November’s Top 300 Artist Searches Dominated by Photography and Politics

Henri Neuendorf December 5, 2016 ShareShare This Article

What artists are artnet users searching for? Every month we put the results of user searches across artnet’s proprietary platforms under the microscope and analyze what the results tell us about what drives artist popularity and how it reflects the state of the art market, and more broadly the art world.

As the shameful rape scandal surrounding controversial photographer David Hamilton, known for his depictions of nude adolescent girls, continues to unfold, the British artist took the top spot in November for the second consecutive month. In October French television presenter Flavie Flament accused the 84-year-old of abusing her when she posed for him at the age of 13. Hamiton had denied the accusations.

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Second place was again occupied by Jock Sturges, another controversial photographer known for portraying nude young women. British street art favorite Banksy took third again, whilst blue-chip pop artists Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat took fourth and fifth places; the latter benefiting from a surge of searches to climb 15 places after a strong showing in the fall auctions, which included the $8.8 million sale of Air Power, formerly of David Bowie’s collection.

Pablo Picasso took sixth place, whilst photographer Diane Arbus dropped to seventh; fellow snappers Nan Goldin and Robert Mapplethorpe took eighth and ninth respectively. Mapplethorpe jumped nine places to get into the top 10, propelled by a two-person show with Jurgen Teller at London’s Allison Jacques gallery, which opened last month. Keith Haring rounded off the top 10.

Gerhard Richter. Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images.

As always the list gets more interesting outside of the top 10, which is routinely occupied by erotic photographers and blue-chip artists.One clear winner in November was Yayoi Kusama. Thanks to the start of a North American tour of the artist’s insanely popular Infinity Rooms at Washingotn DC’s Hirschhorn Museum, the octogenarian Japanese artist climbed from 29th to 17th place as more and more artnet users researched her work.

Some very politically incorrect remarks by German star artist Gerhard Richter, who made headlines for sharply criticizing the refugee policy of chancellor Angela Merkel, helped the painter move from 37th to 25th spot.

Elsewhere Barbara Kruger’s politically charged cover design for the November edition of New York Magazine, which (incorrectly) proclaimed president-elect Donald Trump as “LOSER,” helped her move up the ranks from 131st to 53rd place, as users enthusiastically searched for more examples of her work.

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On the other side of the scale, Agnes Martin dropped 97 places from 85th to 182nd as hype and interest for her much-heralded solo retrospective at New York’s Guggenheim Museum dramatically wore off.

See the list of top artists for November below:

1. David Hamilton

2. Jock Sturges

3. Banksy

4. Andy Warhol

5. Jean-Michel Basquiat

6. Pablo Picasso

7. Diane Arbus

8. Nan Goldin

9. Robert Mapplethorpe

10. Keith Haring

11. KAWS