1. David Hockney, born in 1937
He is inspired by his surroundings and landscapes in sequence: David Hockney , the octogenarian British artist, upon his arrival in California was struck by the large boulevards, palm trees and villas. Made famous thanks to his legendary series on swimming pools, his masterpiece Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) painted in 1972 was sold by Christie’s in 2018 for a record $ 79.9 million (79.8 million). euro), making David Hockney the most expensive artist in history. The painter, who now lives in Normandy, is the highest-rated living artist before Jeff Koons.
2. Peter Doig, born in 1959
If the 1990s were a period of great artistic ferment for conceptual art and provocation, Peter Doig was successful with his figurative landscapes. Inspired by the great names of modern art, such as Cézanne, Gauguin and Otto Dix, the artist plays with the effects of color and materials to produce a mainly symbolic narrative: working in the same way on motifs always bores him. Peter Doig, an internationally renowned artist, collaborated on Dior’s Fall-Winter 2021-2022 collection, at the request of Kim Jones, artistic director of Dior Hommes. Sold at the end of 2021 by Christie’s for a record $ 39 million (€ 34.5 million), the oil on canvas Swamped (1990) shows a white boat floating on the surface of a pond.
3. Jasper Johns, born in 1930
He played a decisive role in the birth of Pop Art with his friend Robert Rauschenberg, in opposition to the elitism of art and abstract expressionism. The American painter Jasper Johns was among the first to make use of common objects and motifs to overturn conventional notions of art. One of his key techniques is the so-called encaustic process, a mixture of pigment and liquid wax that gives transparency to the painted surface. In 2014, his painting of the American flag Flag (1983) sold for $ 36 million (€ 31.8 million) at Sotheby’s.
4. Ed Ruscha, born in 1937
Exhibited for the first time in the famous up-and-coming Ferus gallery in Los Angeles, artist Ed Ruscha quickly became a star of the young Californian art scene. From the 1960s onwards he established himself with his letter paintings and slogans about modern American life. Often compared to Pop Art, his graphic work based on typography on a high-impact layout denounces and generates new meanings. In 2019, the oil on canvas Hurting the Word Radio # 2 (1964) was sold by Christie’s for $ 52.5 million (€ 46.4 million). In five years, its value has almost doubled, as in 2014 the Smash(1963) had been sold for 30.4 million dollars (or 26.9 million euros) always in the same auction house.
5. Brice Marden, born in 1938
The New York painter Brice Marden combines minimalism and lyricism. Inspired by the precious teachings of his travels abroad and his interest in Chinese calligraphy, his paintings feature sinuous lines loaded with meaning. In particular, Marden explores color and the intuitive gesture of the hand. A retrospective of his work was held at MoMA in 2006. In 2020, his oil on canvas Complements (2004) sold for $ 30 million (€ 26.5 million) at Christie’s.
6. Christopher Wool, born in 1955
When he made his debut on the art scene in the 1980s, American painter Christopher Wool was inspired by the urban underground of New York, the city he lived in. Famous for his words engraved on white canvases and his abstract compositions, Wool combines airbrushing, hand painting and screen printing in a minimal color palette: white, gray and black, with rare touches of color. If in 2013 the Solomon R. Guggenheim dedicated a retrospective to him, 2015 was his record year with Untitled (Riot) in 1990, enamel on aluminum, sold for 29.9 million dollars (26.4 million euros). at Sotheby’s.
7. Yoshitomo Nara, nato nel 1959
The Japanese artist stood out in the 1990s with his colorful portraits of manga-style children’s faces. This multi-referenced artist combines Japanese comic book culture and traditional masks of Japanese theater with Western culture, inspired by his art studies in Germany. Over the years, we’ve seen his characters arm themselves to defend themselves from the forces of evil. With the sale, in 2019, of Knife Behind Back (2000) for 25 million dollars (22 million euros) at Sotheby’s, Yoshitomo Nara has established himself as one of the most sought after and highly rated Asian artists in the world.
8. Banksy
A key figure in street art, the British artist Banksy, acclaimed for his subjects accompanied by strong and ironic messages, still remains anonymous and the subject of constant conjectures about his identity. On walls all over the world, using the stencil technique, he denounces with his art the most burning political and social issues, such as consumerist capitalism or the deprivation of freedom. In 2021, Banksy sets a record and becomes the first artist to create a work of art during a sale, generating general dismay at Sotheby’s when The Girl with the Balloon destroyed herself in front of the stunned eyes of those present immediately after being sold. for $ 21.8 million.
9. Pierre Soulages, born in 1919
There are few artists who can say that they have been able to review their centenary work. The French painter Pierre Soulages, who is now 102 years old, turned 100 in 2019 and was present at the most exceptional and unprecedented event that there can be for an artist: the retrospective of him at the Louvre, in Paris. Soulages, known for his famous monochrome paintings, was the first artist to celebrate such an event. Master of abstract art since the 1940s, Pierre Soulages is fascinated by black, his favorite color in all its forms, which he calls “outrenoir”, for its infinite possibilities and intricate reflections of light. Only on rare occasions, the artist combines black with colors such as red, see the work Peinture 195 x 130 cm, 4 August 1961, sold for 20.2 million euros at Sotheby’s New York in 2021, a record for the painter.
10. Jenny Saville, born in 1970
British painter Jenny Saville is the world’s highest-rated living female artist . She specializes in figurative nude painting, she almost exclusively portrays female subjects using thick layers of oil paint. The artist was educated, among other things, by observing a cosmetic surgeon at her work in her New York studio. Fascinated by the flesh and imperfection, Jenny Saville depicts female bodies that refuse to hide and she questions society’s taboos and perception of the body. His painting Of her Propped of her, chosen by Charles Saatchi for the 1997 group exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London “Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Gallery”,it was sold in 2018 by Sotheby’s for 12.4 million euros (10.9 million euros).
