 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
| Meiguoxing.com, Your Ultimate Guide to Beijing, China |
World's 20 top selling artists in 2008
---------------------------------The remarkable renaissance in Chinese art--------------------------------------------
1 Jeff Koons, born 1955 in Pennsylvania, incorporates kitsch imagery. Type of art: sculpture, mixed-media. Sold
£69.4m in the past year.
2 Jean-Michel Basquiat, born 1960 in Brooklyn, New York, was a graffiti artist who died in 1988. Type of art:
Painting (ex-graffiti artist). Sold £54.3m.
3 Damien Hirst, born 1965 in Bristol, a key member of the Young British Artists. Type of art: Sculpture, mixed-
media, installation, Turner Prize-winner. Sold £45.7m.
Recently,Damien Hirst broke the art sales record for a single artist with his £111 million auction at Sotheby's
(Sep 2008).
4 Richard Prince, born 1949 in Panama, is an American painter and photographer. Sold £33m.
5 Zhang Xiaogang (张晓刚), born in 1958 in China's Yunnan province. Type of art: Surrealism works, portraiture.
Sold £32.3m.
6 Zeng Fanzhi (曾梵志), born in 1964 in Wuhan, holds the auction record for a contemporary Asian artist. Type
of art: Figure painting, portraits. Sold £27.8m.
7 Yue Minjun (岳敏君), born 1962 in Heilongjiang. Type of art: Expressionist figurative paintings. Sold £27.8m.
8 Takashi Murakami, born 1962, Tokyo, Japan. Possibly the best known Eastern artist on the list. Type of art:
Sculpture, painting, installation. Sold £15.5m.
9 Wang Guangyi (王广义), born 1957, in Heilongjiang. Type of art: Mixed-media, painting. Sold £11.7m
10 Liu Xiaodong (刘小东), born 1963, Liaoning. Painter and photographer documented the controversial Three
Gorges Dam project. Sold £10.5m.
11 Cai Guo-Qiang (蔡国强), born 1957. Performance artist who uses gunpowder to produce 'explosive events'.
Sold £10.1m.
12 Yan Pei-Ming (严培明), born 1960, Shanghai. Best known for epic portraits of Mao Zedong and Bruce Lee.
Type of art: Portraitist. Sold £9.9m.
13 Chen Yifei (陈逸飞), born 1946 in Zhejing. Among the first to break into Western art market. Died in 2005.
Type of art: Painting. Sold £9.7m.
14 Fang Lijun (方力均), born 1963, Hebei. Painter of the 'cynical realism' school. Sold £9.6m
15 Liu Ye (刘野), born 1964, veteran of the post-1989 avant-garde movement. Sold £8.8m.
17 Zhou Chunya (周春芽), born 1955, Sichuan. Renowned for green portraits. Sold £8.3m.
18 Anish Kapoor, born 1954, in Mumbai, India. Turner Prize-winning sculptor who has lived in England since
1972. Type of art: Abstract art, sculpture, Turner Prize-winner. Sold £6.7m
19 Peter Doig, born 1959. The Scottish artist's paintings are among Europe's most expensive. Type of art:
Contemporary landscape pictures. Sold £6.7m.
20 Rudolf Stingel, born 1956, in Merano, Italy. Type of art: Installation and conceptual art. Sold £6.5m.
With its £2 trillion surplus, China's economic might dominates the world. Now its painters and sculptors are
developing, collectively, into a contemporary arts superpower. Asian artists, and in particular those from China,
dominate a new list of the world's best-selling contemporary artists of last year. Among the world's most sought-
after artists are the unfamiliar names of Zhang Xiaogang, Yue Minjun and Zeng Fanzhi.
Of the world's 20 top-selling artists, 13 are from Asia, with 11 coming from China. Asian artists make up six of the
top 10 biggest sellers at auction, five of which are Chinese. Experts predict that within a decade, the term "Asian
art" will be as widely used as "Western art" and will be responsible for most global sales.
The annual survey of the global art market by the auction tracking site Artprice and the Axa insurance company
lists the 500 top-selling artists at 2,900 auctions between July 2007 and June 2008. While the top four selling
contemporary artists at auction were the Western superstars Jeff Koons, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Damien Hirst
and Richard Prince, almost all the rest are Asian. Other Chinese artists in the top 10 include Wang Guangyi and
Yan Pei-Ming. Japan's Takashi Murakami comes in at number eight, while the Indian-born Anish Kapoor, who
lives in England, is number 18. It is a seismic shift in an art market dominated by the Western tradition for almost
500 years.
"The total auction revenue generated by 100 Chinese artists in 2003-4 amounted to £860,000," the report says.
"The same 100 generated total revenue of £270m over the last 12 months. Of these 100, three are striking for
having each generated more than £26m."
Vinci Chang, head of sales at Christie's Asian contemporary department in Hong Kong, said: "These artists grew
up in a post-Mao China and have seen a country under decades of turmoil and political and social change. All
this has informed their work."
Such is the interest in Chinese art that Charles Saatchi has opened his new gallery in Chelsea with an exhibition
of new Chinese talent. Originally, he said, he found Chinese art as very "kitschy" and "derivative". "But there's
enough stuff to put on a good show," he said in 2006. "My rule is: if you can put this in the Whitney Biennial and
nobody is going to say, 'Oh, that's very good for a Chinese artist,' then that will be fine."
World’s 20 top selling artists
Wang Guangyi 王广义
The Chinese artist is seen as an exponent of 'political pop'. His work, including 2005'2 'Porsche', combines the
styles of propaganda posters with consumer logos. 'Stylistically merging the government enforced aesthetic of
agitprop with the kitsch sensibility of American pop, Guangyi's work adopts the Cold War language of the 1960s
to ironically examine the contemporary polemics of globalisation,' according to the Saatchi Gallery.
Takashi Murakami
Murakami is regarded as one of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking Japanese artists of the 1990s. His
work ranges from cartoon-like paintings and almost minimalist sculptures to giant inflatable balloons. He also
puts on performance events and designs factory-produced watches, T-shirts and many other commercial
products. Murakami, 46, is credited with creating the 'superflat' style of painting, which features flat planes of
colour and graphic images derived from the Japanese traditions of anime and manga. Much of his work is
emblazoned with his signature character, Mr DOB.
Zhang Xiaogang 张晓刚
Zhang is known for his surrealist paintings, with Picasso and Dali among his influences. His Bloodline series of
paintings, including 'Big Family', feature stylised and monochrome portraits of Chinese people in stiff, formal
poses, which recall portraits done in the 1950s and 1960s.
Zeng Fanzhi 曾梵志
Zeng is among the most sought-after Chinese contemporary artists. He combines expressionist and realist styles
in his work, which often deals with relationships between people. His series of Great Man paintings – featuring
Karl Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Mao among others – appear at first glance to be official portraits, but subvert the
traditional representations with use of monochrome and expressive brush strokes.
Yue Minjun 岳敏君
Yue is a member of the Chinese 'cynical realist' movement. He is noted for depicting 'cloned doppelgängers',
grotesquely contorted with maniacal grins, such as 2005's 'Backyard Garden'. The forced jollity of his anti-
heroes echoes modern anxieties.
Source: Independent
Date: Nov. 16, 2008
---------------------------------The remarkable renaissance in Chinese art--------------------------------------------
1 Jeff Koons, born 1955 in Pennsylvania, incorporates kitsch imagery. Type of art: sculpture, mixed-media. Sold
£69.4m in the past year.
2 Jean-Michel Basquiat, born 1960 in Brooklyn, New York, was a graffiti artist who died in 1988. Type of art:
Painting (ex-graffiti artist). Sold £54.3m.
3 Damien Hirst, born 1965 in Bristol, a key member of the Young British Artists. Type of art: Sculpture, mixed-
media, installation, Turner Prize-winner. Sold £45.7m.
Recently,Damien Hirst broke the art sales record for a single artist with his £111 million auction at Sotheby's
(Sep 2008).
4 Richard Prince, born 1949 in Panama, is an American painter and photographer. Sold £33m.
5 Zhang Xiaogang (张晓刚), born in 1958 in China's Yunnan province. Type of art: Surrealism works, portraiture.
Sold £32.3m.
6 Zeng Fanzhi (曾梵志), born in 1964 in Wuhan, holds the auction record for a contemporary Asian artist. Type
of art: Figure painting, portraits. Sold £27.8m.
7 Yue Minjun (岳敏君), born 1962 in Heilongjiang. Type of art: Expressionist figurative paintings. Sold £27.8m.
8 Takashi Murakami, born 1962, Tokyo, Japan. Possibly the best known Eastern artist on the list. Type of art:
Sculpture, painting, installation. Sold £15.5m.
9 Wang Guangyi (王广义), born 1957, in Heilongjiang. Type of art: Mixed-media, painting. Sold £11.7m
10 Liu Xiaodong (刘小东), born 1963, Liaoning. Painter and photographer documented the controversial Three
Gorges Dam project. Sold £10.5m.
11 Cai Guo-Qiang (蔡国强), born 1957. Performance artist who uses gunpowder to produce 'explosive events'.
Sold £10.1m.
12 Yan Pei-Ming (严培明), born 1960, Shanghai. Best known for epic portraits of Mao Zedong and Bruce Lee.
Type of art: Portraitist. Sold £9.9m.
13 Chen Yifei (陈逸飞), born 1946 in Zhejing. Among the first to break into Western art market. Died in 2005.
Type of art: Painting. Sold £9.7m.
14 Fang Lijun (方力均), born 1963, Hebei. Painter of the 'cynical realism' school. Sold £9.6m
15 Liu Ye (刘野), born 1964, veteran of the post-1989 avant-garde movement. Sold £8.8m.
17 Zhou Chunya (周春芽), born 1955, Sichuan. Renowned for green portraits. Sold £8.3m.
18 Anish Kapoor, born 1954, in Mumbai, India. Turner Prize-winning sculptor who has lived in England since
1972. Type of art: Abstract art, sculpture, Turner Prize-winner. Sold £6.7m
19 Peter Doig, born 1959. The Scottish artist's paintings are among Europe's most expensive. Type of art:
Contemporary landscape pictures. Sold £6.7m.
20 Rudolf Stingel, born 1956, in Merano, Italy. Type of art: Installation and conceptual art. Sold £6.5m.
With its £2 trillion surplus, China's economic might dominates the world. Now its painters and sculptors are
developing, collectively, into a contemporary arts superpower. Asian artists, and in particular those from China,
dominate a new list of the world's best-selling contemporary artists of last year. Among the world's most sought-
after artists are the unfamiliar names of Zhang Xiaogang, Yue Minjun and Zeng Fanzhi.
Of the world's 20 top-selling artists, 13 are from Asia, with 11 coming from China. Asian artists make up six of the
top 10 biggest sellers at auction, five of which are Chinese. Experts predict that within a decade, the term "Asian
art" will be as widely used as "Western art" and will be responsible for most global sales.
The annual survey of the global art market by the auction tracking site Artprice and the Axa insurance company
lists the 500 top-selling artists at 2,900 auctions between July 2007 and June 2008. While the top four selling
contemporary artists at auction were the Western superstars Jeff Koons, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Damien Hirst
and Richard Prince, almost all the rest are Asian. Other Chinese artists in the top 10 include Wang Guangyi and
Yan Pei-Ming. Japan's Takashi Murakami comes in at number eight, while the Indian-born Anish Kapoor, who
lives in England, is number 18. It is a seismic shift in an art market dominated by the Western tradition for almost
500 years.
"The total auction revenue generated by 100 Chinese artists in 2003-4 amounted to £860,000," the report says.
"The same 100 generated total revenue of £270m over the last 12 months. Of these 100, three are striking for
having each generated more than £26m."
Vinci Chang, head of sales at Christie's Asian contemporary department in Hong Kong, said: "These artists grew
up in a post-Mao China and have seen a country under decades of turmoil and political and social change. All
this has informed their work."
Such is the interest in Chinese art that Charles Saatchi has opened his new gallery in Chelsea with an exhibition
of new Chinese talent. Originally, he said, he found Chinese art as very "kitschy" and "derivative". "But there's
enough stuff to put on a good show," he said in 2006. "My rule is: if you can put this in the Whitney Biennial and
nobody is going to say, 'Oh, that's very good for a Chinese artist,' then that will be fine."
World’s 20 top selling artists
Wang Guangyi 王广义
The Chinese artist is seen as an exponent of 'political pop'. His work, including 2005'2 'Porsche', combines the
styles of propaganda posters with consumer logos. 'Stylistically merging the government enforced aesthetic of
agitprop with the kitsch sensibility of American pop, Guangyi's work adopts the Cold War language of the 1960s
to ironically examine the contemporary polemics of globalisation,' according to the Saatchi Gallery.
Takashi Murakami
Murakami is regarded as one of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking Japanese artists of the 1990s. His
work ranges from cartoon-like paintings and almost minimalist sculptures to giant inflatable balloons. He also
puts on performance events and designs factory-produced watches, T-shirts and many other commercial
products. Murakami, 46, is credited with creating the 'superflat' style of painting, which features flat planes of
colour and graphic images derived from the Japanese traditions of anime and manga. Much of his work is
emblazoned with his signature character, Mr DOB.
Zhang Xiaogang 张晓刚
Zhang is known for his surrealist paintings, with Picasso and Dali among his influences. His Bloodline series of
paintings, including 'Big Family', feature stylised and monochrome portraits of Chinese people in stiff, formal
poses, which recall portraits done in the 1950s and 1960s.
Zeng Fanzhi 曾梵志
Zeng is among the most sought-after Chinese contemporary artists. He combines expressionist and realist styles
in his work, which often deals with relationships between people. His series of Great Man paintings – featuring
Karl Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Mao among others – appear at first glance to be official portraits, but subvert the
traditional representations with use of monochrome and expressive brush strokes.
Yue Minjun 岳敏君
Yue is a member of the Chinese 'cynical realist' movement. He is noted for depicting 'cloned doppelgängers',
grotesquely contorted with maniacal grins, such as 2005's 'Backyard Garden'. The forced jollity of his anti-
heroes echoes modern anxieties.
Source: Independent
Date: Nov. 16, 2008
Zhang Xiaogang
Bloodline: The Big Family No. 3
1995
HKD 47,367,500
($6,083,363)
Sotheby’s Hong Kong
Apr. 9, 2008
Bloodline: The Big Family No. 3
1995
HKD 47,367,500
($6,083,363)
Sotheby’s Hong Kong
Apr. 9, 2008
英国《独立报》2008年11月16日发布了一份最“好卖”的当代艺术家名单。这份名单是根据全球最大的拍卖数据网
Artprice和法国安盛保险集团对2007年7月至2008年6月2900场拍卖会结果的统计分析之后作出的。排名在前20
位的艺术家中，有13人来自亚洲，其中有11位中国艺术家。
十强中的前4位分别被西方艺术家杰夫•昆斯、吉恩•米切尔•巴斯奎特、达米尔•赫斯特和理查德•普林斯占去，
亚洲艺术家占剩下的六席，其中五人来自中国，分别是张晓刚（第五）、曾梵志（第六）、岳敏君（第七）、王
广义（第九）、刘小东（第十）。日本艺术家村上隆位居第八。之后依次是蔡国强、严培明、陈逸飞、方力均、
刘野、周春芽。
曾梵志的《面具系列1996No.6》二〇〇八年五月二十四日在香港佳士得二〇〇八春季拍卖会上以六千七百零四万
元人民币(7536.75万港元)成交在香港佳士得春拍创下中国当代艺术世界拍卖纪录
苏富比08年春季拍卖会中，张晓刚的《血缘：大家庭3号》创作于1995年，画面人物为一家三口，风格模拟上世
纪70年代家庭合照, 以4200万港元的成交, 这个价格再次刷新艺术家个人成交记录.
张晓刚的《血缘：大家庭之二》以2642万港元成交
Artprice和法国安盛保险集团对2007年7月至2008年6月2900场拍卖会结果的统计分析之后作出的。排名在前20
位的艺术家中，有13人来自亚洲，其中有11位中国艺术家。
十强中的前4位分别被西方艺术家杰夫•昆斯、吉恩•米切尔•巴斯奎特、达米尔•赫斯特和理查德•普林斯占去，
亚洲艺术家占剩下的六席，其中五人来自中国，分别是张晓刚（第五）、曾梵志（第六）、岳敏君（第七）、王
广义（第九）、刘小东（第十）。日本艺术家村上隆位居第八。之后依次是蔡国强、严培明、陈逸飞、方力均、
刘野、周春芽。
曾梵志的《面具系列1996No.6》二〇〇八年五月二十四日在香港佳士得二〇〇八春季拍卖会上以六千七百零四万
元人民币(7536.75万港元)成交在香港佳士得春拍创下中国当代艺术世界拍卖纪录
苏富比08年春季拍卖会中，张晓刚的《血缘：大家庭3号》创作于1995年，画面人物为一家三口，风格模拟上世
纪70年代家庭合照, 以4200万港元的成交, 这个价格再次刷新艺术家个人成交记录.
张晓刚的《血缘：大家庭之二》以2642万港元成交