In this issue, we introduce 13 world-class painters, from the well-known giants of contemporary art to lesser-known but world-renowned active artists in Japan.
This article will help you understand the trends of contemporary art in detail.
In addition, if you want to know about famous Japanese painters! I recommend the following article.
10 hot artists of the moment
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) was a graffiti artist from the 1970s to the 1980s.
Although he was active for only about 10 years, he left approximately 3,000 drawings and 1,000 paintings during his lifetime.
In 1983, he became acquainted with Andy Warhol, famous for his paintings of Marilyn Monroe, and the two became close friends to the extent that they collaborated on a number of projects.
At an auction held in May 2022, a Basquiat work owned by businessman Yusaku Maezawa was sold for approximately 11 billion yen. When Mr. Maezawa acquired the work in 2016, it was valued at 6.2 billion yen.
Basquiat's reputation will continue to grow, as evidenced by the roughly doubling of its value in six years.
"Untitled," 1981.
(2) Peter Doig
Peter Doig (1959- ) is a Scottish-born English painter.
He is famous for his unique and appealing use of color, in which figures are depicted in landscapes that evoke some kind of allegorical meaning.
In Japan, a solo exhibition of his work was held at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo in 2020, attracting much interest.
In 2007, his work "White Canoe" was sold at Sotheby's Auction for approximately 150 million yen.
He is regarded as one of the world's greatest living painters and a contemporary master.
"Gasthof zur Muldentalsperre", 2000-2002
(3) Mark Groschan
Mark Grotjahn (1968 - ) may not be a major player among Japanese collectors.
However, he has received some of the highest acclaim in the art scene in recent years, including a Sotheby's auction in 2017 that sold for approximately 230 million yen.
In Japan, the Kaikai Kiki Gallery, led by Takashi Murakami, is introducing the work. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio, a well-known art collector, is said to have a collection of his works.
His works are attractive because of the excessive texture of the depth lines used in his perspective drawings.
Untitled (Backcountry Capri 54.89), 2022
4) Lucien Floyd
Lucian Freud (1922 - 2011) is often mentioned as one of the most important figurative painters of the 20th century.
Born in Berlin in 1922 as the grandson of the famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, his family emigrated to England in 1933 in fear of Nazi persecution.
At the beginning of his career, he was influenced by surrealism and other styles, but his style gradually shifted to a focus on distinctive portraits of familiar people. Since Floyd was a man who preferred very closed relationships, he often used only family members and close friends as models. He left many tense paintings with thickly painted techniques that seem to gouge out even the mental state of the models. He was also famous for demanding long posing times, to the point where the models felt pain.
Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, 1995
Keith Haring
Keith Haring (1958 - 1990), like Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, was one of the leading American artists of the 1980s.
In the early 1980s, he began a graffiti art form known as "subway drawing," in which Haring's unique characters are drawn on unused advertising boards in the New York City subway system.
The comical and universally enjoyable graffiti became a hit with subway commuters, and quickly made Haring a household name.
Although he died in 1990 at the young age of 30, he continues to be a major influence on active painters.
The Nakamura Keith Haring Museum of Art is located in Yatsugatake, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, and holds exhibitions that introduce the issues of sexuality that he continued to communicate and Haring's valuable collection.
Nakamura Keith Haring Museum official website
"Icons (radiant baby)", 1990
You can read more about Keith Haring in this article.
6) Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst (1965 - ) is a British contemporary artist.
He is particularly famous for his "Natural History" series of formalin-preserved corpses of sharks, cows, sheep, and other animals.
His controversial works, which question the values of life and death, are based on his own experiences, such as working part-time in a morgue as a student, although he lived a poor life as a child.
Today, he is considered the most expensive artist alive in terms of prices at auctions and sales of new works.
He is considered to be representative of the generation of artists known as YBA = Young British Artists, a new movement of art college students who came together in the late 1980s at Goldsmiths College and the Royal College of Art in the United Kingdom.
For more information on Damien Hirst's career and representative works here Also introduced in.
"Love's Paradox", 2007
(7) Adrian Gainey.
Adrian Ghenie (1977-), a Romanian artist whose paintings have a mysterious quality that stirs the viewer's subconscious anxiety, has attracted a great deal of attention.
At the Christie's auction held in Hong Kong in 2022, they were the talk of the town, fetching approximately 130 million yen.
Reminiscent of past painters such as Frank Auerbach and Francis Bacon, these semi-abstract figure paintings stir the viewer's heart and are made into fascinating paintings by the artist's unparalleled skill.
"Nickelodeon", 2008
(8) Anselm Kiefer
Anselm Kiefer (1945 - ) is one of the leading painters of postwar Germany.
He mixes straw, sand, and other materials taken directly from the earth into his paints to create huge paintings with motifs of German history, the Nazis, World War II, and mythology.
Kiefer places great importance on the "spiritual power" that he believes is inherent in the materials he uses to create his paintings.
He also identifies greatly with the poetry of Paul Celan (1920 - 1970), a Romanian-born German-Jewish poet, and has created large-scale representations of Celan's worldview.
"Ash Flower," 1983-97.
(ix) Mark Bradford.
Mark Bradford (1961 - ) is known for his large-scale collages of discarded posters, newspapers, magazines, and other materials normally considered trash. He is based in Los Angeles.
In November 2021, his work sold at a Sotheby's auction for approximately ¥680 million.
He is an artist who is innovative in his use of materials, both in his intellectually abstract paintings that intricately intertwine grid-like elements and in his use of metabolites from the city of Los Angeles for his materials.
"Method Man," 2004.
(10) John Currin
John Currin (1962 - ) was born in 1962 and is a New York-based painter.
He is known for using classical painting techniques to create portraits that incorporate controversial and sexually taboo images in contemporary society.
His unique mix of Renaissance techniques represented by Da Vinci and Raphael, images from popular magazines, and images of contemporary fashion models has created an unlikely and one-of-a-kind style of work. The artist himself has also said that most of the figures depicted are his own inner world.
At a recent Sotheby's auction, his work sold for approximately 600 million yen, making him a highly regarded artist.
"Nice 'n Easy," 1999.
Three people to keep in mind in contemporary art
1) Marcel Duchamp.
Contemporary art began here with "Fontaine.
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) was a French artist who brought about a major paradigm shift in 20th century art.
Although he painted Cubist-style oil paintings in his early years, he quit oil painting in the early 1910s and created a controversy in the art world with "Fountain," which he exhibited in 1917.
"Fountain," 1917.
Fountain" is simply a male urinal turned upside down and signed Richard Mutt (R. Mutt).
Duchamp submitted the work under a pseudonym to the first annual American Society of Independent Artists, where it was supposed to be "open to all," but the jurors controversially refused to exhibit it.
Duchamp's naming of existing, ubiquitous industrial products as "art" raised the question, " What is art?(According to one theory, it was the Dadaist Elsa von Freitag who first conceived of this work.)
) With the Fountain, the purpose of contemporary art since the 20th century has changed to "asking questions" and "deepening thought," and it has become a kind of intellectual game.
(2) Andy Warhol
Standard-bearer of Pop Art "Campbell's Soup Can
Andy Warhol (1928-1987) was an artist who turned popular images such as the portrait of Marilyn Monroe and Campbell's Soup Cans into works of art.
"Campbell's Soup Cans," 1962.
He incorporated popular images of mass-produced goods and mass media into his work, creating a body of work that suggests the assumption that art is highbrow.
The 1950s and 1960s, when he was active in the United States, was a time when the country as a whole was growing into a mass-production, mass-consumption society, and Warhol's works are still highly regarded as a reflection of the times.
Jeff Koons' style of sculpting popular motifs such as balloon art, as mentioned above, was greatly influenced by Warhol.
Warhol was also introduced in this article (3) Jeff Koons
Jeff Koons
Rabbit," the highest ever bid for a work by a living artist
Jeff Koons (1955-) is an artist known for his popular and kitschy works such as balloon art and Michael Jackson statues.
While at first glance his artwork appears to be blatant and worthless, he also has a side as a regular artist who uses his business acumen as a former stockbroker to thoroughly self-brand his work and fetch the highest bids at auctions.
"Rabbit",1986.
In particular, "Rabbit," a stainless steel sculpture in the shape of a rabbit made of balloons, sold for approximately 10 billion yen in 2019, and still holds the record as the highest bid for an artist's work in existence.
Eight Artists to Come
Here are some of the most notable contemporary artists at TRiCERA ART right now.
Sold Out
W 72.70cm x H 72.70cm x D 2.00cm
In just a few years since her debut, Mantis has attracted the attention of collectors in Japan and abroad for her portrayal of strong women with dignified eyes. In addition to participating in art fairs in Dubai and South Korea, her popularity has soared, with seven of her works sold out at her solo exhibition held at TRiCERA in August 2023.
R City" is a work that Mantiko drew for her solo exhibition, "Do girls dream of Electric City? With the rise of generative AI in recent years in mind, Mantoko's work is based on the question, "What will be left for humans when AI takes over creativity (which has been considered a human trait until then)? The artist uses both digital and hand paintings to answer this question. This is a milestone work for Mantisko, who has achieved tremendous growth in just a few years as an artist and continues to push forward toward further change.
For more information on Mantisko's work and concept, please click here, You can read more about Mantis' work and concept in this articleFor more information about Mantiko's works and concept, please refer to this article.
JPY 20,900 / USD $139.00
W 23.00cm x H 31.00cm x D 0.10cm
Eugenia Gorbacheva is a watercolor artist from Russia. With her experience as a fashion designer, she has gained popularity for her watercolor paintings with vivid colors, and TRiCERA has sold about 10 of them.
In particular, this work depicting the streets of Cyprus, Greece, looks as if bright light is shining through the white walls of the city. The low price range for a watercolor painting makes it a good choice for first-time art buyers.
JPY 69,100 / USD $460.00
W 30.00cm x H 30.00cm x D 2.50cm
Korean artist Jooha Sim uses traditional Korean painting materials such as hanzi (traditional Korean paper) and muk (traditional Korean ink) to create her floral paintings. Her paintings are very popular for their chic colors matched with gold and silver glitter, and she has many domestic and international fans at TRiCERA.
In particular, "Fall is in the air" is an impressive work with the vividness of poppy flowers blooming against a background painted in black ink. In particular, the gold line drawing makes the red of the petals stand out even more, and is recommended for chic and glamorous interiors.
JPY ¥104,600 / USD $693.00
W 33.00cm x H 41.00cm x D 2.00cm
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W 42.00cm x H 41.00cm x D 2.00cm
JPY 90,100 / USD $693.00
W 100.00cm x H 41.00cm x D 2.00cm
JPY 269,500 / USD $693.00
W 100.00cm x H 41.00cm x D 2.00cm
JPY ¥180,200 / USD $693.00
W 100.00cm x H 41.00cm x D 2.00cm
In this article, we have described some of the artists who are important to understand contemporary art and who are currently active at TRiCERA.
TRiCERA ART currently features over 90,000 works from 126 countries.
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