The Most In-Demand Artists Who Aren’t Painters
Aug. 29, 2023
From gallery shows to the homes of art collectors, painting is always popular in the art world. The medium has held sway among buyers for almost as long as it has existed. And this is borne out in the data: Paintings sell at a higher volume and a higher price than other mediums by far, with nine of the 10 most expensive works ever sold at auction being paintings; and of the 50 most expensive works sold under the hammer this year, only two are not paintings.
So what does the art market look like without paintings? Here, we take a look at Artsy data to explore the most popular and in-demand artists who aren’t primarily painters.
The most in-demand artists on Artsy who aren’t painters
When it comes to the artists whose works had the most inquirers on Artsy from January 2023 through July 2023, just nine of the top 100 artists were non-painters. The list of nine is as follows:
Much like we found in The Women Artists Market Report 2023—which surveyed gender disparity across the art market as a whole—the artists whose works are attracting the most inquirers are primarily white men, with only one woman artist making the list. This suggests that the art world still has a long way to go when it comes to promoting and spotlighting more works by female, non-Western, and BIPOC artists.
Of the list above, five are photographers, three are sculptors, and two are textile artists. All are established artists; Faig Ahmed, who was born in 1982, is the only ultra-contemporary artist (born after 1974) on the list. Ahmed—whose work was featured in Azerbaijan’s first pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2007—has experienced strong demand for his surrealistic textile works that incorporate traditional carpet weaving techniques.
Several artists on the above list have also had major career moments recently. Following her activism around the opioid crisis, Nan Goldin’s art reached new audiences with the 2022 release of All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, the Oscar-nominated documentary about her life and work. New representation with Gagosian, announced this past March, reflects this career milestone. British sculptor Anthony James also set a new record at auction last year for Great Rhombicosidodecahedron (2020), which sold for $302,400 at Sotheby’s in March 2022.
Source: ARTSY