Contemporary art is difficult. Who in the world is it and how is it valued?
If you have ever tried to learn about contemporary art, you may have had such a puzzling experience.
Read the "100 People for Understanding Contemporary Art" series for a comprehensive overview of the major national and international players in the art world.
8. Tracey Emin
Tracey Emin is an artist best known for her work "My Bed," which was presented in an exhibition for the 1999 Turner Prize.
The work attracted controversy and made headlines when it was sold at Christie's Auctions in 2014 for £2,546,500 ($410 million).
Other drawings have been exhibited on an ongoing basis.
9. David Hockney
David Hockney is the most acclaimed living painter in the world.
In 2018, his work "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)" sold at Christie's Auction for $90 million, making it the most expensive painting ever by a living artist at the time.
After receiving his education at the Royal College of Art and other schools, he moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1964. He concentrated on a series of paintings of the famous swimming pool and explored various experimental styles for many years as a standard-bearer of Pop Art. When digital devices began to become common, he attracted attention for his work that was always ahead of its time, such as his continuous drawings using the iPad.
10. nan goldin
Nan Goldin is an American photographer who has continually produced sensational works on LGBTQ culture, HIV / AIDS issues, and opioids.
Goldin's poetic sensibility and photographic medium of intimacy and bohemian culture are in the collections of MoMA and other major museums around the world.
11. Alex Katz
Alex Katz is one of the leading American Pop Art painters.
His work, characterized by bright colors, simplified forms, and large canvases, can be seen at Pace Gallery and the international gallery Thaddaeus Ropac.
In 1996, a 930 m2 space was set aside exclusively for the permanent installation of his work in the Colby College Museum of Art's galleries.
12. Wolfgang Tillmans
Wolfgang Tillmans is a German photographer.
In 2000, he won the Turner Prize, the largest art prize in the United Kingdom.
He has taken snapshot-like photographs of LGBTQ, marginalized minority culture, and familiar landscapes, and has experimented with experimental ways of presenting his photographs, such as experimenting with "unframed" exhibition methods.
13. Gerhard Richter
Gerhard Richter is a German painter. He is one of the most important artists in the world today, and is popular among young people, who call him "Germany's best painter.
He has been called "Germany's best painter." His "Photo Painting" series, in which large photographs from newspapers and magazines are reproduced on canvas and the entire canvas is blurred, "Gray Painting," in which the entire canvas is covered with gray paint, "Abstract Painting," in which various colors are folded in, "Color Chart," in which many colors are arranged like a mosaic, and "Color Paintings," in which many colors are arranged like a mosaic. Chart," in which many colors are arranged like a mosaic, and "Color Chart," in which several sheets of glass are used to reflect the surrounding landscape.
Through these works, he explores the relationship between photography and painting, and between image and representation.
In 2022, he held a solo exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, which created quite a stir in Japan.
14. Olafur Eliasson
Olafur Eliasson is a Danish-born contemporary artist of Icelandic descent.
He is known for his sculptures and large-scale installations that use natural elements such as light, water, and temperature to create site-specific "natural" experiences for viewers.
In 1995, he founded Studio Olafur Eliasson in Berlin, an institute for spatial cognition.
In 2003, he successfully exhibited his "Weather Project" at the Tate Modern in London, and in the same year, he was selected to represent Denmark at the Venice Biennale.
He is currently one of the most influential artists in the world.
