Here is a selection of paintings by still little-known, but very talented artists. All the guys from Russia and our contemporaries. Watch, read and enjoy.

Guys, I write here all the time about quite famous and accomplished personalities. Of course, it would be much more interesting for me to write about those artists that no one knows about yet, but what can you do - you can write about anything on the VKontakte public, and you can write on a blog only what people are looking for in Yandex and Google, otherwise, no one will go there except you. But for a change and pleasure, I, nevertheless, decided to make a selection of "Little-known contemporary artists of Russia and their paintings."

• What else is interesting? (links to other articles).
• Paintings by Marchuk, one of the most famous contemporary Ukrainian artists
• The legendary dean of the faculty of graphics of the famous Repinka.

Some of these guys are still at the very beginning of their journey, and some have already become relatively established and successfully sell their works on VKontakte or on marketplaces like a crafts fair and are even known in narrow circles, but they all have one thing in common - they are still not known to the general public. But unknown does not mean deprived of talent, so I think it will be interesting for you to look. I decided to include here not only the draftsmen themselves, but also several sculptors.

Little-known contemporary Russian artists and their paintings. Illustrators and painters.

Little known artists. Color surrealistic modern in the paintings of Maria Susarenko.

I learned about this artist not so long ago and almost immediately fell in love with her paintings. Partly because she is very close to me in spirit as an artist, partly because of the admiration for technology and a riot of imagination. Maria Susarenko is a sweet girl from St. Petersburg and a graduate of the famous St. A.L. Stieglitz. Maria Susarenko's paintings are an exuberant mix of Art Nouveau and Surrealism. They look very bright and decorative.

Pictures of little-known artists. Works by Maria Susarenko

Amazing detail!

Little known artists. Saturday Dasha.

The eternal motif of Yuralga is cats.
Funny weirdo. This is the kind of brooch I would wear.

MOAR — https://vk.com/shamancats

Little-known contemporary artists of Russia. Sculptors.

Even if there are not paintings, but decorations, they are so seductive and loving that I could not resist. After all, a sculptor is also an artist. Yes, an artist can be a painter, graphic artist, illustrator or sculptor (your captain is obvious). Here are two girls whose jewelry would not shame René Lalique himself.

Little known artists. Grimoire of the Black Hen.

In the workshop "Grimoire La poule noire", which in translation is "Grimoire of the black hen" (your captain is obvious), Lera Prokopets is in charge. Lera is a miniature sculptor and simply a gorgeous lady. She works primarily with polymer clay and stones. Lera creates stunning jewelry in a style that I would call gothic art nouveau. Such, slightly witchish, dark, but graceful beauty. Well, still, it's a "grimoire of a black chicken."

Little known artists. Original Art Nouveau jewelry. Photo from the workshop "Grimoire of the Black Hen".

Hekate, Greek goddess of the night.
Morphine. Thin:) Either demons or vampires with their tongues hanging out is one of Lera's favorite motifs.

"Card Players"

author

Paul Cezanne

The country France
Years of life 1839–1906
Style post-impressionism

The artist was born in the south of France in the small town of Aix-en-Provence, but began painting in Paris. Real success came to him after a solo exhibition organized by the collector Ambroise Vollard. In 1886, 20 years before his departure, he moved to the outskirts of his native city. Young artists called trips to him "a pilgrimage to Aix".

130x97 cm
1895
price
$250 million
sold in 2012
at private auction

Cezanne's work is easy to understand. The only rule of the artist was the direct transfer of the subject or plot to the canvas, so his paintings do not cause bewilderment of the viewer. Cezanne combined in his art two main French traditions: classicism and romanticism. With the help of colorful texture, he gave the form of objects an amazing plasticity.

A series of five paintings "Card Players" was written in 1890-1895. Their plot is the same - several people are enthusiastically playing poker. The works differ only in the number of players and the size of the canvas.

Four paintings are kept in museums in Europe and America (the Musée d'Orsay, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Barnes Foundation and the Courtauld Institute of Art), and the fifth, until recently, was an adornment of the private collection of the Greek billionaire shipowner George Embirikos. Shortly before his death, in the winter of 2011, he decided to put it up for sale. Potential buyers of Cezanne's "free" work were art dealer William Aquavella and world-famous gallery owner Larry Gagosian, who offered about $220 million for it. As a result, the painting went to the royal family of the Arab state of Qatar for 250 million. The largest art deal in the history of painting was closed in February 2012. This was reported to Vanity Fair by journalist Alexandra Pierce. She found out the cost of the painting and the name of the new owner, and then the information penetrated the media around the world.

The Arab Museum opened in Qatar in 2010 contemporary art and the Qatar National Museum. Now their collections are growing. Perhaps the fifth version of The Card Players was acquired by the sheik for this purpose.

The mostexpensive picturein the world

Owner
Sheikh Hamad
bin Khalifa al-Thani

The al-Thani dynasty has ruled Qatar for over 130 years. About half a century ago, huge reserves of oil and gas were discovered here, which instantly made Qatar one of the richest regions in the world. Thanks to the export of hydrocarbons, this small country recorded the largest GDP per capita. Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani seized power in 1995, while his father was in Switzerland, with the support of family members. The merit of the current ruler, according to experts, is in a clear strategy for the development of the country, creating a successful image of the state. Qatar now has a constitution and a prime minister, and women have gained the right to vote in parliamentary elections. By the way, it was the Emir of Qatar who founded the Al Jazeera news channel. The authorities of the Arab state pay great attention to culture.

2

"Number 5"

author

Jackson Pollock

The country USA
Years of life 1912–1956
Style abstract expressionism

Jack the Sprinkler - such a nickname was given to Pollock by the American public for his special painting technique. The artist abandoned the brush and easel, and poured the paint on the surface of the canvas or fiberboard during continuous movement around and inside them. FROM early years he was fond of the philosophy of Jiddu Krishnamurti, the main message of which is that the truth is revealed during a free "outpouring".

122x244 cm
1948
price
$140 million
sold in 2006
on the auction Sotheby's

The value of Pollock's work is not in the result, but in the process. The author did not accidentally call his art "action painting". With his light hand, it became the main asset of America. Jackson Pollock mixed paint with sand, broken glass, and wrote with a piece of cardboard, a palette knife, a knife, a shovel. The artist was so popular that in the 1950s there were even imitators in the USSR. The painting "Number 5" is recognized as one of the strangest and most expensive in the world. One of the founders of DreamWorks, David Geffen, bought it for a private collection, and in 2006 sold it at Sotheby`s for $140 million to Mexican collector David Martinez. However, the law firm soon issued a press release on behalf of its client stating that David Martinez was not the owner of the painting. Only one thing is known for certain: the Mexican financier is really in Lately collected works of modern art. It is unlikely that he would have missed such a "big fish" as Pollock's "Number 5".

3

"Woman III"

author

Willem de Kooning

The country USA
Years of life 1904–1997
Style abstract expressionism

A native of the Netherlands, he emigrated to the United States in 1926. In 1948, a personal exhibition of the artist took place. Art critics appreciated the complex, nervous black-and-white compositions, recognizing in their author a great modernist artist. For most of his life he suffered from alcoholism, but the joy of creating new art is felt in every work. De Kooning is distinguished by the impulsiveness of painting, broad strokes, which is why sometimes the image does not fit within the boundaries of the canvas.

121x171 cm
1953
price
$137 million
sold in 2006
at private auction

In the 1950s, women with empty eyes, massive breasts, and ugly features appear in de Kooning's paintings. "Woman III" was the last work from this series participating in the auction.

Since the 1970s, the painting has been kept in the Tehran Museum of Modern Art, but after the introduction of strict moral rules in the country, they sought to get rid of it. In 1994, the work was taken out of Iran, and 12 years later, its owner David Geffen (the same producer who sold Jackson Pollock's "Number 5") sold the painting to millionaire Stephen Cohen for $137.5 million. It is interesting that in one year Geffen began to sell his collection of paintings. This gave rise to a lot of rumors: for example, that the producer decided to buy the Los Angeles Times.

At one of the art forums, an opinion was expressed about the similarity of "Woman III" with the painting by Leonardo da Vinci "Lady with an Ermine". Behind the toothy smile and shapeless figure of the heroine, the connoisseur of painting discerned the grace of a person of royal blood. This is also evidenced by the poorly traced crown crowning the head of a woman.

4

"Portrait of AdeleBloch-Bauer I"

author

Gustav Klimt

The country Austria
Years of life 1862–1918
Style modern

Gustav Klimt was born into the family of an engraver and was the second of seven children. Three sons of Ernest Klimt became artists, and only Gustav became famous all over the world. He spent most of his childhood in poverty. After the death of his father, he was responsible for the entire family. It was at this time that Klimt developed his style. Before his paintings, any viewer freezes: under the thin strokes of gold, frank eroticism is clearly visible.

138x136 cm
1907
price
$135 million
sold in 2006
on the auction Sotheby's

The fate of the painting, which is called the "Austrian Mona Lisa", could easily become the basis for a bestseller. The work of the artist became the cause of the conflict of the whole state and one elderly lady.

So, the “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” depicts an aristocrat, the wife of Ferdinand Bloch. Her last will was to transfer the painting to the Austrian State Gallery. However, Bloch canceled the donation in his will, and the Nazis expropriated the painting. Later, the gallery hardly bought out the Golden Adele, but then the heiress appeared - Maria Altman, Ferdinand Bloch's niece.

In 2005, the high-profile trial "Maria Altman against the Republic of Austria" began, as a result of which the picture "left" with her to Los Angeles. Austria took unprecedented measures: loans were negotiated, the population donated money to buy the portrait. Good never conquered evil: Altman raised the price to $300 million. At the time of the trial, she was 79 years old, and she went down in history as the person who changed the will of Bloch-Bauer in favor of personal interests. The painting was purchased by Ronald Lauder, owner of the New Gallery in New York, where it remains to this day. Not for Austria, for him Altman reduced the price to $135 million.

5

"Scream"

author

Edvard Munch

The country Norway
Years of life 1863–1944
Style expressionism

Munch's first painting, which became famous all over the world, "The Sick Girl" (exists in five copies) is dedicated to the artist's sister, who died of tuberculosis at the age of 15. Munch has always been interested in the theme of death and loneliness. In Germany, his heavy, manic painting even provoked a scandal. However, despite the depressing plots, his paintings have a special magnetism. Take at least "Scream".

73.5x91 cm
1895
price
$119.992 million
sold in 2012
on the auction Sotheby's

The full name of the painting is Der Schrei der Natur (translated from German as “the cry of nature”). The face of either a person or an alien expresses despair and panic - the viewer experiences the same emotions when looking at the picture. One of key works expressionism warns the themes that have become acute in the art of the 20th century. According to one version, the artist created it under the influence of a mental disorder, which he suffered all his life.

The painting was stolen twice from different museums, but it was returned. Slightly damaged after the theft, The Scream was restored and was ready to be shown again at the Munch Museum in 2008. For representatives of pop culture, the work has become a source of inspiration: Andy Warhol created a series of prints-copies of it, and the mask from the movie "Scream" is made in the image and likeness of the hero of the picture.

For one plot, Munch wrote four versions of the work: the one in a private collection is made in pastel. Norwegian billionaire Petter Olsen put it up for auction on May 2, 2012. The buyer was Leon Black, who did not spare a record amount for the "Scream". Founder of Apollo Advisors, L.P. and Lion Advisors, L.P. known for his love of art. Black is a patron of Dartmouth College, the Museum of Modern Art, the Lincoln Art Center, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It has the largest collection of paintings contemporary artists and classical masters of past centuries.

6

"Nude against the background of a bust and green leaves"

author

Pablo Picasso

The country Spain, France
Years of life 1881–1973
Style cubism

By origin he is a Spaniard, but in spirit and place of residence he is a real Frenchman. Picasso opened his own art studio in Barcelona when he was only 16 years old. Then he went to Paris and spent most of his life there. That is why there is a double stress in his last name. The style invented by Picasso is based on the denial of the opinion that the object depicted on the canvas can be viewed from only one angle.

130x162 cm
1932
price
$106.482 million
sold in 2010
on the auction Christie's

During his work in Rome, the artist met the dancer Olga Khokhlova, who soon became his wife. He put an end to vagrancy, moved with her to a luxurious apartment. By that time, recognition had found a hero, but the marriage was destroyed. One of the most expensive paintings in the world was created almost by accident - out of great love, which, as always with Picasso, was short-lived. In 1927, he became interested in the young Marie-Therese Walter (she was 17 years old, he was 45). Secretly from his wife, he left with his mistress for a town near Paris, where he painted a portrait depicting Marie-Therese in the image of Daphne. The painting was purchased by New York dealer Paul Rosenberg and sold in 1951 to Sidney F. Brody. The Brodys showed the painting to the world only once, and only because the artist was 80 years old. After her husband's death, Mrs. Brody put the work up for auction at Christie's in March 2010. In six decades, the price has risen more than 5,000 times! An unknown collector bought it for $106.5 million. In 2011, a “one-painting exhibition” was held in Britain, where it saw the light for the second time, but the name of the owner is still unknown.

7

"Eight Elvises"

author

Andy Warhole

The country USA
Years of life 1928-1987
Style
pop Art

“Sex and parties are the only places where you need to appear in person,” said the cult pop artist, director, and one of the founders of Interview magazine, designer Andy Warhol. He worked with Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, designed record covers, and designed shoes for I.Miller. In the 1960s, paintings appeared depicting the symbols of America: Campbell`s soup and Coca-Cola, Presley and Monroe - which made him a legend.

358x208 cm
1963
price
$100 million
sold in 2008
at private auction

Warhol's 60s - the so-called era of pop art in America. In 1962, he worked in Manhattan at the Factory Studio, where all the bohemia of New York gathered. Its brightest representatives: Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Truman Capote and other famous personalities in the world. At the same time, Warhol tried the technique of silk-screen printing - multiple repetitions of one image. He also used this method when creating "Eight Elvises": the viewer seems to see frames from a movie where the star comes to life. Everything that the artist loved so much is here: a win-win public image, silver color and a premonition of death as the main message.

There are two art dealers promoting Warhol's work on the world market today: Larry Gagosian and Alberto Mugrabi. The first in 2008 spent $200 million to purchase more than 15 Warhol works. The second buys and sells his paintings like Christmas cards, only more expensive. But it was not them, but the humble French art consultant Philippe Segalo who helped the Roman art connoisseur Annibale Berlinghieri sell the Eight Elvises to an unknown buyer for a record amount for Warhol - $ 100 million.

8

"Orange,Red Yellow"

author

Mark Rothko

The country USA
Years of life 1903–1970
Style abstract expressionism

One of the creators of color field painting was born in Dvinsk, Russia (now Daugavpils, Latvia), in a large family of a Jewish pharmacist. In 1911 they emigrated to the USA. Rothko studied at the art department of Yale University, achieved a scholarship, but anti-Semitic sentiments forced him to leave his studies. Despite everything, art critics idolized the artist, and museums pursued him all his life.

206x236 cm
1961
price
$86.882 million
sold in 2012
on the auction Christie's

Rothko's first artistic experiments were of a surrealist orientation, but over time he simplified the plot to color spots, depriving them of any objectivity. At first they had bright hues, and in the 1960s they were filled with brown, purple, thickening to black by the time of the artist's death. Mark Rothko warned against looking for any meaning in his paintings. The author wanted to say exactly what he said: only the color that dissolves in the air, and nothing more. He recommended looking at the works from a distance of 45 cm, so that the viewer is "dragged" into the color, like into a funnel. Caution: watching according to all the rules can lead to the effect of meditation, that is, gradually come the realization of infinity, complete immersion in oneself, relaxation, purification. The color in his paintings lives, breathes and has a strong emotional impact (sometimes it is said to be healing). The artist said: "The viewer should cry looking at them" - and there really were such cases. According to Rothko's theory, at this moment people live the same spiritual experience that he had in the process of working on the picture. If you managed to understand it at such a subtle level, then do not be surprised that these works of abstractionism are often compared by critics with icons.

The work "Orange, Red, Yellow" expresses the essence of Mark Rothko's painting. Its initial cost at Christie's auction in New York is 35-45 million dollars. An unknown buyer offered a price twice the estimate. The name of the happy owner of the painting, as is often the case, was not disclosed.

9

"Triptych"

author

Francis Bacon

The country
Great Britain
Years of life 1909–1992
Style expressionism

The adventures of Francis Bacon, a full namesake and, moreover, a distant descendant of the great philosopher, began when his father disowned him, unable to accept his son's homosexual inclinations. Bacon went first to Berlin, then to Paris, and then his traces are confused all over Europe. Even during his lifetime, his works were exhibited in the leading cultural centers of the world, including the Guggenheim Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery.

147.5x198 cm (each)
1976
price
$86.2 million
sold in 2008
on the auction Sotheby's

Prestigious museums strove to possess paintings by Bacon, but the prim English public was in no hurry to fork out for such art. The legendary British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said of him: "The man who paints these horrific pictures."

The starting period in his work, the artist himself considered the post-war period. Returning from the service, he again took up painting and created the main masterpieces. Prior to the participation of "Triptych, 1976" in the auction, Bacon's most expensive work was "Study for a Portrait of Pope Innocent X" (52.7 million dollars). In the "Triptych, 1976" the artist depicted the mythical plot of the persecution of Orestes by the furies. Of course, Orestes is Bacon himself, and the furies are his torments. For more than 30 years, the painting was in a private collection and did not participate in exhibitions. This fact gives it a special value and, accordingly, increases the cost. But what is a few million for a connoisseur of art, and even generous in Russian? Roman Abramovich began to create his collection in the 1990s, in this he was significantly influenced by his girlfriend Dasha Zhukova, who has become a fashionable gallery owner in modern Russia. According to unofficial data, the businessman owns works by Alberto Giacometti and Pablo Picasso, bought for amounts exceeding $100 million. In 2008, he became the owner of the Triptych. By the way, in 2011, another valuable work by Bacon was acquired - "Three sketches for a portrait of Lucian Freud." Hidden sources say that Roman Arkadievich again became the buyer.

10

"Pond with water lilies"

author

Claude Monet

The country France
Years of life 1840–1926
Style impressionism

The artist is recognized as the founder of impressionism, who "patented" this method in his canvases. First significant work was the painting "Breakfast on the Grass" (the original version of the work of Edouard Manet). In his youth, he drew caricatures, and took up real painting during his travels along the coast and in the open air. In Paris, he led a bohemian lifestyle and did not leave it even after serving in the army.

210x100 cm
1919
price
$80.5 million
sold in 2008
on the auction Christie's

Besides the fact that Monet was a great artist, he was also enthusiastically engaged in gardening, adored wildlife and flowers. In his landscapes, the state of nature is momentary, objects seem to be blurred by the movement of air. The impression is enhanced by large strokes, from a certain distance they become invisible and merge into a textured, volumetric image. In the painting of the late Monet, a special place is occupied by the theme of water and life in it. In the town of Giverny, the artist had his own pond, where he grew water lilies from seeds specially brought by him from Japan. When their flowers bloomed, he began to paint. The Water Lilies series consists of 60 works that the artist painted over almost 30 years, until his death. His vision deteriorated with age, but he did not stop. Depending on the wind, season and weather, the view of the pond was constantly changing, and Monet wanted to capture these changes. Through careful work, an understanding of the essence of nature came to him. Some of the paintings of the series are kept in the leading galleries of the world: National Museum of Western Art (Tokyo), Orangerie (Paris). The version of the next "Pond with water lilies" went into the hands of an unknown buyer for a record amount.

11

False Star t

author

Jasper Johns

The country USA
Year of birth 1930
Style pop Art

In 1949, Jones entered the design school in New York. Along with Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and others, he is recognized as one of the main artists of the 20th century. In 2012, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.

137.2x170.8 cm
1959
price
$80 million
sold in 2006
at private auction

Like Marcel Duchamp, Jones worked with real objects, depicting them on canvas and in sculpture in full accordance with the original. For his works, he used simple and understandable objects for everyone: a beer bottle, a flag or maps. There is no clear composition in the False Start picture. The artist seems to be playing with the viewer, often "incorrectly" signing the colors in the picture, turning the very concept of color upside down: "I wanted to find a way to depict the color so that it could be determined by some other method." His most explosive and "insecure", according to critics, painting was acquired by an unknown buyer.

12

"Seatednakedon the sofa"

author

Amedeo Modigliani

The country Italy, France
Years of life 1884–1920
Style expressionism

Modigliani was often ill from childhood, during a feverish delirium, he recognized his destiny as an artist. He studied drawing in Livorno, Florence, Venice, and in 1906 he left for Paris, where his art flourished.

65x100 cm
1917
price
$68.962 million
sold in 2010
on the auction Sotheby's

In 1917, Modigliani met 19-year-old Jeanne Hebuterne, who became his model and later his wife. In 2004, one of her portraits sold for $31.3 million, the last record before the sale of Seated Nude on a Sofa in 2010. The painting was purchased by an unknown buyer for the maximum price for Modigliani at the moment. Active sales of works began only after the death of the artist. He died in poverty, suffering from tuberculosis, and the next day, Jeanne Hebuterne, who was nine months pregnant, also committed suicide.

13

"Eagle on a Pine"

author

Qi Baishi

The country China
Years of life 1864–1957
Style guohua

Interest in calligraphy led Qi Baishi to paint. At the age of 28, he became a student of the artist Hu Qingyuan. The Ministry of Culture of China awarded him the title of "Great Artist of the Chinese People", in 1956 he received the International Peace Prize.

10x26 cm
1946
price
$65.4 million
sold in 2011
on the auction China Guardian

Qi Baishi was interested in those manifestations of the surrounding world, which many do not attach importance to, and this is his greatness. A man without education became a professor and an outstanding creator in history. Pablo Picasso said about him: "I'm afraid to go to your country, because there is Qi Baishi in China." The composition "Eagle on a Pine Tree" is recognized as the largest work of the artist. In addition to the canvas, it includes two hieroglyphic scrolls. For China, the amount for which the product was bought is a record - 425.5 million yuan. Only the scroll of the ancient calligrapher Huang Tingjian was sold for 436.8 million dollars.

14

"1949-A-#1"

author

Clifford Still

The country USA
Years of life 1904–1980
Style abstract expressionism

At the age of 20, he visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and was disappointed. Later, he signed up for a student arts league course, but left 45 minutes after the start of the class - it turned out to be “not his”. The first personal exhibition caused a resonance, the artist found himself, and with it recognition

79x93 cm
1949
price
$61.7 million
sold in 2011
on the auction Sotheby's

All his works, which are more than 800 canvases and 1600 works on paper, Still bequeathed to the American city, where a museum named after him will be opened. Denver became such a city, but only the construction was expensive for the authorities, and four works were put up for auction to complete it. Still's works are unlikely to be auctioned ever again, which raised their price in advance. Painting "1949-A-No.1" sold for a record amount for the artist, although experts predicted the sale of a maximum of 25-35 million dollars.

15

"Suprematist composition"

author

Kazimir Malevich

The country Russia
Years of life 1878–1935
Style Suprematism

Malevich studied painting at the Kiev Art School, then at the Moscow Academy of Arts. In 1913, he began to paint abstract geometric paintings in a style that he called Suprematism (from Latin “dominance”).

71x 88.5 cm
1916
price
$60 million
sold in 2008
on the auction Sotheby's

The painting was kept in the city museum of Amsterdam for about 50 years, but after a 17-year dispute with Malevich's relatives, the museum gave it away. The artist painted this work in the same year as The Manifesto of Suprematism, so Sotheby`s even before the auction announced that it would not go into a private collection for less than $60 million. And so it happened. It is better to look at it from above: the figures on the canvas resemble an aerial view of the earth. By the way, a few years earlier, the same relatives expropriated another "Suprematist composition" from the MoMA Museum in order to sell it at Phillips for $17 million.

16

"Bathers"

author

Paul Gauguin

The country France
Years of life 1848–1903
Style post-impressionism

Until the age of seven, the artist lived in Peru, then returned to France with his family, but childhood memories constantly pushed him to travel. In France, he began to paint, was friends with Van Gogh. He even spent several months with him in Arles, until Van Gogh cut off his ear during a quarrel.

93.4x60.4 cm
1902
price
$55 million
sold in 2005
on the auction Sotheby's

In 1891, Gauguin arranged a sale of his paintings in order to use the proceeds to go deep into the island of Tahiti. There he created works in which one can feel the subtle connection between nature and man. Gauguin lived in a thatched hut, and a tropical paradise blossomed on his canvases. His wife was a 13-year-old Tahitian Tehura, which did not prevent the artist from engaging in promiscuity. Having contracted syphilis, he left for France. However, Gauguin was cramped there, and he returned to Tahiti. This period is called the "second Tahitian" - it was then that the painting "Bathers" was painted, one of the most luxurious in his work.

17

"Daffodils and a tablecloth in blue and pink"

author

Henri Matisse

The country France
Years of life 1869–1954
Style Fauvism

In 1889, Henri Matisse had an attack of appendicitis. When he recovered from the operation, his mother bought him paints. First, out of boredom, Matisse copied colored postcards, then - the works of great painters that he saw in the Louvre, and at the beginning of the 20th century he came up with a style - fauvism.

65.2x81 cm
1911
price
$46.4 million
sold in 2009
on the auction Christie's

The painting "Daffodils and a tablecloth in blue and pink colors"For a long time belonged to Yves Saint Laurent. After the death of the couturier, his entire collection of art passed into the hands of his friend and lover Pierre Berger, who decided to put it up for auction at Christie's. The pearl of the sold collection was the painting "Daffodils and a tablecloth in blue and pink", painted on an ordinary tablecloth instead of canvas. As an example of Fauvism, it is filled with the energy of color, the colors seem to explode and scream. Of the well-known series of tablecloth paintings, today this work is the only one that is in a private collection.

18

"Sleeping Girl"

author

RoyLee

chtenstein

The country USA
Years of life 1923–1997
Style pop Art

The artist was born in New York, and after graduating from school, he went to Ohio, where he went to art courses. In 1949, Liechtenstein received his Master of Fine Arts degree. Interest in comics and the ability to be ironic made him a cult artist of the last century.

91x91 cm
1964
price
$44.882 million
sold in 2012
on the auction Sotheby's

Once, chewing gum fell into Liechtenstein's hands. He redrawn the picture from the insert on the canvas and became famous. This plot from his biography contains the whole message of pop art: consumption is the new god, and there is no less beauty in a gum wrapper than in Mona Lisa. His paintings are reminiscent of comics and cartoons: Lichtenstein simply enlarged the finished image, drew rasters, used screen printing and silkscreen printing. The painting "Sleeping Girl" belonged to collectors Beatrice and Philip Gersh for almost 50 years, whose heirs sold it at auction.

19

"Victory. Boogie Woogie"

author

Piet Mondrian

The country Netherlands
Years of life 1872–1944
Style neoplasticism

My real name- Cornelis - the artist changed to Mondrian when he moved to Paris in 1912. Together with the artist Theo van Doesburg, he founded the neoplastic movement. The Piet programming language is named after Mondrian.

27x127 cm
1944
price
$40 million
sold in 1998
on the auction Sotheby's

The most "musical" of the artists of the 20th century made a living with watercolor still lifes, although he became famous as a neoplastic artist. He moved to the USA in the 1940s and spent the rest of his life there. Jazz and New York - that's what inspired him the most! Painting "Victory. Boogie Woogie is the best example of this. "Branded" neat squares were obtained through the use of adhesive tape - Mondrian's favorite material. In America, he was called "the most famous immigrant." In the sixties, Yves Saint Laurent produced the world-famous "Mondrian" dresses with a large colored check print.

20

"Composition No. 5"

author

BasilKandinsky

The country Russia
Years of life 1866–1944
Style avant-garde

The artist was born in Moscow, and his father was from Siberia. After the revolution, he tried to cooperate with the Soviet authorities, but soon realized that the laws of the proletariat were not created for him, and emigrated to Germany not without difficulties.

275x190 cm
1911
price
$40 million
sold in 2007
on the auction Sotheby's

Kandinsky was one of the first to completely abandon object painting, for which he received the title of genius. During Nazism in Germany, his paintings were classified as "degenerate art" and were not exhibited anywhere. In 1939, Kandinsky took French citizenship, in Paris he freely participated in the artistic process. His paintings “sound” like fugues, which is why many are called “compositions” (the first was written in 1910, the last in 1939). “Composition No. 5” is one of the key works in this genre: “The word “composition” sounded like a prayer to me,” the artist said. Unlike many followers, he planned what he would depict on a huge canvas, as if writing notes.

21

"Study of a Woman in Blue"

author

Fernand Léger

The country France
Years of life 1881–1955
Style cubism-post-impressionism

Leger received an architectural education, and then was a student at the School of Fine Arts in Paris. The artist considered himself a follower of Cezanne, was an apologist for cubism, and in the 20th century he also had success as a sculptor.

96.5x129.5 cm
1912–1913
price
$39.2 million
sold in 2008
on the auction Sotheby's

David Normann, president of Sotheby's International Impressionism and Modernism, believes the huge sum paid for The Lady in Blue is entirely justified. The painting belongs to the famous Leger collection (the artist painted three paintings on one plot, the last of them is in private hands today. - Ed.), and the surface of the canvas has been preserved in its original form. The author himself gave this work to the Der Sturm gallery, then it ended up in the collection of Hermann Lang, a German collector of modernism, and now belongs to an unknown buyer.

22

"Street scene. Berlin"

author

Ernst LudwigKirchner

The country Germany
Years of life 1880–1938
Style expressionism

For German Expressionism Kirchner became an iconic person. However, local authorities accused him of adherence to "degenerate art", which tragically affected the fate of his paintings and the life of the artist, who committed suicide in 1938.

95x121 cm
1913
price
$38.096 million
sold in 2006
on the auction Christie's

After moving to Berlin, Kirchner created 11 sketches street scenes. He was inspired by the turmoil and nervousness big city. In the painting, sold in 2006 in New York, the artist's anxiety is especially acute: people on a Berlin street resemble birds - graceful and dangerous. She was the last work from the famous series, sold at auction, the rest are kept in museums. In 1937, the Nazis brutally treated Kirchner: 639 of his works were seized from German galleries, destroyed or sold abroad. The artist could not survive this.

23

"Restingdancer"

author

Edgar Degas

The country France
Years of life 1834–1917
Style impressionism

The history of Degas as an artist began with the fact that he worked as a copyist in the Louvre. He dreamed of becoming "famous and unknown", and in the end he succeeded. At the end of his life, deaf and blind, 80-year-old Degas continued to attend exhibitions and auctions.

64x59 cm
1879
price
$37.043 million
sold in 2008
on the auction Sotheby's

“Ballerinas have always been for me just an excuse to depict fabrics and capture movement,” said Degas. The scenes from the life of the dancers seem to be peeped: the girls do not pose for the artist, but simply become part of the atmosphere caught by Degas's gaze. Resting Dancer sold for $28 million in 1999, and less than 10 years later it was bought for $37 million - today it is the artist's most expensive work ever put up for auction. Degas paid much attention to frames, he designed them himself and forbade changing them. I wonder what frame is installed on the sold painting?

24

"Painting"

author

Juan Miro

The country Spain
Years of life 1893–1983
Style abstract art

During civil war in Spain, the artist was on the side of the Republicans. In 1937, he fled from fascist power to Paris, where he lived in poverty with his family. During this period, Miro paints the painting "Help Spain!", Drawing the attention of the whole world to the dominance of fascism.

89x115 cm
1927
price
$36.824 million
sold in 2012
on the auction Sotheby's

The second title of the painting is Blue Star". The artist wrote it in the same year when he announced: “I want to kill painting” and mercilessly mocked the canvases, scratching the paint with nails, gluing feathers to the canvas, covering the work with garbage. His goal was to debunk the myths about the mystery of painting, but, having coped with this, Miro created his own myth - a surreal abstraction. His "Painting" refers to the cycle of "pictures-dreams". Four buyers fought for it at the auction, but one incognito phone call settled the dispute, and "Painting" became the artist's most expensive painting.

25

"Blue Rose"

author

Yves Klein

The country France
Years of life 1928–1962
Style monochrome painting

The artist was born into a family of painters, but studied oriental languages, seafaring, the craft of the gilder of frames, Zen Buddhism and much more. His personality and impudent antics were many times more interesting than monochrome paintings.

153x199x16 cm
1960
price
$36.779 million
sold in 2012
at Christie's auction

The first exhibition of solid yellow, orange, pink works did not arouse public interest. Klein was offended and the next time he presented 11 identical canvases, painted with ultramarine mixed with a special synthetic resin. He even patented this method. The color went down in history as the "International Klein Blue". The artist also sold emptiness, created paintings by exposing paper to rain, setting fire to cardboard, making prints of a human body on canvas. In a word, I experimented as best I could. To create the "Blue Rose" I used dry pigments, resins, pebbles and a natural sponge.

26

"Looking for Moses"

author

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

The country Great Britain
Years of life 1836–1912
Style neoclassicism

Sir Lawrence himself added the prefix "alma" to his surname in order to appear first in art catalogs. In Victorian England, his paintings were so in demand that the artist was awarded a knighthood.

213.4x136.7 cm
1902
price
$35.922 million
sold in 2011
on the auction Sotheby's

The main theme of Alma-Tadema's work was antiquity. In the paintings, he tried to depict the era of the Roman Empire in the smallest detail, for this he even engaged in archaeological excavations on the Apennine Peninsula, and in his London house he reproduced the historical interior of those years. mythological plots became another source of inspiration for him. The artist was in great demand during his lifetime, but after his death he was quickly forgotten. Now interest is reviving, as evidenced by the cost of the painting "In Search of Moses", seven times higher than the pre-sale estimate.

27

"Portrait of a sleeping naked official"

author

Lucian Freud

The country Germany,
Great Britain
Years of life 1922–2011
Style figurative painting

The artist is the grandson of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis. After the establishment of fascism in Germany, his family emigrated to the UK. Freud's works are in the Wallace Collection in London, where no contemporary artist has previously exhibited.

219.1x151.4 cm
1995
price
$33.6 million
sold in 2008
on the auction Christie's

Bye fashion artists The 20th century created positive “color spots on the wall” and sold them for millions, Freud painted extremely naturalistic paintings and sold them for even more. “I capture the cries of the soul and the suffering of withering flesh,” he said. Critics believe that all this is the "legacy" of Sigmund Freud. The paintings were so actively exhibited and successfully sold that the experts had a doubt: do they have hypnotic properties? Sold at auction, "Portrait of a sleeping naked official", according to the Sun, was acquired by connoisseur of beauty and billionaire Roman Abramovich.

28

"Violin and Guitar"

author

Xone gris

The country Spain
Years of life 1887–1927
Style cubism

Born in Madrid, where he graduated from the School of Arts and Crafts. In 1906 he moved to Paris and entered the circle of the most influential artists of the era: Picasso, Modigliani, Braque, Matisse, Leger, also worked with Sergei Diaghilev and his troupe.

5x100 cm
1913
price
$28.642 million
sold in 2010
on the auction Christie's

Gris, in his own words, was engaged in "planar, colored architecture." His paintings are precisely thought out: he did not leave a single accidental stroke, which makes creativity related to geometry. The artist created his own version of cubism, although he had great respect for Pablo Picasso, the founding father of the movement. The successor even dedicated his first Cubist work, Tribute to Picasso, to him. The painting "Violin and Guitar" is recognized as outstanding in the artist's work. During his lifetime, Gris was known, favored by critics and art critics. His works are exhibited in the world's largest museums and are kept in private collections.

29

"PortraitFields of Eluard»

author

Salvador Dali

The country Spain
Years of life 1904–1989
Style surrealism

“Surrealism is me,” Dali said when he was expelled from the Surrealist group. Over time, he became the most famous surrealist artist. Dali's work is everywhere, not just in galleries. For example, it was he who came up with the packaging for Chupa-Chups.

25x33 cm
1929
price
$20.6 million
sold in 2011
on the auction Sotheby's

In 1929, the poet Paul Eluard and his Russian wife Gala came to visit the great provocateur and brawler Dali. The meeting was the beginning of a love story that lasted more than half a century. The painting "Portrait of Paul Eluard" was painted just during this historic visit. “I felt that I was entrusted with the duty to capture the face of the poet, from whose Olympus I stole one of the muses,” the artist said. Before meeting Gala, he was a virgin and was disgusted at the thought of having sex with a woman. The love triangle existed until the death of Eluard, after which it became the Dali-Gala duet.

30

"Anniversary"

author

Marc Chagall

The country Russia, France
Years of life 1887–1985
Style avant-garde

Moishe Segal was born in Vitebsk, but in 1910 he emigrated to Paris, changed his name, and became close to the leading avant-garde artists of the era. In the 1930s, when the Nazis seized power, he left for the United States with the help of an American consul. He returned to France only in 1948.

80x103 cm
1923
price
$14.85 million
sold in 1990
at Sotheby's auction

The painting "Jubilee" is recognized as one of the the best works artist. It has all the features of his work: the physical laws of the world are erased, the feeling of a fairy tale is preserved in the scenery of petty-bourgeois life, and love is in the center of the plot. Chagall did not draw people from life, but only from memory or fantasizing. The painting "Jubilee" depicts the artist himself with his wife Bela. The painting was sold in 1990 and has not been bid since. Interestingly, the New York Museum of Modern Art MoMA keeps exactly the same, only under the name "Birthday". By the way, it was written earlier - in 1915.

draft prepared
Tatyana Palasova
rating compiled
according to the list www.art-spb.ru
tmn magazine №13 (May-June 2013)

The rating of the most expensive works by living artists is a construction that speaks about the role and place of the artist in the history of art much less than about age and health

The rules for compiling our rating are simple: firstly, only transactions with works by living authors are taken into account; secondly, only public auction sales are taken into account; and thirdly, the rule "one artist - one work" is observed (if two records belong to Jones in the rating of works, then only the most expensive one remains, and the rest are not taken into account). Ranking is carried out in terms of dollars (at the exchange rate on the date of sale).

1. JEFF KOONS Rabbit. 1986. $91.075 million

The longer you watch the auction career of Jeff Koons (1955), the more you become convinced that nothing is impossible for pop art. You can admire the Koons sculptures in the form of balloon toys, or you can consider them kitsch and bad taste - your right. One thing cannot be denied: Jeff Koons installations cost crazy money.

Jeff Koons began his journey to fame as the world's most successful living artist back in 2007, when his giant metal installation Hanging Heart was bought for $23.6 million at Sotheby's. The work was bought by the Larry Gagosian Gallery representing Koons (in the press wrote that it was in the interests of the Ukrainian billionaire Viktor Pinchuk).The gallery acquired not just an installation, but, in fact, a work of jewelry art. Even though the work is not made of gold (stainless steel served as the material) and it is clearly larger in size than an ordinary pendant (a sculpture with a height 2.7 m weighs 1,600 kg), but it has a similar purpose. Over six and a half thousand hours were spent on the production of a composition with a heart covered with ten layers of paint. As a result, gigantic money was paid for the spectacular “decoration”.

Next was the sale of the Purple Balloon Flower for £12.92 million ($25.8 million) at Christie's London on June 30, 2008. Interestingly, seven years earlier, the previous owners of "Flower" bought the work for $1.1 million. It is easy to calculate that during this time its market price has increased by almost 25 times.

The downturn in the art market in 2008-2009 gave skeptics a reason to slander that the fashion for Koons has passed. But they were wrong: along with the art market, interest in the works of Koons was revived. Andy Warhol's successor to the throne of the King of Pop set his personal best in November 2012 with the sale of a multicolored Tulips sculpture from the Triumph series at Christie's for $33.7 million including commission.

But "Tulips" were "flowers" in the literal and figurative sense. Just a year later, in November 2013, the sale of the stainless steel balloon dog (orange) sculpture followed: the price of the hammer was as much as $58.4 million! A fabulous sum for a living artist. The work of a contemporary author was sold for the price of a Van Gogh or Picasso painting. Those were the berries...

With this result, Koons reigned at the top of the rankings of living artists for several years. In November 2018, he was briefly surpassed by David Hockney (see second place in our ranking). But just six months later, everything returned to normal: on May 15, 2019, in New York, at the auction of post-war and contemporary art, Christie’s put up for sale a textbook sculpture for Koons in 1986 - a silver “Rabbit” made of stainless steel, imitating a balloon of a similar shape.

In total, Koons created 3 such sculptures plus one author's copy. The auction included a copy of "Rabbit" number 2 - from the collection of the cult publisher Cy Newhouse, co-owner of the publishing house Conde Nast (magazines Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour, GQ, etc.). Silver "Rabbit" was bought by the "father of glamor" Cy Newhouse in 1992 for an impressive amount by the standards of those years - $ 1 million. After 27 years in the struggle of 10 bidders, the price of the hammer of the sculpture was 80 times higher than the previous sale price. And with the Buyer's Premium commission, the final result was a record $91.075 million for all living artists.

2. DAVID HOKNEY Portrait of the artist. Pool with two figures. 1972. $90,312,500

David Hockney (1937) is one of the most important British artists of the 20th century. In 2011, David Hockney was voted the most influential British artist of all time in a survey of thousands of professional British painters and sculptors. At the same time, Hockney bypassed such masters as William Turner and Francis Bacon. His work, as a rule, is attributed to pop art, although in his early works he gravitated more towards expressionism in the spirit of Francis Bacon.

Born and raised David Hockney in England, Yorkshire. The mother of the future artist kept the family in puritanical strictness, and his father, a simple accountant who drew a little at an amateur level, encouraged his son to paint. In his early twenties, David moved to California, where he lived for a total of about three decades. He still has two workshops there. Hockney made the heroes of his works the local rich, their villas, swimming pools, lawns bathed in the California sun. One of his most famous works of the American period - the painting "Splash" - is an image of a sheaf of spray rising from the pool after a person jumped into the water. To depict this sheaf, "living" no more than two seconds, Hockney worked for two weeks. By the way, this painting was sold at Sotheby’s for $5.4 million in 2006 and for some time was considered his most expensive work.

Hockney (1937) is already in his eighties, but he still works and even invents new artistic techniques using technical innovations. Once he came up with the idea of ​​making huge collages from Polaroid pictures, printed his works on fax machines, and today the artist enthusiastically masters drawing on the iPad. The paintings drawn on the tablet take their rightful place at his exhibitions.

In 2005, Hockney finally returned from the States to England. Now he paints in the open air and in the studio huge (often consisting of several parts) landscapes of local forests and wastelands. According to Hockney, in his 30 years in California, he has become so unaccustomed to the simple change of seasons that it truly fascinates and fascinates him. Entire cycles of his recent works are devoted, for example, to the same landscape in different time of the year.

In 2018, Hockney's paintings broke the $10 million mark several times. And on November 15, 2018, a new absolute record for the work of a living artist was registered at Christie's - $ 90,312,500 for the painting "Portrait of the Artist (Pool with Two Figures)".

3. GERHARD RICHTER Abstract painting. 1986. $46.3 million

Living classic Gerhard Richter (1932) ranks second in our ranking. The German artist was the leader among living colleagues until the 58 millionth record of Jeff Koons struck. But it is unlikely that this circumstance can shake Richter's already iron authority on the art market. According to the results of 2012, the annual auction turnover of the German artist is second only to those of Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso.

For many years, nothing foreshadowed the success that has fallen on Richter now. For decades, the artist occupied a modest place in the contemporary art market and did not aspire to fame at all. We can say that fame overtook him by itself. The starting point is considered by many to be New York's MoMA Museum's purchase in 1995 of Richter's October 18, 1977 series. The American Museum paid $3 million for 15 grayscale paintings and soon began thinking about holding a full-fledged retrospective of the German artist. The grandiose exhibition opened six years later, in 2001, and since then interest in Richter's work has grown by leaps and bounds. From 2004 to 2008, the price of his paintings tripled. In 2010, Richter's works have already brought in $76.9 million, in 2011, according to the Artnet website, Richter's works at auction earned a total of $200 million, and in 2012 (according to Artprice) - $262.7 million - more than the work of any other living artist.

While, for example, with Jasper Johns, overwhelming success at auction accompanies mainly only early works, such a sharp division is not typical for Richter’s works: demand is equally stable for things from different creative periods, of which there were a great many in Richter’s career. Over the past sixty years, this artist has tried himself in almost all traditional painting genres - portrait, landscape, marina, nude, still life and, of course, abstraction.

The history of Richter's auction records began with a series of still lifes "Candles". 27 photorealistic images of candles in the early 1980s, at the time they were written, cost only 15,000 German marks ($5,800) per work. But still no one bought Candles at their first exhibition at the Max Hetzler Gallery in Stuttgart. Then the theme of the paintings was called old-fashioned; Today, "Candles" are considered works for all time. And they cost millions of dollars.

In February 2008 "Candle", written in 1983, was unexpectedly bought for £ 7.97 million ($16 million). This personal record stood for three and a half years. Then in October 2011 one more "Candle" (1982) went under the hammer at Christie's already for £ 10.46 million ($16.48 million). With this record, Gerhard Richter entered the top three most successful living artists for the first time, taking his place behind Jasper Johns and Jeff Koons.

Then the victorious procession of Richter's "Abstract Paintings" began. The artist paints such works in a unique author's technique: he applies a mixture of simple paints on a light background, and then smears them on the canvas with a long scraper the size of a car bumper. This results in intricate color transitions, spots and stripes. Examining the surface of his "Abstract Paintings" is like excavations: on them traces of various "figures" look through the gaps of numerous colorful layers.

November 9, 2011 at the auction of modern and post-war art Sotheby's large-scale "Abstract painting (849-3)" 1997 went under the hammer for $20.8m (£13.2m). And six months later, May 8, 2012 at the auction of post-war and contemporary art Christie's in New York "Abstract painting (798-3)" 1993 went for a record $21.8 million(including commission). Five months later - again a record: "Abstract painting (809-4)" from the collection of rock musician Eric Clapton on October 12, 2012 at Sotheby's in London went under the hammer for £ 21.3 million ($34.2 million). The barrier of 30 million was taken by Richter with such ease, as if it were not about modern painting, but about masterpieces that are already a hundred years old - no less. Although in the case of Richter it seems that the inclusion in the pantheon of the "great" took place already during the life of the artist. German prices continue to rise.

Richter's next record belonged to a photorealistic work - a landscape "Cathedral Square, Milan (Domplatz, Mailand)" 1968. The work was sold for 37.1 million at Sotheby's auction May 14, 2013. The view of the most beautiful square was painted by a German artist in 1968 by order of Siemens Electro, especially for the company's Milan office. At the time of its writing, it was Richter's largest figurative work (nearly three by three meters in size).

The Cathedral Square record stood for almost two years, until February 10, 2015 didn't interrupt him "Abstract painting" ( 1986): hammer price reached £ 30.389 million ($46.3 million). The 300.5 × 250.5 cm Abstract Painting, put up for auction at Sotheby’s, is one of Richter’s first large-scale works in his special author’s technique of scraping off layers of paint. The last time in 1999, this "Abstract Painting" was bought at auction for $607 thousand (from this year until the current sale, the work was exhibited at the Ludwig Museum in Cologne). At the auction on February 10, 2015, a certain American client in auction steps of £2 million reached the hammer price of $46.3 million. That is, since 1999, the work has increased in price by more than 76 times!

4. Tsui Zhuzhuo "Great snow-capped mountains." 2013. $39.577 million

For a long time we did not closely follow the development of the situation in the Chinese art market, not wanting to overload our readers with an excessive amount of information about “not our” art. With the exception of the dissident Ai Weiwei, who is not even as expensive as a resonant artist, Chinese authors seemed to us too numerous and far from us to delve into what was going on in their market there. But the statistics, as they say, are a serious lady, and if we are talking about the most successful living authors in the world, then we cannot do without a story about the outstanding representatives of the contemporary art of the Celestial Empire.

Let's start with a Chinese artist Cui Ruzhuo. The artist was born in 1944 in Beijing and lived in the USA from 1981 to 1996. After returning to China, he began teaching at the National Academy of Arts. Cui Ruzhuo reinterprets the traditional Chinese ink painting style and creates the huge scroll canvases that Chinese businessmen and officials love to present as gifts to each other. In the West, very little is known about him, although many must remember the story of the $3.7 million scroll that was mistakenly thrown away, mistaking it for trash, by the cleaners of a Hong Kong hotel. So, it was Cui Ruzhuo's scroll.

Cui Ruzhuo is in his 70s and the market for his work is thriving. Over 60 works by this artist have crossed the $1 million mark. However, his works have so far been successful only at Chinese auctions. Cui Ruzhuo's records are really impressive. First it "Landscape in the Snow" at Poly Auction in Hong Kong April 7, 2014 reached a hammer price of HK$184 million ( US$23.7 million).

Exactly one year later April 6, 2015 at a special Poly Auction in Hong Kong dedicated exclusively to the work of Cui Ruzhuo, a series "The Great Snowy Scenery of Mountainous Jiangnan"(Jiangnan is a historical region in China, occupying the right bank of the lower reaches of the Yangtze.) of eight ink-on-paper landscapes reached a hammer price of HK$236 million ( US$30.444 million).

A year later, history repeated itself again: at the solo auction of Cui Ruzhuo, held by Poly Auctions in Hong Kong April 4, 2016 polyptych in six parts "Great Snowcapped Mountains" 2013 hammer price (including auction house commission) reached HK$306 million (US$39.577 million). So far, this is an absolute record among Asian living artists.

According to art dealer Johnson Chan, who has been working with Chinese contemporary art for 30 years, there is an unconditional desire to raise prices for the works of this author, but all this is happening at a price level where experienced collectors are unlikely to want to buy something. “The Chinese want to raise the ratings of their artists by inflating prices for their work at major international auctions like the one organized by Poly in Hong Kong, but there is no doubt that these ratings are completely fabricated,” Johnson Chang comments on Cui Ruzhuo’s latest record.

This, of course, is only the opinion of one single dealer, and we have a real record recorded in all databases. So let's take him into account. Cui Ruzhuo himself, judging by his statements, is far from the modesty of Gerhard Richter when it comes to his auction success. It seems that this race for records is seriously captivating him. “I hope that in the next 5-10 years the prices for my works will surpass the prices for the works of Western masters like Picasso and Van Gogh. This is the Chinese dream,” says Cui Ruzhuo.

5 Jasper Johns Flag. 1983. $36 million

The third place in the ranking of living artists belongs to an American To Jasper Johns (1930). The current record price for Jones' work is $ 36 million. So much paid for his famous "Flag" at Christie's auction November 12, 2014.

A series of "flag" paintings, begun by Jones in the mid-1950s, immediately after the artist's return from the army, became one of the central ones in his work. Even in his youth, the artist was interested in the idea of ​​a readymade, the transformation of an everyday object into a work of art. However, Jones's flags were not real, they were painted in oil on canvas. Thus, a work of art acquired the properties of a thing from ordinary life, it was at the same time the image of the flag and the flag itself. A series of works with flags brought Jasper Johns worldwide fame. But no less popular are his abstract works. For many years, the list of the most expensive works, compiled according to the above rules, was headed by an abstract "False start". Until 2007, this very bright and decorative canvas, painted by Jones in 1959, was considered the owner of a practically inaccessible price for a living artist (albeit a lifetime classic) - $ 17 million. That's how much they paid for it in gold for the art market 1988.

Interestingly, the experience of Jasper Johns as a record holder was not continuous. In 1989, he was interrupted by the work of his colleague Willem de Kooning: the two-meter abstraction "Mixing" was sold at Sotheby's for $ 20.7 million. Jasper Johns had to move. But after 8 years, in 1997, de Kooning died, and " False start "Jones again took the first line of the auction rating of living artists for almost 10 years.

But in 2007 everything changed. The False Start record was first eclipsed by the work of the young and ambitious Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons. Then there was a record sale for $ 33.6 million of the painting "The Sleeping Benefit Inspector" by Lusien Freud (now deceased, and therefore not participating in this rating). Then the records of Gerhard Richter began. In general, so far with a current record of 36 million, Jasper Johns, one of the masters of American post-war art, working at the intersection of neo-Dadaism, abstract expressionism and pop art, is in an honorable third place.

6. ED RUSHAY Smash. 1963. $30.4 million

The sudden success of the painting "Smash" by an American artist Edward Ruscha (b. 1937) at auction Christie's November 12, 2014 brought this author to the number of the most expensive living artists. The previous record price for the work of Ed Ruscha (often the name Ruscha is pronounced in Russian as "Rusha", but the correct pronunciation is Ruscha) was "only" $ 6.98 million: that's how much they paid for his canvas "Burning gas station" in 2007. Seven years later his Smash with an estimate of $15–20 million, it reached the price of a hammer $30.4 million. It is obvious that the market for the works of this author has reached a new level - it is not in vain that he adorns White House Barack Obama, and Larry Gagosian himself exhibits it in their galleries.

Ed Ruscha never aspired to post-war New York with its craze for abstract expressionism. Instead, for over 40 years, he sought inspiration in California, where he moved from Nebraska at the age of 18. The artist stood at the origins of a new trend in art, called pop art. Together with Warhol, Lichtenstein, Wayne Thiebaud and other popular culture singers, Edward Ruscha took part in the Pasadena Museum's New Image of Ordinary Things exhibition in 1962, which became the first museum exhibition of American pop art. However, Ed Ruscha himself does not like it when his work is attributed to pop art, conceptualism, or some other trend in art.

His unique style is called "text painting". From the late 1950s, Ed Ruscha began painting words. Just as for Warhol a can of soup became a work of art, for Ed Ruscha, ordinary words and phrases, taken either from a billboard or packaging in a supermarket, or from the credits of a movie (Hollywood was always at Ruscha’s side, and unlike many of his fellow artists, Rushey respected the "dream factory"). The words on his canvases acquire the properties of three-dimensional objects, these are real still lifes made of words. When looking at his canvases, the first thing that comes to mind is the visual and sound perception of the drawn word, and only after that - the semantic meaning. The latter, as a rule, cannot be unambiguously deciphered; the words and phrases chosen by Ruscha can be interpreted in different ways. The same bright yellow word "Smash" on a deep blue background can be perceived as an aggressive call to smash something or someone to smithereens; as a lone adjective taken out of context (part of some newspaper headline, for example), or simply as a single word caught in an urban stream of visual images. Ed Ruscha revels in this uncertainty. “I have always had a deep respect for strange, inexplicable things… Explanations, in a sense, kill a thing,” he said in an interview.

7. CHRISTOPHER WOOL Untitled (RIOT). 1990. $29.93 million

American artist Christopher Wool(1955) first broke into the ranking of living artists in 2013 - after the sale of Apocalypse Now for $26.5 million. This record immediately put him on a par with Jasper Johns and Gerhard Richter. The amount of this historic transaction - more than $ 20 million - surprised many, since before it the prices for the artist's works did not exceed $ 8 million. However, the rapid growth of the market for Christopher Wool's works was already evident by that time: the artist's track record included 48 auction transactions worth more than $ 1 million, and 22 of them (almost half) took place in 2013. Two years later, the number of works by Chris Wool, sold more than $ 1 million, reached 70, and a new personal record was not long in coming. At auction Sotheby's May 12, 2015 work "Untitled (RIOT)" was sold for $ 29.93 million including Buyer's Premium.

Christopher Wool is best known for his large-scale black lettering on white aluminum sheets. It is they who, as a rule, set records at auctions. These are all things from the late 1980s and early 1990s. As the legend goes, one evening Wool was walking around New York in the evening and suddenly saw graffiti in black letters on a new white truck - the words sex and luv. This sight impressed him so much that he immediately returned to the studio and wrote his own version with the same words. The year was 1987, and the artist's further search for words and phrases for his "literal" works reflect the contradictory spirit of this time. This is the call "sell the house, sell the car, sell the children", taken by Wool from the film "Apocalypse Now", and the word "FOOL" ("fool") in capital letters, and the word "RIOT" ("rebellion"), often found in newspaper headlines of the time.

Words and phrases Wool applied to aluminum sheets using stencils with alkyd or enamel paints, deliberately leaving streaks, stencil marks and other evidence of the creative process. The artist divided the words so that the viewer did not immediately understand the meaning. At first, you see only a cluster of letters, that is, you perceive the word as a visual object, and only then do you read and decipher the meaning of the phrase or word. Wool used a font that was in use by the US military after World War II, which enhances the impression of an order, a directive, a slogan. These "letter" works are perceived as part of the urban landscape, as illegal graffiti that has violated the cleanliness of the surface of some street object. This series of works by Christopher Wool is recognized as one of the peaks of linguistic abstraction, and therefore is highly valued by lovers of contemporary art.

8. PETER DOYG Rosedale. 1991. $28.81 million

British Peter Doig(1959), although he belongs to the generation of postmodernists Koons and Hirst, chose for himself a completely traditional genre of landscape, which for a long time was not in favor with advanced artists. With his work, Peter Doig revives the public's fading interest in figurative painting. His work is highly appreciated by both critics and non-specialists, and evidence of this is the rapid rise in prices for his works. If in the early 1990s his landscapes cost several thousand dollars, now the bill goes into the millions.

Doig's work is often referred to as magical realism. Based on real landscapes, he creates fantasy, mysterious and often gloomy images. The artist likes to depict objects abandoned by people: a dilapidated building built by Le Corbusier in the middle of a forest or an empty white canoe on the surface of a forest lake. In addition to nature and imagination, Doig is inspired by horror films, old postcards, photographs, amateur videos, and so on. Doig's paintings are colourful, intricate, decorative and not provocative. It's nice to own such a painting. The low productivity of the author also fuels the interest of collectors: the artist living in Trinidad creates no more than a dozen paintings a year.

In the early 2000s, individual landscapes by the artist were sold for several hundred thousand dollars. At the same time, Doig's work was included in the Saatchi Gallery, at the Biennale at the Whitney Museum and in the MoMA collection. In 2006, the auction bar of $1 million was overcome. And the following year, an unexpected breakthrough occurred: the work "White Canoe", offered at Sotheby's on February 7, 2007 with an estimate of $0.8-1.2 million, was five times higher than the preliminary estimate and was sold for £5.7 million ($11.3 million). At that time, it was a record price for the work of a living European artist.

In 2008, Doig held solo exhibitions at the Tate Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. Multi-million dollar price tags for Doig's work have become the norm. Peter Doig's personal record has recently been updated several times a year - we only have time to change the picture and place of this artist in our ranking of living authors.

Peter Doig's most expensive work to date is the 1991 Rosedale snowscape. Interestingly, the record was set not at Sotheby's or Christie's, but at the Phillips contemporary art auction. This happened on May 18, 2017. A view of snow-covered Rosedale, one of Toronto's neighborhoods, was sold to a phone buyer for $28.81 million, up about $3 million from the previous record ($25.9 million for "Swallowed in the Mire"). The painting "Rosedale" took part in Doig's key exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in London in 1998, and in general this work was fresh for the market, and therefore the record price is well deserved.

9. FRANK STELLA Cape pines. 1959. $28 million

Frank Stella is a bright representative of post-painting abstraction and minimalism in art. At a certain stage, it is referred to as a hard edge painting style. At first, Stella contrasted the strict geometricity, ascetic monochrome and structuredness of his paintings with the spontaneity and randomness of the canvases of abstract expressionists like Jackson Pollock.

In the late 1950s, the artist was spotted by the famous gallery owner Leo Castelli and was awarded an exhibition for the first time. On it, he presented the so-called "Black Paintings" - canvases painted over with parallel black lines with thin gaps of unpainted canvas between them. The lines fold into geometric shapes, somewhat reminiscent of optical illusions, those same pictures that flicker, move, twist, create a feeling of deep space, if you look at them for a long time. Stella continued the theme of parallel lines with thin dividing strips in his works on aluminum and copper. The colors, the pictorial basis and even the shape of the paintings changed (among others, works in the shape of the letters U, T, L stand out). But the main principle of his painting still consisted in the clarity of the contour, monumentality, simple form, monochrome. In the following decades, Stella moved away from such geometric painting towards smooth, natural forms and lines, and from monochromatic paintings to bright and varied color transitions. In the 1970s, Stella was captivated by the huge patterns used to paint ships. The artist used them for huge paintings with assemblage elements - he included pieces of steel pipes or wire mesh in his works.

In his early interviews, Frank Stella talks frankly about the meanings put into his work, or rather, about their absence: "What you see is what you see." The painting is an object in itself, not a reproduction of anything. "It's a flat surface with paint on it and nothing else," said Stella.

Well, signed by Frank Stella, this "surface with paint on it" could be worth millions of dollars today. For the first time in the ranking of living artists, Frank Stella got in 2015 with the sale of the Delaware Crossing (1961) for $ 13.69 million, including commission.

Four years later, on May 15, 2019, a new record was set by the early (1959) work “Cape of Pines”: the price of the hammer was over $28 million, including commission. This is one of 29 "black paintings" - the very ones with which Stella made his debut at his first exhibition in New York. Princeton University graduate Frank Stella was then 23 years old. He often did not have enough money for oil paint for artists. The young artist was moonlighting as a repair work, he really liked the pure colors of paint, and then the idea arose to work with this paint on canvas. With black enamel paint, Stella paints parallel stripes, leaving thin lines of unprimed canvas between them. Moreover, he writes without rulers, by eye, without a preliminary sketch. Stella never knew exactly how many black lines would appear in a particular painting. For example, in the painting “Cape of Pines”, there are 35 of them. The title of the work refers to the name of the cape in Massachusetts Bay - Point of pines. At the beginning of the 20th century, it had a large amusement park, and today it is one of the districts of the city of Revere.

10. YOSHITOMO NARA Knife behind the back. 2000. $24.95 million

Yoshitomo Nara (1959) is one of the key figures of Japanese neo-pop art. Japanese - because, despite global fame and many years of work abroad, his work is still distinguished by a pronounced national identity. Nara's favorite characters are girls and dogs in the style of Japanese manga and anime comics. The images he invented for many years have “gone to the people”: they are printed on T-shirts, souvenirs and various “merch” are made with them. born in poor family, far from the capital, he is not only loved for his talent, but also appreciated as a person who has made himself. The artist works quickly and expressively. It is known that some of his masterpieces were completed literally overnight. Paintings and sculptures by Yoshitomo Nara tend to be very concise, if not sparing in expressive means, but always carry a strong emotional charge. Teenage girls at Nara often look at the viewer with an unkind squint. In their eyes - impudence, challenge and aggression. In the hands - then a knife, then a cigarette. There is an opinion that the depicted perversions of behavior are a reaction to the oppressive public morality, various taboos, and the principles of education adopted by the Japanese. Almost medieval severity and shame drive problems inside, create the ground for a delayed emotional explosion. "Knife behind the back" just capaciously reflects one of the main ideas of the artist. In this work there is a hating look of a girl, and a hand threateningly wound behind her back. Until 2019, Yoshitomo Nara's paintings and sculptures have already crossed the million, or even several million mark more than once. But twenty million - for the first time. Nara is one of the world's most famous Japanese-born artists. And now the most expensive of the living. On October 6, 2109, at Sotheby's in Hong Kong, he took this title from Takashi Murakami and noticeably outperformed the 90-year-old avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama (the maximum auction prices for her paintings are already approaching $ 9 million).

11. ZENG FANZHI The Last Supper. 2001. $23.3 million

At Sotheby's Hong Kong October 5, 2013 year scale canvas "The Last Supper" Beijing artist Zeng Fanzhi (1964) was sold for a record amount of 160 million Hong Kong dollars - $23.3 million USA. The final cost of Fanzhi's work, written, of course, under the influence of Leonardo da Vinci, turned out to be twice the preliminary estimate of about $10 million. Zeng Fanzhi's previous price record was $ 9.6 million paid at the Christie's Hong Kong auction in May 2008 for the work Mask Series. 1996 No. 6".

"The Last Supper" is the largest (2.2 × 4 meters) painting by Fanzhi in the "Masks" series, covering the period from 1994 to 2001. The cycle is dedicated to the evolution of Chinese society under the influence of economic reforms. The introduction of elements of a market economy by the PRC government led to urbanization and disunity of the Chinese. Fanzhi depicts the inhabitants of modern Chinese cities, who have to fight for a place in the sun. The well-known composition of the fresco by Leonardo in the reading of Fanzhi takes on a completely different meaning: the scene is transferred from Jerusalem to the classroom of a Chinese school with typical hieroglyphic boards on the walls. "Christ" and "apostles" have turned into pioneers with scarlet ties, and only "Judas" wears a gold tie - this is a metaphor for Western capitalism, penetrating and destroying the usual way of life in a socialist country.

The works of Zeng Fanzhi are stylistically close to European expressionism and are just as dramatic. But at the same time they are full of Chinese symbols and specifics. This versatility attracts both Chinese and Western collectors to the artist's work. A direct confirmation of this is the provenance of The Last Supper: the work was put up for auction by the famous collector of the Chinese avant-garde of the 1980s and early 1990s, the Belgian baron Guy Ullens.

12. ROBERT RAYMAN Bridge. 1980. $20.6 million

At auction Christie's May 13, 2015 abstract work "Bridge" 85 year old American artist Robert Ryman(Robert Ryman) was sold for $20.6 million taking into account the commission - twice as expensive as the lower estimate.

Robert Ryman(1930) did not immediately realize that he wanted to become an artist. At the age of 23, he moved to New York from Nashville, Tennessee, wanting to become a jazz saxophonist. In the meantime, he did not become a famous musician, he had to earn extra money as a security guard at MoMA, where he met Saul LeWitt and Dan Flavin. The first worked in the museum as a night secretary, and the second as a security guard and an elevator operator. Inspired by the works of abstract expressionists he saw at MoMA - Rothko, De Kooning, Pollock and Newman - Robert Ryman took up painting in 1955.

Ryman is often referred to as a minimalist, but he prefers to be called a "realist" because he is not interested in creating illusions, he only demonstrates the qualities of the materials he uses. Most of his works are painted with paints of all possible shades of white (from grayish or yellowish to dazzling white) based on a laconic square shape. During his career, Robert Ryman tried many materials and techniques: he painted in oils, acrylics, casein, enamel, pastel, gouache, etc. on canvas, steel, plexiglass, aluminum, paper, corrugated cardboard, vinyl, wallpaper, etc. His friend, a professional restorer, Orrin Riley, advised him on the causticity of the materials he thought of using. As an artist once said, “I never have a question what write, the main thing - how write". It's all about the texture, the nature of the strokes, the border between the colorful surface and the edges of the base, as well as the relationship between the work and the wall. Since 1975, a special element of his work has been the fixtures, which Ryman designs himself and deliberately leaves them visible, emphasizing his work "as real as the walls on which they hang are real." Ryman prefers to give works "names" rather than "titles". The "name" is what helps to distinguish one work from another, and Ryman often names his works by paint brands, companies, etc., and the "title" claims some kind of allusions and deeply hidden meanings, the presence of which in his works the artist regularly denies. Nothing but material and technique matters.

13. Damien Hirst Sleepy spring. 2002. $19.2 million

English artist To Damien Hirst (1965) was destined to be the first to take the first place in this rating in a dispute with the living classic Jasper Johns. The already mentioned work "False Start" could remain an unsinkable leader for a long time if June 21, 2007 installation at that time 42-year-old Hirst "Sleepy Spring"(2002) was not sold at Sotheby's for £ 9.76 million, that is, for $19.2 million. The work, by the way, has a rather unusual format. On the one hand, this is a display cabinet with dummies of pills (6,136 pills), in fact, a classic installation. And on the other hand, this showcase is made flat (10 cm deep), taken into a frame and hung on the wall like a plasma panel, thus fully providing the comfort of possession inherent in paintings. In 2002, the installation's sister, Sleepy Winter, sold for $7.4 million, more than half the price. Someone "explained" the difference in price by the fact that the tablets are more faded in winter. But it is clear that this explanation is absolutely groundless, because the pricing mechanism for such things is no longer associated with their decorative effect.

In 2007, many recognized Hirst as the author of the most expensive work among living artists. The question, however, is from the category of "depending on how to count." The fact is that Hurst was sold for expensive pounds, and Jones for dollars that have now fallen in price, and even twenty years ago. But even if we count at face value, without taking into account 20-year inflation, then Hirst's work was more expensive in dollars, and Jones's in pounds. The situation was borderline, and everyone was free to decide who to consider the most expensive. But Hurst held out in first place not so long. In the same 2007, he was displaced from the first place by Koons with his "Hanging Heart".

Just on the eve of the global decline in prices for contemporary art, Hirst undertook an unprecedented undertaking for a young artist - a solo auction of his works, which took place on September 15, 2008 in London. The news of the bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers bank announced the day before did not spoil the appetite of contemporary art lovers: of the 223 works offered by Sotheby’s, only five did not find new owners (one of the buyers, by the way, was Viktor Pinchuk). Work "Golden Taurus"- a huge effigy of a bull in formaldehyde, crowned with a golden disc, - brought £10.3m ($18.6m). This is Hurst's best result if measured in pounds (in the currency in which the deal was made). However, we are ranking in terms of dollars, so (may the Golden Calf forgive us) we will consider Hirst's best sale to be Sleepy Spring.

Since 2008, Hirst has not had sales of Sleepy Spring and Golden Calf. Fresh records of the 2010s - for the work of Richter, Jones, Fanzhi, Wool and Koons - moved Damien to the sixth line of our rating. But let's not make a categorical judgment about the decline of the Hirst era. According to analysts, Hurst as a "superstar" has already gone down in history, which means that they will buy it for a very long time; however, the greatest value in the future is predicted for works created in the most innovative period of his career, that is, in the 1990s.

14. Maurizio Cattelan Him. 2001. $17.19 million

Italian Maurizio Cattelan (1960) came to art after working as a security guard, cook, gardener and furniture designer. The self-taught author has become world famous for his ironic sculptures and installations. He's dropped a meteorite on the Pope, turned a customer's wife into a hunting trophy, ripped a hole in the floor of an Old Masters Museum, held up a giant middle finger to the stock exchange in Milan, brought a live donkey to the Frieze fair. In the near future, Cattelan promises to install a golden toilet at the Guggenheim Museum. In the end, Maurizio Cattelan's antics were widely recognized in the art world: he is invited to the Venice Biennale (the installation "Others" in 2011 - a flock of two thousand pigeons that look menacingly from all pipes and beams at the crowds of visitors passing below), arrange he has a retrospective at the New York Guggenheim Museum (November 2011) and, finally, big money is paid for his sculptures.

Since 2010, Maurizio Cattelan's most expensive work has been a wax sculpture of a man peering out of a hole in the floor, outwardly similar to the artist himself ("Untitled", 2001). This sculpture-installation, which exists in the amount of three copies plus the author's copy, was first shown at the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam. Then this mischievous character looked out of a hole in the floor of the hall with paintings by Dutch painters of the 18th and 19th centuries. Maurizio Cattellan in this work associates himself with a daring criminal invading the sacred space of the museum hall with paintings by great masters. Thus, he wants to deprive art of the halo of holiness that museum walls give it. The work, for the sake of exhibiting which every time you have to make holes in the floor, was sold for $ 7.922 million at Sotheby's.

The record stood until May 8, 2016, when Cattelan's even more provocative work Him, depicting a kneeling Hitler, went under the hammer for $17.189 million. The thing is strange. The name is strange. Character selection is risky. Like everything else with Cattelan. What does Him mean? "His" or "His infernal majesty"? It is clear that we are definitely not talking about chanting the image of the Fuhrer. In this work, Hitler appears rather in a helpless, pitiful form. And absurdly - the incarnation of Satan is made the size of a child, dressed in a schoolboy costume and kneeling with a humble expression on his face. For Cattelan, this image is an invitation to reflect on the nature of absolute evil and a way to get rid of fears. By the way, the “Him” sculpture is well known to the Western audience. Her brothers in the series have been exhibited more than 10 times in leading museums around the world, including the Pompidou Center and the Solomon Guggenheim Museum.

15. MARC GROTJAN Untitled (S III Released to France Face 43.14). 2011. $16.8 million

On May 17, 2017, one of the most powerful paintings by Marc Grotjan ever put up for auction appeared at Christie's New York evening auction. The painting "Untitled (S III Released to France Face 43.14)" was put up by the Parisian collector Patrick Seguin with an estimate of $13-16 million, and since the sale of the lot was guaranteed by a third party, no one was particularly surprised by the establishment of a new personal auction record by the 49-year-old artist . The hammer's price of $14.75 million ($16.8 million with Buyer's Premium) surpassed Grotjan's previous auction record by more than $10 million, allowing him to enter the club of living artists whose work sells for eight figures. Seven-digit same results (sales more than $1 million, but not more than $10 million) in the auction piggy bank Mark Grotyan for about thirty.

Mark Grotjan (1968), in whose work experts see the influence of modernism, abstract minimalism, pop and op art, came to his corporate identity in the mid-1990s, after moving with his friend Brent Peterson to Los Angeles and opening a gallery there "Room 702". As the artist himself recalls, at that time he began to think about what came first for him in art. He was looking for the motive with which he could experiment. And I realized that he was always interested in line and color. Experiments in the spirit of rayonism and minimalism with linear perspective, numerous vanishing points and multi-colored abstract triangular shapes eventually brought Grotjan worldwide fame.

From abstract, colorful landscapes with multiple horizons and vanishing points, he ended up with triangular shapes reminiscent of butterfly wings. Paintings by Grotjan 2001–2007 They call it "Butterflies". Today, moving the vanishing point or using several vanishing points at once, spaced apart in space, is considered one of the artist's most powerful techniques.

The next large series of works was called "Faces"; in the abstract lines of this series one can guess the features of a human face, simplified to the state of a mask in the spirit of Matisse, Jawlensky or Brancusi. Speaking about the ultimate simplification and stylization of forms, about the compositional solution of paintings, when the scattered contours of the eyes and mouths seem to be looking at us from the forest thicket, the researchers note the connection of Grotjan's "Faces" with the art of the primitive tribes of Africa and Oceania, while the artist himself simply "likes the image eyes looking out from the jungle. I sometimes imagined the faces of baboons or monkeys. I cannot say that I was consciously or subconsciously influenced by primitive African art, rather, I was influenced by artists who were influenced by it. Picasso is the most obvious example."

The works of the "Faces" series are called brutal and elegant, pleasing to the eye and pleasing to the mind. Over time, the texture of these works also changes: to create an effect inner space the artist uses broad strokes of thick paint, even Pollock-style splattering, but the surface of the painting is leveled so that, on closer inspection, it appears completely flat. The auction-record-setting painting Untitled (S III Released to France Face 43.14) belongs to this celebrated series by Mark Grotjan.

16. TAKASHI MURAKAMI My lonely cowboy. $15.16 million

Japanese Takashi Murakami (1962) entered our rating with sculpture "My Lonely Cowboy", sold at Sotheby's in May 2008 for $ 15.16 million. With this sale, Takashi Murakami was long considered the most successful living Asian artist - until he was eclipsed by the sale of The Last Supper by Zeng Fanzhi.

Takashi Murakami works as an artist, sculptor, fashion designer and animator. Murakami wanted to take something really Japanese as the basis of his work, without Western or any other borrowings. In his student years, he was fascinated by the traditional Japanese art of nihonga, later it was replaced by the popular art of anime and manga. Thus was born the psychedelic Mr DOB, patterns of smiling flowers and bright, shiny fiberglass sculptures, as if they had just stepped out of the pages of Japanese comics. Some consider Murakami's art to be fast food and the embodiment of vulgarity, others call the artist the Japanese Andy Warhol - and in the ranks of the latter, as we see, there are many very rich people.

Murakami borrowed the name for his sculpture from Andy Warhol's The Lonely Cowboys (1968), which the Japanese, as he himself admitted, had never watched, but he really liked the combination of words. Murakami with one sculpture pleased fans of erotic Japanese comics and laughed at them. Increased in size, and besides, also three-dimensional, the anime hero turns into a fetish of mass culture. This artistic statement is quite in the spirit of classic Western pop art (remember Allen Jones' furniture set or Koons' Pink Panther), but with a national twist.

17. KAWS. Album KAWS. 2005. $14,784,505

KAWS is the pseudonym of American artist Brian Donelly from New Jersey. He is the youngest participant in our rating, born in 1974. Donelly started as an animator at Disney (drawing backgrounds for the cartoon "101 Dalmatians" and others). I have been interested in graffiti since I was young. At first, his signature design was a skull with "X"s in place of the eye sockets. The young writer's work has been loved by show business people and people from the fashion industry: he made the cover for the Kanye West album, released collaborations for Nike, Comme des Garçons and Uniqlo. Over time, KAWS has become a well-known figure in the contemporary art world. His signature Mickey Mouse figurine has found its way into museums, public spaces and private collections. Once KAWS released a limited edition vinyl toy with the My Plastic Heart brand, and they suddenly became the subject of high collector's interest. One of the passionate collectors of these "toys" is the founder of Black Star, rapper Timati: he almost completely collected the entire series of "Cavs Companions".

KAWS' work set a record for an artist's oeuvre - $14.7 million - at Sotheby's Hong Kong auction on April 1, 2019. It used to be in the collection of Japanese fashion designer Nigo. Meter canvas The KAWS Album is a homage to the cover of the famous The Beatles album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" in 1967. Only instead of people, it has Kimpsons - stylized characters from the Simpsons cartoon series with "X"s instead of eyes.

18. JIN SHAN Tajik bride. 1983. $13.89 million

Among the relatively young and contemporary Chinese artists, who all belong to the so-called “new wave” of the late 1980s in Chinese art, our rating quite unexpectedly included a representative of a completely different generation and a different school. Jin Shan (Jin Shangyi), who is now over 80, belongs to the bright representatives of the first generation of artists in communist China. The views of this group of artists were formed to a large extent under the influence of the closest communist ally - the USSR.

Official Soviet art, socialist realism, unusual even then for China oil painting(as opposed to traditional Chinese ink painting) in the 1950s were at the peak of popularity, and he came to Beijing Art University for three years (from 1954 to 1957) to teach soviet artist Konstantin Methodievich Maksimov. Jin Shani, who at that time was the youngest in the group, got into his class. The artist always remembered his teacher with great warmth, saying that it was Maksimov who taught him to correctly understand and depict the model. K. M. Maksimov brought up a whole galaxy of Chinese realists, now classics.

In the work of Jin Shan one can feel the influence of both the Soviet "severe style" and the European school of painting. The artist devoted a lot of time to studying the heritage of the Renaissance and classicism, while he considered it necessary to preserve the Chinese spirit in his works. The painting "Tajik Bride", painted in 1983, is considered a universally recognized masterpiece, a new milestone in the work of Jin Shan. It was she who was put up at the China Guardian auction in November 2013 and sold several times more expensive than the estimate - for $ 13.89 million, including commission.

19. BANKSY The Decayed Parliament. 2008. $12.14 million

Wall paintings bearing the Banksy tag began to appear on the walls of cities (first in the UK and then around the world) in the late 1990s. His philosophical and at the same time sharp graffiti were devoted to the problems of the state's attack on the freedoms of citizens, crimes against the environment, irresponsible consumption, and the inhumanity of the illegal migration system. Over time, Banksy's wall "reproaches" gained unprecedented media popularity. In fact, he became one of the main spokesmen for public opinion condemning the hypocrisy of states and corporations, producing growing injustice in the capitalist system.

The significance of Banksy, the sense of the "nerve of time" and the accuracy of his metaphors were appreciated not only by the audience, but also by collectors. In the 2010s, hundreds of thousands or even more than a million dollars were given for his works. It got to the point that Banksy graffiti was broken down and stolen along with pieces of walls.

In an era of advanced digital surveillance, Banksy still manages to remain anonymous. There is a version that this is no longer one person, but a group of several artists, headed by a talented woman. That would explain a lot. And the outward dissimilarity of the writers caught in the lenses of the cameras of witnesses, and the impersonal stencil method of application (gives high speed and does not require the direct participation of the author), and the touching romanticism of the subjects of the paintings (balls, snowflakes, etc.). Be that as it may, the people from the Banksy project, including his assistants, know how to keep their mouths shut.

In 2019, the most expensive work of Banksy unexpectedly became a four-meter canvas Devolved Parliament (“degraded”, “decayed” or “delegated” Parliament). Chimpanzees arguing in the House of Commons seem to be mocking the audience in the year of the scandalous Brexit. It is surprising that the painting was painted 10 years before this historical turning point, and therefore someone considers it prophetic. At a Sotheby's auction on October 3, 2019, an unknown buyer bought the oil for $12,143,000 in a fierce bidding - six times the price of the preliminary estimate.

20. JOHN CURREN "Sweet and simple." 1999. $12.007 million

American artist John Curran (1962) known for his satirical figurative paintings of provocative sexual and social topics. Curren's work manages to combine the painting techniques of the old masters (especially Lucas Cranach the Elder and the mannerists) and fashion photography from glossy magazines. Achieving more grotesque, Karren often distorts the proportions of the human body, enlarges or reduces its individual parts, depicts heroes in broken, mannered poses.

Curren began in 1989 with portraits of girls redrawn from a school album; continued in the early 1990s with pictures of busty beauties inspired by photos from Cosmopolitan and Playboy; in 1992, portraits of wealthy elderly ladies appeared; and in 1994, Curren married sculptor Rachel Feinstein, who became his main muse and model for many years. By the late 1990s, Currin's technical prowess, combined with the kitsch and grotesqueness of his paintings, brought him popularity. In 2003, Larry Gagosian took over the promotion of the artist, and if such a dealer as Gagosian takes on the author, then success is guaranteed. In 2004, a John Curran retrospective was held at the Whitney Museum.

Around this time, his work began to sell for six figures. The current record for a painting by John Curran belongs to Sweet and Simple, sold on November 15, 2016 at Christie's for $12 million. now over 50, this is definitely a career breakthrough. His previous record in 2008 was $ 5.5 million (paid, by the way, for the same work "Cute and Simple").

21. BRICE MARDEN The Attended. 1996–1999 $10.917 million

Another living American abstract artist in our ranking is Bryce Marden (1938). Marden's works in the style of minimalism, and since the late 1980s - gestural painting, are distinguished by a unique author's, slightly muted palette. Color combinations in Marden's works are inspired by his travels around the world - Greece, India, Thailand, Sri Lanka. Among the authors who influenced the formation of Marden are Jackson Pollock (in the early 1960s Marden worked as a security guard at the Jewish Museum, where he personally observed Pollock's “drippings”), Alberto Giacometti (got acquainted with his work in Paris) and Robert Rauschenberg (some while Marden worked as his assistant). The first stage of Marden's work is devoted to classic minimalist canvases, consisting of colored rectangular blocks (horizontal or vertical). Unlike many other minimalists who sought the ideal quality of works, as if printed by a machine, and not drawn by a person, Marden retained traces of the artist’s work, combined different materials(wax and oil paints). Since the mid-1980s, under the influence of oriental calligraphy, geometric abstraction has been replaced by meandering, meander-like lines, the background for which was the same monochrome color fields. One of these "meander" works - "The Attended" - was sold at Sotheby's in November 2013 for $ 10.917 million, including commission.

22. Pierre Soulages Peinture 186 x 143 cm, 23 December 1959. $10.6 million

23. ZHANG XIAOGANG Eternal love. $10.2 million

Another representative of Chinese contemporary art is a symbolist and surrealist Zhang Xiaogang (1958). At Sotheby's Hong Kong April 3, 2011, where the Chinese avant-garde from the collection of the Belgian baron Guy Ullens was sold, a triptych by Zhang Xiaogang "Eternal love" was sold for $ 10.2 million. At that time, it was a record not only for the artist, but for the entire Chinese contemporary art. It is said that Xiaogang's work was bought by the billionaire's wife Wang Wei, who is about to open her own museum.

Zhang Xiaogang, who is fond of mysticism and Eastern philosophy, wrote the story " Eternal love in three parts - life, death and rebirth. This triptych was featured in the iconic 1989 China/Avant-Garde exhibition at the National Museum of Art. Also in 1989, student demonstrations were brutally suppressed in Tiananmen Square by the military. Following this tragic event, the screws began to tighten - the exhibition at the National Museum was dispersed, many artists emigrated. In response to socialist realism imposed from above, a direction of cynical realism arose, one of the main representatives of which was Zhang Xiaogang.

24. BRUCE NAUMAN Helpless Henry Moore. 1967. $9.9 million

American Bruce Nauman (1941), the winner of the main prize of the 48th Venice Biennale (1999), has long gone to his record. Nauman began his career in the sixties. Connoisseurs call him, along with Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys, one of the most influential figures in the art of the second half of the twentieth century. However, the rich intellectuality and absolute non-decorativeness of some of his works obviously prevented his rapid recognition and success with the general public. Nauman often experiments with language, discovering unexpected meanings of familiar phrases. Words become the central characters of many of his works, including neon pseudo-signs and panels. Nauman himself calls himself a sculptor, although over the past forty years he has tried himself in completely different genres - sculpture, photography, video art, performances, graphics. In the early 1990s, Larry Gagosian uttered the prophetic words: "The real value of Naumann's work has yet to be realized." And so it happened: May 17, 2001 at Christie's by Naumann in 1967 "Helpless Henry Moore (rear view)"(Henry Moore Bound to Fail (Backview)) set a new record in the post-war art segment. A cast of Naumann's hands tied behind his back, made of plaster and wax, went under the hammer for $ 9.9 million in the collection of the French magnate Francois Pinault (according to other sources, the American Phyllis Wattis). The estimate of the work was only $2-3 million, so the result was a real surprise for everyone.

Prior to this legendary sale, only two of Naumann's works had crossed the million-dollar mark. And in his entire auction career so far, only six works, in addition to "Henry Moore ...", have gone for seven-figure sums, but their results still cannot be compared with nine million.

"Helpless Henry Moore" is one of Naumann's series of polemical works on the figure of Henry Moore (1898–1986), a British artist who in the sixties was attributed to the greatest sculptors XX century. Young authors, who found themselves in the shadow of a recognized master, then attacked him with fierce criticism. Naumann's work is a response to this criticism and at the same time a reflection on the topic of creativity. The title of the work becomes a pun, as it connects two meanings of the English word bound - connected (in literally) and doomed to some fate.

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From June 8 to July 31, the VI International Biennale for Young Art takes place in Moscow. More than 50 artists from all over the world under the age of 35 presented their works. But contemporary artists are not just exhibited in galleries or museums - often their work can be bought. It doesn't have to be expensive: the popularization of contemporary art has set in motion a process of price democratization that has led some city dwellers to budget the cost of paintings for repairs. Even auction houses and art fairs could not ignore the interest in the art of the middle class, in which works of young artists began to appear. The Village asked Ekaterina Polozhentseva, a journalist and co-owner of the Oily Oil gallery, to select works by contemporary Russian artists that are accessible both in terms of approach and price.

Ekaterina Polozhentseva

Timofey Radya

Yekaterinburg artist Tima Radya combines philosophy and street art in her works. A philosopher by education and a real artist by nature, Tima has been nurturing the idea of ​​a future work for a long time, and then implements it in the urban space with the help of her small army of fellow colleagues. Phrases that have become memes, "I would hug you, but I'm just text", "The more light, the less you can see" or "Who are we, where are we from, where are we going?" temporarily become part of the urban environment, but remain in Radi's photographs forever. He sells them in galleries.

Timofey Radya. Down with death. 2013. Photo printing on matte paper. 60 x 80. Circulation 15/24. Price - 44 000 rubles. Buy - Artwin gallery

Alexey Dubinsky

Dubinsky was born in Grozny in 1985 and received his classical education at the Ilya Glazunov Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Alexei works in the manner of abstract expressionism, which always hides the image of some kind of hero - Alexei himself, his friends or "a completely happy family." In the spring of 2018, Dubinsky held a large solo exhibition curated by Sofya Simakova at the Triumph Gallery, after which the appearance of Alexei in this list is a great success: large (meter by meter) Dubinsky's works have long gone out of the category of prices that are decently called aloud. But past years' graphics are still available for purchase without crashing for a personal or family budget.

Kirill Kto

If you see eyes carved into banners on the streets of Moscow, know that they are made by one person who loves to walk very much - Kirill Lebedev. The second brand sign of Who is phrases written in block letters. It often happens that each letter is drawn in its own color. Who is difficult to confuse with someone. A couple of years ago, gallery owners Elvira Tarnogradskaya and Nadezhda Stepanova asked Kirill to transfer several works to canvases: the success of the idea was obvious. Who's prices are rising faster than the city's new eyes appear. But there is also an option for those who count their money - silk-screen printing, signed by the author and produced in a limited edition.

Julia Iosilzon

Iosilzon was born in Moscow in 1992. Yulia now lives in London, where she is pursuing a bachelor's degree from the Slade School of Art at the Faculty of Fine Art. Round-the-clock stay in the student art workshop did not prevent her from holding a solo exhibition at the Triumph Gallery in Moscow. She usually makes expressive works on silk stretched on a stretcher. Among the heroes of the works, a wolf and a hare from the Soviet “Well, you wait!” are recognizable. Iosilzon will have to set aside several salaries for painting, but graphics can still be bought for little money.

Anton Totibadze

Anton Totibadze is the son of the artist Konstantin Totibadze and the nephew of the artist Georgy Totibadze. Anton continues the unspoken family tradition of painting still lifes and everyday landscapes, often inspired by cooking shish kebabs in his own yard. The St. Petersburg Russian Museum has already included one of these works by Anton Totibadze in its collection. Not bad for a 25 year old artist.

Anton Totibadze. Temporary inconvenience. 2017. Tempera on canvas. 15 x 19. Price - 25 000 rubles. Buy - OilyOil.com

Ales Nomad

Anna Asyamova was born in Kazakhstan and graduated from the Kemerovo University of Arts. Her early works are ascetic portraits, in which she did not mix colors. Later, Ales became interested in painting and began to paint portraits in the style of the old masters and reshape them into backpacks or soft toys, using zippers to make the work multifunctional. Around this stage, Vladimir Dubossarsky noticed her and offered to make a joint exhibition. One of the most expensive living Russian artists, of course, influenced the cost of new works by Ales. But early works and today you can buy at a price of up to 22 thousand rubles.

Ales Nomad. Wedding. 2013. Cardboard, acrylic, markers. 70 x 100. Price - 22 000 RUBLES. Buy - OilyOil.com

Valery Chtak

Valery Chtak is an artist with a great exhibition history and a recognizable style. His work is always a monochrome black-white-gray palette with text. There is little painting in his paintings and many simple images, as if from the wall of a neighboring underpass. A librarian by education, Chtak works a lot with the word: “All the dead are dead the same”, “Love to have fun, hate and take revenge” or “When it’s midnight in Moscow, it’s also midnight in Murmansk” - the lyrics of the artist, which is also worth buying today.

Dmitry Aske

Dmitry Aske is another artist who moved from the street to the art studio. Much of Aske's work today is hand-cut and hand-painted wood paneling, which the artist assembles into panels. Of Dima's budget works, today it is worth paying attention to his hand-painted silk-screen printing acrylic paints. Asuke's prints are signed and numbered.

Dmitry Aske. Buddha. Silkscreen, acrylic, cotton paper. 50 x 50. Price - 16 000 RUBLES. Buy - format1.net

Photo: cover, 15–21 - Oily Oil, 1 - Artwin, 2 - Timofei Radya, 3–7, 12–14 - Sample, 8, 25, 26 - White Wall Problems online gallery, 9–11, 22–24 - Gallery Triangle, 27 - "Format One"

) in her expressive sweeping works was able to preserve the transparency of the fog, the lightness of the sail, the smooth rocking of the ship on the waves.

Her paintings amaze with their depth, volume, saturation, and the texture is such that it is impossible to take your eyes off them.

Warm simplicity Valentina Gubareva

Primitive artist from Minsk Valentin Gubarev not chasing fame and just doing what he loves. His work is insanely popular abroad, but almost unfamiliar to his compatriots. In the mid-90s, the French fell in love with his everyday sketches and signed a contract with the artist for 16 years. The paintings, which, it would seem, should be understandable only to us, the bearers of the "modest charm of undeveloped socialism", were liked by the European public, and exhibitions began in Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain and other countries.

Sensual realism by Sergei Marshennikov

Sergei Marshennikov is 41 years old. He lives in St. Petersburg and creates in the best traditions of the classical Russian school of realistic portrait painting. The heroines of his paintings are tender and defenseless in their half-naked women. On many of the famous paintings the artist's muse and wife, Natalia, are depicted.

The Myopic World of Philip Barlow

In the modern era of high-resolution images and the rise of hyperrealism, Philip Barlow's work immediately attracts attention. However, a certain effort is required from the viewer in order to force himself to look at blurry silhouettes and bright spots on the author's canvases. Probably, this is how people suffering from myopia see the world without glasses and contact lenses.

Sunny Bunnies by Laurent Parcelier

Laurent Parcelier's painting is wonderful world in which there is neither sadness nor despondency. You will not find gloomy and rainy pictures in him. There is a lot of light, air and bright colors on his canvases, which the artist applies with characteristic recognizable strokes. This creates the feeling that the paintings are woven from thousands of sunbeams.

Urban Dynamics in the Works of Jeremy Mann

Oil on wood panels by American artist Jeremy Mann paints dynamic portraits of a modern metropolis. “Abstract forms, lines, contrast of light and dark spots - everything creates a picture that evokes the feeling that a person experiences in the crowd and turmoil of the city, but can also express the calmness that one finds when contemplating quiet beauty,” says the artist.

The Illusory World of Neil Simon

In the paintings of the British artist Neil Simone (Neil Simone) everything is not what it seems at first glance. “For me, the world around me is a series of fragile and ever-changing shapes, shadows and boundaries,” says Simon. And in his paintings everything is really illusory and interconnected. Borders are washed away, and stories flow into each other.

The love drama of Joseph Lorasso

Italian-born contemporary American artist Joseph Lorusso transfers to canvas the scenes he saw in Everyday life ordinary people. Hugs and kisses, passionate impulses, moments of tenderness and desire fill his emotional pictures.

Village life of Dmitry Levin

Dmitry Levin is a recognized master of the Russian landscape, who has established himself as a talented representative of the Russian realistic school. The most important source of his art is his attachment to nature, which he loves tenderly and passionately and feels himself a part of.

Bright East Valery Blokhin