Hurun Global Art List 2022

HURUN GLOBAL ART LIST 2022, PROUDLY PRESENTED BY SHANGHAI AUCTION HOUSE SICA – IN SEARCH OF THE WORLD’S MOST SUCCESSFUL LIVING ARTISTS

GERMAN ARTIST GERHARD RICHTER, 90, UP 2 PLACES TO TOP HURUN GLOBAL ART LIST WITH SALES OF HIS WORKS AT PUBLIC AUCTION LAST YEAR AMOUNTING TO US$256MN

BRITISH ARTIST BANKSY, 48, UP 4 PLACES TO 2^ND WITH SALES OF US$214MN. BANKSY YOUNGEST OF HURUN TOP 10.

JAPANESE ARTIST YAYOI KUSAMA, 93, RANKED 3^RD WITH US$185MN, UP TWO PLACES FROM LAST YEAR, AND WORLD’S TOP WOMAN ARTIST FOR THIRD YEAR RUNNING

7 WOMEN ARTISTS, 1 LESS THAN LAST YEAR

YOSHITOMO NARA, 63, DOWN 1 PLACE TO 4^TH. 4 ARTISTS BROKE THROUGH THE US$100MN SALES MARK, 1 MORE THAN LAST YEAR

USA LED WITH 15 ARTISTS, FOLLOWED BY CHINA WITH 12 AND UK WITH 7. ‘BIG 3 COUNTRIES’ ACCOUNTED FOR 68% OF LIST

CHINESE ARTIST CUI RUZHUO, 78, 5^TH WITH SALES OF US$95MN, DOWN 3 PLACES

ZENG FANZHI, AT 58YRS, SECOND YOUNGEST OF HURUN TOP 10. OTHER CHINESE ARTISTS INCLUDED ZHOU CHUNYA, ZHANG XIAOGANG, CHEN DANQING, LIU YE, HUANG JIANNAN, ZHU YAOKUI, HUANG YUXING, FAN ZENG, JIANG GUOHUA AND LENG JUN

TOTAL SALES OF THE WORKS OF HURUN GLOBAL ART LIST US$2.2BN, UP 60% OR US$840MN

40 ARTISTS SAW THE SALES OF THEIR WORKS RISE, OF WHICH 13 WERE NEW FACES. 10 SAW THE SALES OF THEIR WORKS DROP AND THERE WERE 13 DROPOUTS

OF THE 13 NEW FACES, 5 WERE FROM THE US AND 4 FROM CHINA

AVERAGE AGE WAS 68 YEARS OLD, THE SAME AS LAST YEAR. 9 ARTISTS WERE 50 YEARS OR UNDER, 1 LESS THAN LAST YEAR

ONE ARTIST FROM LAST YEAR’S LIST DIED: AMERICAN ARTIST WAYNE THIEBAUD, AGED 101

LEADING AUTHORITY ON GLOBAL WEALTH RELEASES HURUN GLOBAL ART LIST IN ASSOCIATION WITH SHANGHAI ART AUCTION HOUSE SICA

(11 November 2022, Shanghai) The Hurun Research Institute today launched the SICA·Hurun Global Art List 2022, a ranking of the Top 50 artists in the world alive today, based on the sales of their works at public auction in the year ending 31 December 2021. This is the third year of the Hurun Global Art List.

Artprice.com provided the art auction data for non-China, whilst China data was from Artprice, Artron and Artpro. The appendices contain the full Hurun Global Art List, together with the Hurun China Art List 2022 and Hurun India Art List 2022.

Hurun Chairman and Chief Researcher Rupert Hoogewerf said, “This has been a good year for the global art market in that sales at public auction for the Hurun Top 50 living artists was up 60% year on year, suggesting that more quality art is coming to the market.”

“The idea behind the Hurun Art List is to encourage the world’s most successful entrepreneurs to start collecting art, leveraging the 8 billion views on the Hurun brand last year from our various country and global rich lists. We have been doing that for 15 years in China with the Hurun China Art List, encouraging the Hurun China rich listers to start an art collection and for the last 3 years in India with the Hurun India Art List. The reason for focusing on living artists, is to encourage the world’s top entrepreneurs to meet with them, to see their studios, perhaps have a meal with them and get to know them. The beauty of basing the list on the sales of their works at art auction is that it provides for an easy to understand measure, taking out any subjectivity in the ranking, and over the years, the truly great artists of the generation will become apparent.”

“NFTs is having an impact on art, especially contemporary art. Damien Hirst, one of the Hurun Global Art List artists, publically destroyed 3000 of his physical artworks, giving his collectors the choice of keeping the original or the NFT.”

“The comparison between China and India makes for curious reading. Despite both having populations of 1.4bn people, the difference in values between their top artists is significant. The works of China’s top living artist, Cui Ruzhuo, for example sold at public auction last year for US$95 million, whilst the works of India’s top living artist Anish Kapoor sold for just under US$3 million. The cut-off to make the Top 50 of the Hurun China Art List was US$2 million, whilst for the Hurun India Art List it was US$20,000.”

Dai Peihua, chairman of SICA, said, “We are delighted to work with Hurun Report to launch the Global Art List for the third year running. Since 1988, SICA has been a pioneer of China’s auction industry, selling to over a million customers. As a Shanghai-based integrated auction house, SICA is contributing to the internationalization of the Shanghai art market.”

This is a brief English language summary of the full Chinese press release which can be found at www.hurun.net. For media inquiries please contact our public relations team whose contact details can be found at the end of this report.

Who made the Hurun Global Top 10 this year?

German artist Gerhard Richter, 90, stormed to the top of the Hurun Global Art List, with sales of his works at public auction more than doubling to US$256mn, and displacing two-time world Number One David Hockney, 85, who dropped down to 5^th. Yayoi Kusama, 93, broke into the Top 3 for the first time, and is the only woman artist in the Top 10. Banksy at 48 is the youngest of the Top 10. Pierre Soulages, 103, and Peter Doig, 63, broke into the Top 10 at the expense of American artists Ed Ruscha and Wayne Thiebaud, who passed away last year aged 101.

Table: SICA·Hurun Global Art List 2022 – Top 10

	Rank Change	Artist	Sales US$mn	Change yoy %	Age	Country
1↑	+2	Gerhard Richter	256	134%	90	Germany
2↑	+4	Banksy	214	215%	48	UK
3↑	+2	Yayoi Kusama	185	162%	93	Japan
4-	=	Yoshitomo Nara	143	91%	63	Japan
5↓	-3	Cui Ruzhuo	95	-22%	78	China
6↓	-5	David Hockney	85	-40%	85	UK
7-	=	George Condo	80	45%	65	US
8*	+7	Pierre Soulages	70	122%	103	France
9*	+13	Peter Doig	57	158%	63	UK
10-	=	Zeng Fanzhi	53	26%	58	China

Source: SICA·Hurun Global Art List 2022

↑Rank increase yoy ↓Rank Decrease yoy - No rank change *New to Top 10

German artist Gerhard Richter, 90, topped the list with US$265mn in sales, up two places from last year and up 134% from the previous year. A total of 308 Richter works were sold last year, including his 1993 abstract painting Abstraktes Bild, which sold by Sotheby's in New York. His works vary in style, including romanticism, photorealism, abstract expressionism, minimalism and pop art.

British street artist Banksy, 48, was second with US$214mn in sales, up 4 places from last year and triple the value of his sales last year. Banksy is the youngest artist in the Top 10. A total of 1,699 Banksy works were sold last year, with his classic work Love is in the Bin (formerly known as Girl with Balloon, which was self-destructed at auction) selling at Sotheby's in London. Known for his satirical art style, Banksy's works are seen on streets around the world.

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, 93, ranked third with US$185mn in sales, up two places from last year and up 162% from the previous year. Kusama is the only female artist in the Top 10. A total of 802 of her works were sold last year.

Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara, 63, was fourth with US$143mn, the same as last year, with sales up 91%. A total of 632 works by Nara were sold last year, with his 2000 painting Whereabouts Unknown selling at the Phillips and Poly auction. Nara's iconic painting of a cute, lonely little girl conveys a sentiment that resonates with young people around the world.

Cui Ruzhuo, a 78-year-old Chinese painter, was 5^th with US$95mn in sales, down three places and 22% lower than last year. A group of works by Cui in 2020 became the world's highest-paid work by a living artist last year, sold by Yongle Auction.

Top of the list for the past two years, the British artist David Hockney, 85, ranked 6^th with US$85mn, down 40% from the previous year. Of the 755 Hockney works sold last year, the most expensive was his 2000 landscape Guest House Garden, which sold at Christie's in London. Hockney lives in Yorkshire, London and California.

American surrealist artist George Condo, 65, ranked 7 with US$80mn, the same as last year, with a 45% increase in sales. A total of 143 Condo’s works were sold last year, with the most expensive being Reclining Blue Form, which sold at Sotheby's in New York. Kondo's signature style was "mutant surrealism," often featuring squeezed cartoonish faces and a dash of improvisational cubism.

French abstract artist Pierre Soulages, 103, ranked 8^th with sales of US$70mn, up 7 places from last year and an increase of 122%. A total of 172 works sold last year. The most expensive work was Peinture 195 x 130 cm, 4 août 1961, which sold for US$20mn at Sotheby's in New York.

British artist Peter Doig, 63, ranked 9^th with US$57mn, increase 158% and up 13 places. A total of 62 works were sold last year. The most expensive work was Swamped, worked in 1990, which sold for US$40mn at Christie's in New York. His works emphasize the abstractness of everyday things and construct vast and dreamy scenes.

Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi, 58, increase 26% to US$53mn ranked 10^th, the same as last year. An oil painting Zeng painted in 2012 was sold by Poly last year for US$5.3mn.

Table: World’s Top Living Artists by Country

The Hurun Top 50 came from 13 countries, 1 less than last year. Of these, 15 are in the US, 12 in China and 7 in the UK.

	Country	No. of Artists (Change)
1 -	US	15 (0)
2 -	China	12 (0)
3 -	UK	7 (0)
4 -	Japan	4 (0)
5 -	Germany	3 (0)
6 -	South Korea	2 (+1)
7 *	Spain	1 (+1)
7 ↓	France	1 (0)
7 *	Italy	1 (+1)
7 ↓	Colombia	1 (0)
7 ↓	Panama	1 (0)
7 ↓	Romania	1 (0)
7 ↓	Switzerland	1 (0)