in all
British souvenir shops

Look:
Graffiti Museum (New York, USA), works by Banksy - on the website banksy.co.uk.

9. TRANSAVANTGARDE.
One of the trends in postmodern painting. Combines the past, new painting and expressiveness.

Work of transavantgarde Alexander Roitburd

The author of the term transavantgarde is
contemporary critic Bonito Oliva. With this term he defined creativity
5 of his compatriots - Sandro Chia, Enzo Cucchi, Francesco
Clemente, Mimmo Paladino, Nicolo de Maria. Their creativity is characterized by:
combination classic styles, lack of attachment to national
school, focus on aesthetic pleasure and dynamics.

Francesco Clemente in Schirn (Frankfurt)

Watch: Peggy Collection Museum
Guggenheim (Venice, Italy), Museum of Modern Art at Palazzo
(Venice, Italy), Gallery of Contemporary Art (Milan, Italy)

10. BODY ART.
One of the directions of actionism. The body acts as a canvas.

Body art is one of the manifestations of punk culture of the 70s.
Directly related to the then fashion for tattoos and nudism.

Living pictures are created right in front of
viewers, recorded on video and then broadcast in the gallery. Bruce
Nauman depicting Duchamp's urinal in the gallery. Duet Gilbert and
George are living sculptures. They portrayed the type of average Englishman.

Look: for example, on the website of the artist Orlan orlan.eu.

11. STACKISM.
British art association for figurative painting. Opposed the conceptualists.

The first exhibition was in London in 2007,
like a protest against the Tate gallery. According to one version, they protested in
connection with the gallery’s purchase of artists’ works in circumvention of the law. Noise
attracted attention to the Stuckists in the press. Now in the world there are
more than 120 artists. Their motto: an artist who does not draw is not an artist.

Billy Childish. Edge of the Forest"

The term Stuckism was proposed by Thomson.
Artist Tracey Emin exclaimed about her boyfriend Billy
Childisha: your painting is stuck, stuck, stuck! (eng. Stuck!
Stuck! Stack!)

Look:
on the Stuckist website stuckism.com.
Works by Charlie Thomson and Billy Childish at the Tate Gallery (London, UK).

12. NEO-PLASTICISM.
Abstract art. The intersection of perpendicular lines of 3 colors.

The ideologist of the direction is the Dutchman Piet

Mondrian. He considered the world an illusion, so the artist’s task is to cleanse
painting from sensual forms (figurative) in the name of aesthetic
(abstract) forms.

The artist suggested doing this
as concisely as possible using 3 colors - blue, red and
yellow. They filled the spaces between perpendicular lines.

Piet Mondrian. Red, yellow, blue and black

Neoplasticism still inspires designers, architects and industrial graphic artists.

Look:
works by Piet Mondrian and Theo Vannoy Doesburg in the Municipal Museum of The Hague.

13. STREET ART.

Art for which the city is an exhibition or canvas

The goal of a street artist: to instantly engage a passerby in a dialogue with the help of his installation, sculpture, poster or stencil.

The art of the most expensive young Russian artists (even those whose names have long been heard) is still quite accessible. “Admission ticket” to the top 20 will cost less than $5,000

The source of inspiration for our new ranking was the recent curious world top 10 most expensive works by artists under 33 years of age, which came from two surnames. Not wanting a similar fate for our authors, we used our traditional rule “one artist - one picture.”

In addition, it was decided to raise the age limit for a young artist from 33 to 35 years. Because it is precisely this age that is taken as the formal criterion for a “young artist” in Russian competitions, awards and biennials. In particular, 35 years is the cut-off for the nomination “New Generation” of the Innovation Prize, for the nomination “Young Artist” in the Kandinsky Prize, for participation in the Moscow International Biennale of Young Art Youngart.ru, for incentive scholarships from the Garage Center and many other projects for young artists. So, reluctantly, we had to exclude everyone born before 1979 from the ranking.

The next selection criterion: place of birth - USSR. Therefore, the rating includes not only our current compatriots, but also other artists from the orbit of Russian art from near and far abroad - be it Ukraine, France or Great Britain. So don't be confused by individual names - this is how everything was intended.

And of course, our rating, as always, is based solely on public auction sales. Gallery deals are not taken into account, since this is a very shady matter. Prices do not take into account the buyer's premium and are traditionally quoted in the currency of the transaction and in dollars at the exchange rate on the date of sale. So here's what we got.

What can be noted based on the results?

The art of young Russian artists (even those whose names have long been heard) is still relatively inexpensive. An “entry ticket” to the top 20 will cost less than $5,000. And already for $8,000–10,000, collectors were able to buy the best things of the well-known Tatyana Akhmetgalieva, Valery Chtak, or the lesser-known “Russian Frenchman” Vitaly Rusakov. A French gallery recently brought the latter’s graffiti to Moscow to the Salon of Fine Arts - there, as they said, the artist is quite popular. In total, you will be surprised, in order to buy up the entire top 20 Russian young art, a hypothetical collector or investor would need $218,903 (adjusted for the condition “one artist - one painting”).

Seekers of a universal “formula for success” in art will be disappointed this time too. There is no single dominant style and direction in the works of the group of record holders. On the contrary, a wide range of genres and trends is represented. From postmodernism to realism. There is also complete diversity in technology. There are graphics, photography, fabrics, and ceramics. But still, 11 out of 20 works are paintings (canvas, oil or acrylic). This is a greeting to those who have long been predicting the death of painting in general and in contemporary art in particular.

So, the type of art and the genre of the work are not decisive. At the same time, it is clear that in order to be successful, you need to “be in trend” - and not in Russia, but in the global one. Young Russian artists are trying to do this: their works are extremely updated.

To do this, in some cases they use sharp social issues, current visual motifs and artistic techniques, mixing types and genres of art in a postmodern spirit. Like stenciling a design onto the surface of a canvas, as in graffiti, or digital art techniques in painting. However, despite all their postmodernism and acute social orientation, the authors clearly do not forget that these works should also be pleasing to the eye and fit into the design of modern interiors. Hence the smoothness and glossiness, nods towards realism (photorealism). And of course, let’s consider it a huge plus for buyers that our rating of young artists still managed to do without the romantically sweet nudes that are massively sold at auctions (fortunately, mainly at interior auctions) and even more enthusiastically posted on blogs.

Another thing that stands out is the large gap between the first and second results. The record-breaking innovative digital art of Oleg Dou separates it from second place - the painting of Veronica Smirnova - by as much as 20 thousand dollars. By the way, as soon as we broke the rule “one artist - one picture” - and the Russian ambassador of the program Adobe Photoshop(in April 2012, the work of Oleg Dou graced the cover of Photoshop version CS6) would have taken an additional seven more places in our ranking with his works. Why not Liu Chunxi? But our Doe is even two years younger.

Surprisingly, almost half of the records in our top 20 come from 2011–2013. That is, these are not some pre-crisis “cases” days gone by”, but quite a living commercial process.

It is also noteworthy that only six works from the top 20 rating received their high marks at our national auctions - at the Kiev “Golden Section” and at the Moscow VLADEY and the auction of the “Russian Gallery of Art”. All the rest collected cash at foreign auctions, most often at Phillips, which, however, also belongs to Russian owners. And the point here is not only that there is no prophet in his own country. And not only that in Russia the purchase of works by young artists is still perceived almost as an eccentricity. And also that the national auction infrastructure working with contemporary art is just beginning to take shape. The same VLADEY auction recently held only its first auction, and the old-timers of the Moscow auction market with contemporary art (especially art of the 21st century) are not working: the audience of buyers is small, and good commissions cannot be earned on inexpensive items. But in the near future, this niche of affordable contemporary art will be attacked by other trading formats - new electronic platforms that have a strong offline reputation behind them. In particular, the other day the structure of Sergei Gridchin (owner of the art residence Gridchinhall) announced the launch in September of a new electronic platform Artlet.com - immediately with a thousand works by almost 200 contemporary artists. They will not be included in our rating (there is no auction principle), but we all need to go, not checkers.

Editorial website

Attention! All materials on the site and the database of auction results on the site, including illustrated reference information about works sold at auction, are intended for use exclusively in accordance with Art. 1274 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Use for commercial purposes or in violation of the rules established by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation is not permitted. the site is not responsible for the content of materials provided by third parties. In case of violation of the rights of third parties, the site administration reserves the right to remove them from the site and from the database based on a request from the authorized body.

Today, contemporary painting has gained incredible popularity, so it has become known not only for its tendency to expand boundaries and explore new means of expression, but also for record sales figures in the contemporary art market over the past few years. Moreover, artists from almost all over the world, from America to Asia, enjoy success. Next, you will find out whose names represent the best contemporary painting in the world, who he is, the most expensive contemporary artist, and who fell just short of this title.

The most expensive contemporary artists

Among the myriad names that modern painting has, the paintings of only certain artists enjoy exceptional success. Among them the most expensive paintings ended up in the possession of the famous neo-expressionist and graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, who, however, died at the age of 27. On our list you will see only the first seven of those wealthy artists who are still alive today.

Brice Marden

The works of this American author are quite difficult to classify and lead to a single art movement, although he is often classified as a representative of either minimalism or abstractionism. But unlike artists in these styles, whose paintings seem to have never been touched, Marden's modern painting retains the palette knife strokes and other traces of his work. One of those who influenced his work is considered to be another contemporary artist, Jasper Johns, whose name you will see later.

Zeng Fanzhi

This contemporary artist is one of the main figures in the Chinese art scene today. It was his work entitled “ Last Supper", based on the famous work of Leonardo da Vinci, was sold for 23.3 million dollars and became the most expensive painting that modern Asian painting can boast of. Also famous are the artist’s works “Self-Portrait”, the triptych “Hospital” and paintings from the “Masks” series.

In the 90s, his painting style often underwent changes and eventually moved away from expressionism to symbolism.

Peter Doig

Peter Doig is an internationally renowned Scottish contemporary artist whose work is permeated by the theme of magical realism. Many of his works tend to disorient the viewer, even when they depict recognizable images such as figures, trees and buildings.

In 2015, his painting “Swamped” managed to break the record and become the most expensive painting by contemporary artists from Scotland, being sold at auction for 25.9 million. Doig’s paintings “The Architect’s House in the Hollow”, “White Canoe”, “Reflection”, “Roadside Diner” and others are also popular.

Christopher Wool

In his work, contemporary artist Christopher Wool explores various post-conceptual ideas. The most famous modern paintings The artist's works are block inscriptions depicted in black on a white canvas.

Such paintings by contemporary artists cause a lot of controversy and discontent among adherents of traditional painting, but, one way or another, one of Wool’s works, “Apocalypse,” brought him $26 million. Wool does not think long about the titles of the paintings, but names them according to the inscriptions: “Blue Fool”, “Trouble”, etc.

Jasper Johns

Contemporary artist Jasper Johns is known for his rebellious attitude towards Abstract Expressionism, which dominated the painting arena early in the artist's career. Moreover, he works by creating expensive canvases with flags, license plates, numbers and other well-known symbols that already have a clear meaning and do not need to be deciphered.

By the way, the most expensive paintings by contemporary artists include the American work “Flag”, sold at auction in 2010 for $28 million. You can also look at the works “Three Flags”, “False Start”, “From 0 to 9”, “Target with Four Faces” and many others.

Gerhard Richter

This modern artist from Germany, like many painters at the beginning of his career, studied realistic academic painting, but later became interested in more progressive art.

In the author’s work one can see the influence of many art movements of the 20th century, such as abstract expressionism, pop art, minimalism and conceptualism, but at the same time Richter retained a skeptical attitude towards all established artistic and philosophical beliefs, being confident that modern painting is dynamics and search. The artist’s works include “Land of Meadows”, “Reading”, “1024 Colors”, “Wall”, etc.

Jeff Koons

And finally, here he is - the most expensive contemporary artist in the whole world. American Jeff Koons works in the neo-pop style and is known for his catchy, kitschy and defiant creativity.

He is mainly known as the author of a huge number of modern sculptures, some of which were exhibited at Versailles itself. But also among the artist’s works there are paintings for which special connoisseurs are willing to pay millions of dollars: “Bell of Liberty”, “Auto”, “Girl with a Dolphin and a Monkey”, “Saddle” and others.

Take it for yourself and tell your friends!