Who were artnet’s most searched artists in September? Insight into the artists that thousands of artnet users search for offers a unique perspective on the art market and what fuels popularity.
In the top 10 a familiar pattern emerged once again, as erotic photographers and blue-chip artists populate the list. Controversial American photographer Jock Sturges’s controversial show in Moscow, which included images of nude adolescents, was recently shut down when a man threw urine on them. Sturges hit number one on our list. British street artist Banksy, who—it was recently posited—might be Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja, came in second.
Meanwhile, blue-chip artists Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso took fourth and fifth spot. Japanese erotic photographer Nobuyoshi Araki came in sixth, while photographer Diane Arbus took seventh. Hans Zatzka took eighth place, with Nan Golden and Keith Haring rounding off the top 10 in 9th and 10th place, respectively.
Elsewhere on the list, Dutch master Peter Paul Rubens jumped 148 places from 179 to 31 thanks in part to the discovery of a £3.6 million ($4.7 million) painting by his pupil Jacob Jordaens in the storage facility of the Swansea Museum in Wales.
Larry Clark homage to Brad Renfro (2011). Photo: courtesy UTA.
Filmmaker and photographer Larry Clark’s retrospective at talent agency UTA’s new 4,500 square foot art space in Los Angeles propelled him 40th place, up from 276th in August.
After surging in online popularity thanks to his involvement in a bizarre authentication trial, British painter Peter Doig lost his 10th spot after the buzz surrounding the case died down. Doig finished September in 44th place.
After hovering near the bottom of the top 300 most searched artists list for four months, and not featuring at all in August, Danish artist Olafur Eliasson’s exhibition in Seoul’s Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art prompted artnet users to look up his works more regularly in September. He finished the month in 100th place.
Similarly, Colombian artist Oscar Murillo likely benefited from a major exhibition at David Zwirner gallery in New York. The exposure helped him land in 208th place after being absent from the top 300 list for four months.
Meanwhile, Kara Walker’s recent exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art moved her up to 178th place after being absent for three months.
See the list of top artists below:
1. Jock Sturges
2. Banksy
3. Andy Warhol
6. Diane Arbus
7. Hans Zatzka
8. Nan Goldin
9. Keith Haring
10. Alec Monopoly
11. Roy Lichtenstein
12. Helmut Newton
13. Victor Vasarely
14. Sally Mann
15 Marc Chagall
19. David Hockney
20. Fernando Botero
21. Jim Dine
22. Andy Goldsworthy
23. Salvador Dalí
25. Wayne Thiebaud
26. Liu Bolin
27. Shepard Fairey
28. Joan Miró
29. Takashi Murakami
31. Alexander Calder
32. KAWS
33. Gerhard Richter
34. Damien Hirst
35. Yayoi Kusama
36. David Hamilton
37. Jean Dubuffet
38. Bernard Buffet
39. Larry Clark
40. Thomas Ruff
42. Mr. Brainwash
43. Peter Doig
44. Tanja Playner
45. René Magritte
46. Andreas Gursky
47. Joseph Nechvatal
48. Henri Matisse
49. Frank Stella
50. Raoul Dufy
52. Jeff Koons
53. Tracey Emin
54. Alex Katz
55. Herb Ritts
56. Grandma Moses
58. Man Ray
59. Ed Ruscha
61. Francis Bacon
62. Gregory Crewdson
63. Yoshitomo Nara
64. Pierre Soulages
66. Emil Nolde
67. Milo Manara
68. Tom Wesselmann
69. Anselm Kiefer
70. Karel Appel
71. Candida Höfer
72. Ross Bleckner
73. Julian Opie
74. David Lynch
76. Jeff Muhs
77. Josef Albers
78. Egon Schiele
80. Chuck Close
81. Fernand Léger
82. Georg Baselitz
83. George Grosz
84. Sol LeWitt
86. Jenny Holzer
87. Maurice Utrillo
88. Vik Muniz
89. Bridget Riley
90. Paul Klee
91. Bert Stern
92. Joseph Beuys
93. Sam Francis
94. Jenny Saville
96. Cindy Sherman
97. Käthe Kollwitz
98. George Condo
99. Olafur Eliasson
100. Peter Max
101. Peter Blake
102. Janet Fish
103. Albert Marquet
104. Hans Vilz
105. David LaChapelle
106. Nick Brandt
107. Harland Miller
108. Daniel Richter
109. Thomas Struth
110. Rufino Tamayo
111. Ellsworth Kelly
112. Sigmar Polke
113. Grayson Perry
114. Kiki Smith
116. Pierre et Gilles
117. Anish Kapoor
118. Robert Longo
119. Raymond Pettibon
120. Garry Gross
121. Robert Indiana
122. Gerda Wegener
123. Christopher Wool
124. Cy Twombly
125. Bettina Rheims
126. Lucio Fontana
127. Brice Marden
128. Marc Riboud
129. Wassily Kandinsky
130. Lucian Freud
131. Kehinde Wiley
132. Niclas Castello
133. Duane Michals
134. Barbara Kruger
135. Maurice de Vlaminck
136. Alberto Giacometti
137. Zao Wou-Ki
138. Hiroshi Sugimoto
139. Tony Cragg
140. Antoni Tàpies
141. Robert Motherwell
142. Markus Lüpertz
143. Swoon
145. Ronald Ventura
146. John Baldessari
147. William Klein
148. Yves Klein
149. Shirin Neshat
150. James Rosenquist
151. Max Ernst
152. Richard Prince
153. Yue Minjun
154. Jeremy Mann
155. Arman
156. Katsushika Hokusai
157. Kees van Dongen
158. Gustav Klimt
159. Saul Leiter
160. Peter Lindbergh
161. Jasper Johns
163. William Eggleston
164. Per Kirkeby
165. Willem de Kooning
166. Richard Estes
167. Andrew Wyeth
168. Louise Bourgeois
169. Erwin Wurm
170. Julie Mehretu
171. RETNA
172. Will McBride
173. Günther Uecker
174. Christo and Jeanne-Claude
175. Otto Dix
176. Irving Penn
177. Kara Walker
178. Edward Weston
179. Georges Braque
180. Wolf Kahn
181. Annie Leibovitz
182. Wifredo Lam
183. Harding Meyer
184. Ai Weiwei
185. Mel Ramos
186. Marina Abramovic
187. Irina Ionesco
188. Claude Monet
189. Manolo Valdés
190. Maximilien Luce
191. Vernon Ward
192. Imi Knoebel
194. Stanley Donwood
195. Igor Mitoraj
196. Vanessa Beecroft
197. Lyonel Feininger
198. Massimo Vitali
199. Sean Scully
200. Donald Judd
201. Margaret Keane
202. Friedensreich Hundertwasser
203. Jackson Pollock
204. Jean Prouvé
205. Dash Snow
206. Lucien Clergue
207. Oscar Murillo
208. Douglas Coupland
209. Günther Förg
210. Roberto Matta
211. Pierre Bonnard
212. Stephan Balkenhol
213. Milton Avery
214. Marlene Dumas
215. Ernesto Neto
216. Russell Young
217. Erwin Olaf
218. Duane Hanson
219. Martin Kippenberger
220. René Gruau
221. Georg Emanuel Opitz
222. Agnes Martin
223. Robert Doisneau
224. Romero Britto
225. Georges Rouault
226. Yaacov Agam
227. Arnulf Rainer
228. Edvard Munch
229. Eduardo Chillida
230. Edward Burtynsky
231. Marcel Dzama
232. Zdzislaw Beksinski
233. Hans Hartung
234. Martin Parr
235. A.R. Penck
236. Andres Serrano
237. Joan Mitchell
238. Richard Diebenkorn
239. Jean Lurçat
240. Gio Ponti
241. James Rizzi
242. Aslan
243. Miquel Barceló
244. Rineke Dijkstra
245. Jonathan Meese
246. Le Corbusier
247. Antony Gormley
248. Serpieri
249. Claude Lalanne
250. Ronald Davis
251. Auguste Rodin
252. Maurizio Cattelan
253. Donald Sultan
254. Charlotte Perriand
255. Francis Picabia
256. Hebru Brantley
257. Michel Jean Cazabon
258. Richard Avedon
259. Beatriz Milhazes
260. Montague Dawson
261. Jean Cocteau
262. Doug Aitken
263. Bernard Dufour
264. Mel Bochner
265. Anton Pieck
266. Charles Camoin
267. Henri Lebasque
268. Deborah Butterfield
269. Jan Saudek
270. Richard Serra
271. Dennis Sheehan
272. Chris Ofili
273. Ang Kiukok
274. Carmen Herrera
275. Paul Flora
276. John Currin
277. Erich Heckel
278. Hieronymus Bosch
279. Edgar Degas
280. Ellen von Unwerth
281. Walasse Ting
282. Gabriel Orozco
283. Jesús Rafael Soto
284. Sue Coe
285. Brassaï
286. Katharina Grosse
287. Louise Nevelson
288. Alphonse Mucha
289. Patrick Caulfield
290. Marino Marini
291. Marie Laurencin
293. Bill Henson
294. Patrick Hughes
295. André Derain
296. Albrecht Dürer
297. Richard Orlinski
298. Heinz Mack
299. Fritz Aigner
300. Giorgio de Chirico