The most absurd paintings sold for millions of dollars. The most absurd paintings sold for millions of dollars The strangest paintings in the world sold for millions

No. 20. $75,100,000. "Royal Red and Blue", Mark Rothko, sold in 2012.

The majestic canvas was one of eight works selected by the artist himself for his landmark solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago.

No. 19. $76,700,000. The Massacre of the Innocents by Peter Paul Rubens, created in 1610.

The painting was purchased by Kenneth Thompson at Sotheby's in London in July 2002. A bright and dramatic work by Rubens can compete for the title of "the most unexpected success". Christie valued this painting at only 5 million euros.

No. 18. $78,100,000. Ball at the Moulin de la Galette by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, painted 1876.

The work was sold in 1990, at that time it was listed as the second most expensive painting in the world ever sold. The masterpiece was owned by Ryoei Saito, Chairman of Daishowa Paper Manufacturing Co. He wanted the canvas to be cremated with him after his death, but the company ran into financial difficulties due to loan obligations, so the painting had to be used as collateral.

No. 17. 80 million dollars. "Turquoise Marilyn" by Andy Warhol, painted 1964, sold 2007

Acquired by Mr. Steve Cohen. The price was not confirmed, but this figure is considered to be true.

No. 16. 80 million dollars. "False Start", Jasper Johns, written 1959

The painting was owned by David Geffen, who sold it to Citadel investment group CEO Kenneth S. Griffin. It is recognized as the most expensive painting that was sold during the life of the artist, cult master Jasper Johns.

No. 15. $82,500,000. "Portrait of Doctor Gachet", Vincent van Gogh, 1890.

Japanese businessman Ryoei Saito bought the painting in 1990 at an auction. At that time, it was the most expensive painting in the world. In response to public outcry over Saito's wish to have the artwork cremated with him after his death, the businessman explained that he was thus expressing his selfless affection for the painting.

No. 14. $86,300,000. Triptych, Francis Bacon, 1976.

This three-part masterpiece by Bacon broke his previous record for sales of $52.68 million. Acquired the painting Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.

No. 13. $87,900,000. "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II", Gustav Klimt, 1912.

The only model depicted twice by Klimt and sold a few months after the first version. This is a portrait of Bloch-Bauer, one of four paintings that fetched a total of $192 million in 2006. The buyer is unknown.

No. 12. $95,200,000. Dora Maar with a cat, Pablo Picasso, 1941

Another painting by Picasso, which went under the hammer at a fabulous price. In 2006, it was acquired by a mysterious Russian anonymous, who at the same time bought works by Monet and Chagall worth $100 million.

No. 11. $104,200,000. "Boy with a pipe", Pablo Picasso, 1905.

This is the first painting to break the $100 million barrier in 2004. Oddly enough, the name of the person who showed such a keen interest in Picasso's portrait was never made public.

No. 10. $105,400,000. Silver Car Crash (Double Crash), Andy Warhol, 1932

This is the most expensive work of the famous legend of pop art, Andy Warhol. The painting became a star of modern art, going under the hammer at Sotheby's.

No. 9. $106,500,000. Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, Pablo Picasso, 1932

This sensual and colorful masterpiece is the most expensive Picasso ever sold at auction. The painting was in the collection of Mrs. Sidney F. Brody and has not been shown to the public since 1961.

No. 8. $110 million "Flag", Jasper Johns, 1958

"Flag" - the most notable work Jasper Johns. The artist painted his first American flag in 1954-55.

No. 7. $119,900,000. "The Scream", Edvard Munch, 1895

This is the most unique and most colorful work of the four versions of Edvard Munch's masterpiece The Scream. Only one of them remains in private hands.

No. 6. $135,000,000. "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I", Gustav Klimt.

Maria Altmann sued for the right to own the painting, as Adele Bloch-Bauer bequeathed it to the Austrian State Gallery, and her husband later canceled the donation amid the events of World War II. Having entered into legal rights, Maria Altman sold the portrait to Ronald Lauder, who exhibited it in his gallery in New York.

No. 5. $137,500,000. "Woman III", Willem de Kooning.

Another painting sold by Geffen in 2006, but this time the buyer was billionaire Steven A. Cohen. This strange abstraction is part of a series of six Kooning masterpieces painted between 1951 and 1953.

No. 4. $140,000,000. "No. 5, 1948", Jackson Pollock.

According to The New York Times, film producer and collector David Geffen sold the painting to David Martinez, managing partner of FinTech Advisory, although the latter has not confirmed the information. The truth is shrouded in mystery.

INCREDIBLE FACTS.

Not any of us will be able to appreciate this kind of painting at its true worth and read between the lines the meaning laid down by the author. But, nevertheless, the cost of paintings contemporary artists sometimes just going wild and collectors and connoisseurs of art from all over the world come to the auction to buy the creation they like.

Sometimes for a picture they like, they lay out such sums of money that even the authors themselves remain extremely surprised.

Below is a list of the strangest modern paintings that have been sold for millions of dollars.

1. "Spatial concept" - Lucio Fontana (Lucio Fontana)

Sold for $1,500,000.

This painting was sold for fabulous money at an auction in London. It seems as if the author simply painted over the canvas with color and "torn" the picture with oblique lines. The question arises, of course, for a million: if the artist wants to get more for a similar picture more money, should he just make another cut?

Or maybe the more the cut features mow, the higher the quality of the picture?

2. "Blood Red Mirror" - Gerhard Richter

Sold for $1,100,000.

"Picture - mirror" went under the hammer for 1.1 million. Of course, this artist is the author of many beautiful works, however, to understand this one, apparently, you just need to be born an artist.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to see in this masterpiece something like a mirror. Perhaps the collector who purchased it just wanted to see himself in more light when looking in the mirror.

The most expensive paintings

3. "Green and white" - Ellsworth Kelly (Ellsworth Kelly)

Sold for $1,600,000.

The works of this artist are very controversial, critics differ in their opinions about their value, but, of course, this picture is the most that neither is real gem.

This is the most common canvas with a deformed circle in the middle, and there are people who are willing to pay for the right to add this creation to their collection as much as a small Thai island costs.

4. "Untitled" - Mark Rothko (Mark Rothko)

Sold for $28,000,000.

Many spoke impartially about this picture, but it is rather simply boring. If your child, after graduating from art school, would bring you such a drawing, then there would be two possible scenarios for the development of events:

a) you would be terribly proud and hang a picture instead of a TV

b) tell him: "Good job, kid. Let's draw something different next time!"

5. "Untitled" - Blinky Palermo (Blinky Palermo)

Sold for $1,700,000.

This picture, like many other creations of this artist, is a layering of colored canvases on top of each other. One of the critics noted that he peered at this picture for an hour, but could not find anything in it.

Another critic put it more deeply: "The paintings of Palermo offer the viewer's eye to see multifaceted changes in tones, while traces of painterly nuances and excesses on the surface of the canvases are completely absent, instead a person can see beautiful, undiluted colors."

You have to be a real professional in your field to mask the lack of color solutions in this way!

strange pictures

6. "Dog" - Joan Mira (Joan Mira)

Sold for $2,200,000.

In fact, Mir has a lot of good works, but this one really stands out and not in the most positive way.

Or maybe the collector who bought it just wanted to own part of the legacy of a talented artist?

7. "White Fire I" - Barnett Newman (Barnett Newman)

Sold for $3,800,000.

It is obvious that people who buy this kind of paintings are extraordinarily rich. But rich people become rich because of their intelligence.

If so, why would an intelligent collector buy such a work from an online auction based on the meager description of it on the site?

The name of the painting is a mystical term that is directly related to Torah. The Torah itself is aimed at deep spiritual unity, which Newman is trying, according to him, to instill in the viewer through his works.

But is it really so? Or maybe it's just difficult for an inexperienced person to trace the relationship between two lines on a blank canvas and the Torah?

8. "Untitled" - Cy Twombly (Cy Twombly)

Sold for $23,000,000.

This work was done on hastily at home on plain paper using conventional wax pencil, that is, the same material that used by a child when learning to write in kindergarten.

If you dull your eyes a little and look at the picture, doesn’t it seem to you that this masterpiece is very similar to a baby’s attempt to learn how to write the letter “e”?

9. "Cowboy" - Ellsworth Kelly (Ellsworth Kelly)

Sold for $1,700,000.

Kelly studied art for over four years at cultural institutions in Boston and Paris before deciding on the direction of the style of his work. After doing some research, he concluded that his works will be "block".

To an inexperienced eye, the choice may seem erroneous, because what is the value of these blocks, implemented on paper? Nevertheless, it is worth admitting a mistake, because from the point of view of the economy, the choice is very correct, but from the aesthetic side, the author is unlikely to have made the right decision.

10. "Blue fool" - Christopher Wool (Christopher Wool)

Sold for $5,000,000.

One can imagine how delighted Christopher, who specializes in painting words, when this particular work was sold for such a huge amount of money. I wonder when he painted his picture, could he have thought that he would be able to persuade someone to buy it?

Bravo, Christopher!

The most expensive paintings by artists

10. Blood Red Mirror by Gerhard Richter- sold for $1,314,500

Gerhard Richter (born February 9, 1932, Dresden) is the most famous of contemporary German artists, his work is called the most controversial and controversial, and his paintings are the most expensive among the works of living artists. So, one of them was recently sold at Sotheby's for $20.8 million! The painting on our list was sold in November 2008 at the same New York auction for 1.3 million. Blood Red Mirror ("Blood Red Mirror") is a mirror in blood red colors.

9. "The concept of space, waiting" Lucio Fontana- sold for $1.5 million

Lucio Fontana is an Italian painter, sculptor and abstract artist. He laid the foundation at one time for the fashionable trend of "cut" paintings. And this work by Fontana, sold in 2010 for $1.5 million, is really indented.

8. "Green White" Ellsworth Kelly- sold for $1,650,500

Ellsworth Kelly is a contemporary American painter and sculptor. He is the largest representative directions "Hard-edge painting" - painting, which contains figures (often, but not necessarily geometric) with sharp, clear contours. The Green White painting was sold in November 2008 for $1,650,500.

7. "Untitled" Blinky Palermo

Blinky Palermo is a German abstract artist. His painting "Untitled" was sold for 1.7 million at auction. "Untitled", in fact, like the rest of Palermo's work, is a layering of one color on another.

6. "Cowboy", Ellsworth Kelly- sold for $1.7 million

The picture "Cowboy" brought the already familiar to us Kelly 1.7 million dollars.

5. Peinture (Le Chien), Joan Miro- sold for $2,210,500

Joan Miro is a famous Catalan (Spanish) abstract artist. The artist's works are mostly like incoherent children's drawings and contain figures that are vaguely similar to real objects. His painting "Dog" was sold for $2,210,500 at Christie's in New York.

4. "Untitled" by Cy Twombly- Sold for $2.3 million.

Cy Twombly is an American painter and abstract sculptor. The originality of Twombly's manner lies in the chaotic application of inscriptions, lines and scratches to the canvas. His painting "Untitled", bought for $2.3 million, might look more like the work of a 5-year-old child practicing to write the letter "e".

3. "White Fire I" by Barnett Newman- sold for $3,859,500 dollars

Barnett Newman is an American artist, a prominent representative of abstract expressionism. White Window I was sold on November 13, 2002 for $3,859,500.

2. "Blue Fool" ("Blue Fool"), Christopher Wool- sold for $5 million

The Blue Fool painting by contemporary American artist Christopher Wool was purchased in May 2010 at Christie's in New York for $5,010,500.

1. "Untitled" (1961) Mark Rothko- sold for $28 million

A painting by Rothko, a leading exponent of abstract expressionism, one of the creators of color field painting, was sold in 2010 in New York at Sotheby's for a crazy $28,000,000.

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 Koons sculptures in the form of toys from balloons, but 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 they wrote to the press 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. 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 art updated his personal best in November 2012 with the sale at Christie's of a multi-colored sculpture "Tulips" from the "Triumph" series for $ 33.7 million, including commission.

But "Tulips" were "flowers" in direct and figuratively. 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 at different times 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, Jasper Johns has a stunning success at the auction early work, such a sharp division is not typical for Richter's works: demand is equally stable for things of 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 another one "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 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, not so 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 reached the price of a hammer (including commission auction house) 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 to Jasper Johns world 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 for nothing that Barack Obama adorns the White House with his works, and Larry Gagosian himself exhibits him in his 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 1962 exhibition "A New Image of Ordinary Things", which became the first museum exposition 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 deal - 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: in track record The artist had 48 auction deals worth over $1 million, with 22 of them (almost half) taking 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 movie "Apocalypse Now", and the word "FOOL" ("fool") 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, exceeded the preliminary estimate five times 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. Lines form into geometric shapes, somewhat reminiscent of optical illusions, the very 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 the global fame and long years 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 a 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, as a rule, are very concise, and even 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. Implementation by the PRC government of elements market economy 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. Until he became famous musician, 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, pastels, 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 feature 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 Lehman Brothers 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 best result Hurst, if you count in pounds (in the currency in which the transaction was carried out). 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.

Maurizio Cattelan's most expensive work since 2010 has been wax sculpture peeking out of a hole in the floor of a man who looks like 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 exhibited 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, putting him in 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, the features of a human face are discerned, 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 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 the effect of an interior space, the artist uses wide strokes of thick paint, even Pollock-style spatter, but the surface of the painting is leveled so that, upon closer examination, it seems 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 Black Star rapper Timati: he almost completely collected the entire series of "Companions Cavs".

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 Shangyi, now in his 80s, belongs to prominent representatives 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, oil painting, which was still unusual for China (as opposed to traditional Chinese ink painting) in the 1950s, were at the peak of popularity, and the Soviet artist Konstantin came to Beijing Art University for three years (from 1954 to 1957) to teach 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 environment, irresponsible consumption, the inhumanity of the system of illegal migration. Over time, Banksy's wall "reproaches" gained unprecedented media popularity. In fact, he became one of the main spokesmen 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 external dissimilarity of the writers caught in the lenses of witness cameras, 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 on provocative sexual and social themes. 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, Curren often distorts the proportions 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 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. 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 of "Eternal Love" in three parts - life, death and rebirth. This triptych was featured in the iconic China/Avant-Garde exhibition in 1989 at the National art museum. Also in 1989, student demonstrations were brutally suppressed in Tiananmen Square by the military. Following this tragic event the crackdown began - 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.

23. 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 central characters 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 figures, 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 was considered among the greatest sculptors of the 20th century in the sixties. 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 - bound (in the literal sense) and doomed to a certain fate.

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10.06.13 technovoin

Welcome to the pages of the Art Veranda! With today's post, I would like to surprise our readers in plenty, because we will talk about the most expensive paintings, but expensive not in terms of their significance, but in terms of cost (period). This is the case when conventional units make paintings "golden". In general, this absurdity in art or the art of the absurd, which has no common roots with the avant-garde direction of the 50-60s. XX century.

The samples of painting presented below are exceptional examples of how you can get fabulous money for outright daubing.

1. "Blood Red Mirror". Artist - . Price - $1.1 million.

I would like to note that Gerhard Richter is a great master and his works are in many ways priceless. But I'm not entirely clear how valuable this creation is? Because what you see is just red paint that Richter applied to the mirror, adding a bit of a gradient. Apparently, the collector who chose the "Blood Red Mirror" for $1.1 million thinks otherwise.

2. "The concept of space, expectation". Artist - . Price - $1.5 million.

Before you is a one-color canvas, on which there are longitudinal slits, which went under the hammer at a London auction for $ 1.5 million. Not bad, right? This is nothing, more interesting.

3. "Green blot". Artist - . Price - $1.6 million.

Ellsworth Kelly belongs to those artists who do not abound with large proceeds for their work. So the "Green Blob" is more an exception to the rule than a given. The canvas, in the middle of which a deformed circle is depicted, found its connoisseur for $1.6 million.

4. "Untitled". Artist - . Price - $1.7 million.

Here is a combination of two multi-colored stripes in the style of Palermo. Perhaps there is nothing more to say about this work, besides, it does not even have a name. Or is it the same name?

5. "Cowboy". Artist - . Price - $1.7 million.

The American artist studied “painting with sharp edges” for more than 4 years, developing his own unique style. Ellsworth Kelly is an expert in geometric planes demarcated by sharp color contrasts. It is said that his work paved the way for. 'Cowboy' has found its home at a cost of $1.7 million.

6. "Painting (Dog)". Artist - . Price - $2.2 million.

This work in comparison with the rest of the creations of Joan Miro seems an anomaly. Perhaps, when buying a painting, the collector was guided by the desire to own a piece of the legacy of a great master? The result is $2.2 million.

7. "Untitled". Artist - . Price - $2.3 million.

Work made on the principle of children's doodles. Colored - these are the two instruments that were valued at $ 2.3 million at Christie's auction. I forgot to think about diligence, originality and at least some understanding of art. Maybe the artist has nothing to do with it, perhaps this is a 5-year-old small child did he practice writing the letter "e" Well, if that's the case, then Cy Twombly had kicked someone to his heart's content.

8. "White Fire I". Artist - . Price - $3.8 million.

“White Fire I” is the case when mystical terminology, rooted in the Torah, “sells”! Selling text? Not otherwise. But, excuse me, what do two lines on a canvas have to do with the Torah? So I think there is none.

9. Fool. Artist - . Price - $5 million.

"Blue Fool" is power, it's art! Judge for yourself how hard you had to try to convince some collector to buy this "masterpiece", to buy a painting with an eloquent blue inscription - "Fool" ... Christopher, bravo! You deserve a standing ovation!

10. "Untitled". Artist - . Price - $28 million.

The picture that broke all records in the art of the absurd absurd art, relative to price / quality. It could have been put at the very beginning of the post, hung in the header of the site, BUT, in essence, “Untitled” would not have become PROUD from this. This creation was sold at auction for $28 million (not counting some thousands of dollars on top). That's where the pride is, that's where the millions are. And to be honest - it's boring, ridiculous and ... not to swear, it's very expensive.

That's how it is, gentlemen. Is there a desire to get rich? Instructions: a) buy a painting at a flea market from those that are cheaper; b) give her a big name; c) do not be lazy to compose incredible story creation; d) exhibit at one of the most famous auctions in the world. What if you go down in history, the press embraces you, people start talking about you, write a script and, finally, make a film?!