SICA·Hurun Global Art List 2020 – In Search of the World’s Most Successful Living Artists

UK-born David Hockney, 83, most valuable artist in the world alive today, with sales of his works at auction last year of US$130.64 million, just ahead of Germany-born Gerhard Richter, 88, with US$130.57 million

USA led with 15 of the Hurun Global Artists Top 50, ahead of China with 11 and the UK with 7.  ‘Big Three Countries’ made up two thirds of artists.

14 works of art sold for above US$10 million, led by Jeff Koons Rabbit, which sold for a new world record for a living artist at US$91 million

7 of the world’s 50 most successful artists alive today are female, led by Yayoi Kusama of Japan. Three of the seven are from the UK.

7 are 50 or under, led by Jonas Wood of the US and Adrian Ghenie of Romania, both aged 43. Average age 68yrs.

Leading Authority on Global Wealth releases inaugural Hurun Global Art List in association with Shanghai art auction house SICA.

(18 December 2020, Shanghai) The Hurun Research Institute today launched the SICA·Hurun Global Art List 2020, a ranking of the Top 50 Global artists alive today based on the sales of their works at public auction in the year ending 31 December 2019. This is the first year of the Hurun Global Art List.

The Hurun Global Art List 2020 comes in a ‘1+6’ format, led by a ranking of the world’s most successful artists alive today, together with six country rankings, including China, USA, UK & Ireland, Japan, India and Australia.

Artprice.com, a compiler of art statistics, provided the art auction data for non-China, whilst China data was from CAFA National Institute of Art and Cultural Policy.

Hurun Chairman and Chief Researcher Rupert Hoogewerf said, “The Hurun Global Art List is targeted at those who have the ability to collect, but don’t know where to start. There are just under 50 million dollar millionaires in the world today, many of whom have not yet started collecting art.  I hope this inaugural Hurun Global Art List can give them an entry point to understanding more about who the world’s best-selling living artists are.”

Table: SICA·Hurun Global Art List 2020 – Top 10

Source: Hurun Research Institute. Artprice.com provided the art auction data for non-China, whilst China data was from CAFA National Institute of Art and Cultural Policy.

Bradford-born David Hockney, 83, topped the Hurun Global Art List with sales last year at auction of US$130.64 million. His 1969 work Henry Geldzahler and Christopher Scott sold at Christie’s London for US$49.6 million. Half his works sold at auction in the US and half in the UK. Hockney lives between Yorkshire, London and California.

Gerhard Richter, 88, was second with sales last year of US$$130.57 million. His Vogelfluglinie sold for US$20.48million. His works have varied styles, covering Romanticism, Photorealism, Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism and Pop Art.

Ed Ruscha, 83, ranked 3^rd. Born in Omaha in 1937, he is one of the pioneers of American pop art and conceptual art. Many unconventional materials (such as food, beverages, plants) have been used in the creation of his works. What is familiar to the public is his original Word Paintings series. Sales of Ruscha’s works made US$116.8 million.

Jeff Koons, 65, was fourth, and is best-known for combining pop culture and sculpture aesthetics, such as the stainless steel sculpture Balloon Dog. What caused an uproar in the art circle last year was his sculpture Rabbit created in 1986, which was sold for US$91 million.

Kaws, 46, by far the youngest artist in the Top 10, is from New Jersey and last year his works sold at public auction for US$108.59 million. Starting from pioneering graffiti art, Kaws has extended to dolls, sculptures, screen printing, collaborations with fashion stars, and cross-border creation of popular fashion brands.

Yoshitomo Nara, 61, was sixth with sales over US$100 million. In the 2019 Hong Kong Autumn Auction, Nara sold 18 works in Poly, Sotheby's and Guardian, with a transaction rate of 94%.The house installation at Poly Auction was by far the largest artist's work in auction, and represents the peak period of Nara's creation.

Yayoi Kusama, 91, ranked 7^th. The only female artist in the Top 10 and the eldest artist in the Top 10. Kusama is known as the ‘Queen of Polka Dots’, and has been popular all over the world for more than 70 years with her highly infectious avant-garde artistic creation and legendary artistic personality.

Frank Stella, 84. His simple geometric paintings made him the leader of the minimalist abstract art movement in the 1960s and one of the first painters to use three-dimensional canvas. In his paintings and sculptures, he often refers to music, literature, and philosophy, and injects intriguing connotations into abstract works. For example, the series Diderot in 1974 was named after a French philosopher in the 18th century; in the series Scarlatti in 2006, the name of each work was created by the Italian musician. Each piece in the 2006 Scarlatti series is named after an 18th-century keyboard sonata composed by the Italian musician.

Christopher Wool, 65. The artist emerged in the New York art world in the early 1980s, and is known for his text paintings, white canvas and black stencil letters. From the early 1990s to the present, screen printing technology has become the main form of Christopher Wool’s artistic creation. In the abstract paintings he created, he used a spray gun to spray out his ideas one after another, creating many dazzling paintings.

Cui Ruzhuo, 76, is the only China artist to make the Top 10. Cui has topped the Hurun China Art List for six years, and last year sales of his works came to US$49 million.

Table: World’s Top Living Artists by Country

The US had 15 of the Hurun Global Artists Top 50, ahead of China with 11 and the UK with 7. The Hurun Global Top 50 came from 14 countries.