Last month was a relatively quiet one in the art world. As collectors decamped to Saint Moritz, Aspen, and the South of France, there was little in the way of auction activity beyond the annual Old Masters sales in London. But art-market players rarely fully unplug, and there was still plenty of auction activity to track on the Artnet Price Database. 

The search queries aren’t free, which means those running them have skin in the game, and changing rankings can offer a snapshot of business interests and activity in particular artists, especially on the secondary market. Below, we bring you the list of the top-searched artists on the Artnet Price Database in July 2021. (Those who had the same number of searches are listed as tied.) 

Before we get into that, however, here is a selection of artists on the rise who haven’t cracked the top 300 yet—but might soon. Given the eclectic nature of the market last month, these names are a mix of fast-rising contemporary art stars and lesser-known figures active earlier in the 20th century who are gaining traction in their own right. 

Notable Fast-Risers

Jadé Fadojutimi (b. 1993)

Jadé Fadojutimi, I’m pirouetting the night away (2019). Image courtesy Sotheby’s.

The young London-based painter, who graduated from the city’s Royal College of Art in 2017, is quickly making a name for herself with exuberant, richly colored abstract compositions depicting ribbons of color knotted around one another like constellations. Ahead of her first U.S. solo museum show at the ICA Miami in November (which will be on view during the coveted Art Basel Miami Beach time slot), her auction market has caught fire. At Sotheby’s London in June, I’m pirouetting the night away (2019) fetched $556,832, dwarfing its $166,135 high estimate. Artnet Price Database searchers are certainly eager to follow her career: in July last year, she had a grand total of zero searches. Last month, she drew 76.

Hilary Pecis (b. 1979)

Hilary Pecis, Breakfast Nook (2021). © Hilary Pecis. Courtesy Timothy Taylor, London/New York.

The artist’s charming, sun-dappled paintings of life in Los Angeles swiftly sold out during her debut solo show with Timothy Taylor Gallery in London this summer, at prices ranging from $20,000 to $60,000. Disappointed buyers who couldn’t get their hands on one there appear to have duked it out at auction. The two paintings by the artist that have hit the block this year both sold for many multiples of their high estimates. (The final prices were $225,437 at Christie’s Hong Kong in May, and $468,724 at Sotheby’s London in July.) Another artist who did not make so much as a ripple on the Artnet Price Database this time last year, Pecis received a total of 70 searches last month. 

Sam Szafran (b. 1934)

Sam Szafran, Untitled (1971). Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art.

For anyone other than a seasoned expert in French postwar art, Sam Szafran might be a bit of a deep cut. The artist, who specializes in using pastel to depict intricate interiors and stairwells, has always been somewhat out of step with the fashions of his time. A favorite of the late billionaire collector William Louis-Dreyfus, Szafran became a more regular fixture on the auction block over the past two years, as Louis-Dreyfus’s holdings were sold off. Even more recently, four of his works were included in Sotheby’s Paris Contemporary Curated sale in July, which was organized by fashion-designer duo Arnaud Vaillant and Sébastien Meyer. All four works exceeded expectations, with the priciest, L’Escalier rue de Seine, fetching a double-estimate $283,447. Szafran’s inclusion in the sale likely helped boost his PDB searches, which rose from 11 in July 2020 to 73 in July 2021. 

Alfons Walde (1891–1958)

Alfonse Wade, Spätwinter (ca. 1935). Courtesy of Christie’s Images, Ltd.

Affiliated with the Viennese Secessionist movement, Alfons Walde rubbed shoulders with Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt in Vienna in the 1910s. But he did not find his signature style until the late 1920s, when he began painting mountainous landscapes dotted with figures. Sales of his work have largely been limited to German auction houses, but his market hit a notable landmark in June, when a painting of three skiers became his first to cross the $1 million threshold. Der Aufstieg der Schifahrer (c. 1927) fetched $1.2 million at Dorotheum, almost double its high estimate and roughly twice what it fetched when it was last sold at auction in 2011. Having drawn only 12 searches in July 2020, Walde hit 69 searches last month. 

300 Most-Searched Artists in the Artnet Price Database, July 2021