The 10 Most Expensive Living Artists

When a record rocks the auction world, in most cases it’s the work of a long-dead artist. Regardless of the gender disparity, the reasons are different and all reasonable. In short, the market (and the public) needs time to digest the corpus of an artist in its ecosystem, many of whom often run the risk of only receiving the laurel wreath post-mortem.

Related: The World's 10 Most Expensive Diamonds

Fortunately, however, there are some exceptions, and a niche of artists do succeed, albeit usually in the last phase of their careers. We’ve discovered who they are with the support of the free Barnebys price bank.

Male Artists:

5. Jasper Johns, Small False Start

American Neo-Dada artist Jasper Johns' 1960 collage-like painting Small False Start sold for $55.3 million in 2022 at Christie's during the sale of Paul Allen's billion-dollar collection, making Johns the second most expensive living American artist. The record-setting work is emblematic of Johns' bold pop artworks that combine bright color, stencil text, abstraction and an amalgam of materials.

Related: Discover the Results of Christie's Billion-Dollar Night

4. Sacha Jafri, The Journey of Humanity

The Journey of Humanity, the largest canvas in the world known to date, soared to nearly $62 million during a charity auction in Dubai on March 22, 2021. Made by British artist Sacha Jafri, it consists of 70 panels and measures over 17,000 square feet, the equivalent of four NBA basketball courts.

Related: World’s Largest Painting Sells – for a Record Price

It was created in the ballroom of a Dubai hotel where the artist was staying before the government put in place health restrictions related to COVID-19. Stuck at the hotel, Jafri turned the space into a giant workshop for more than seven months. The Journey of Humanity was created to raise funds for children affected by the pandemic.

Jafri intended to sell the panels separately in hopes of making $30 million, but Dubai-based businessman André Abdoune stepped in, offering more than double to buy them all at a charity auction.

3. Beeple, EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS

In May 2007, the digital artist known as Beeple set out to create and post a new work of art online every day. Beeple achieved this feat, creating a new digital picture each day for 5,000 days straight. Individually known as EVERYDAYS, collectively, the pieces form the core of EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS, one of the most unique bodies of work to emerge in the history of digital art.

Related: The 12 Most Expensive Paintings Ever Auctioned

On March 11, 2021, several records were made when the work sold for $69.3 million at Christie's: it became the most expensive digital artwork ever sold, the third highest price paid for a work by a living artist, the highest price for any lot in any online-only auction, the highest price for any winning bid placed online, and the highest total for any online-only auction.

2. David Hockney, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)

Before the 2019 sale of Jeff Koons’ Rabbit, the evening sale of Christie's Post-war and Contemporary Art on November 15, 2018 gave rise to the most expensive painting by a living artist. After months of tension and expectations, David Hockney was awarded this record with his iconic Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), which, after an intense battle, was purchased by the new owner for a staggering $90.3 million.

Related: Travel the World Through Art

1. Jeff Koons, Rabbit

This stainless steel statue made history when it was sold by Christie’s in 2019 for $91 million. The realized price was more than 80% over the estimate of $50-70 million and the bidding battle took more than ten minutes. According to Christie’s, this is the last of three Rabbit sculptures still in private hands and some collectors consider it the ‘holy grail’ of the artist’s works. The creator, American Jeff Koons, whose works have always generated conflicting opinions and big controversy, is best known for his sculptures reminiscent of balloon figures. 

Female Artists

5. Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Stills 1977-1980

Dubbed ‘the queen of selfie’, Cindy Sherman is known for the self-portraits that ironically portray all the ‘masks’ and characters that the artist invents to reflect the fears and obsessions of Western society, as in Untitled Film Stills 1977-1980. The shots in this series were sold as one lot by Christie's during the same sale in which Kusama's White No. 28 (formerly number 3 in this list) was sold. The Sherman photographs realized $6.7 million.

Related: The Female Look: 11 Women Who Changed Photography

4. Cecily Brown, Suddenly Last Summer

British artist Cecily Brown broke into the most expensive living artists when her abstract masterpiece Suddenly Last Summer sold for $6.77 million at Sotheby's in 2018. More than doubling its estimate, Brown's painting draws inspiration from the Abstract Expressionist movement in a kaleidoscope of distorted figures and a fusion of color shades.

3. Yayoi Kusama, Pumpkin (LPASG) 

Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese artist best known to the general public for the polka dots and pumpkins that appear in her artworks. She’s also famously known for living and working, by her will, in an asylum. The most recent entry in this list is her Pumpkin (LPASG), which was auctioned at Sotheby's in Hong Kong on December 1, 2021 for HK$62,540,000 ($8 million). With the price achieved, Kusama was able to defend her third place spot among the most expensive living female artists, which she had already achieved with the work White No. 28 from 1960 (approx. $7.1 million).

2. Cady Noland, Bluewald

Second place is firmly occupied by the conceptual artist Cady Noland. Bluewald (1989), a screen printing on aluminium, was sold in 2011 by Christie's for $9.8 million. The work portrays Lee Harvey Oswald, the man believed to be responsible for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, shortly before he is pierced by a bullet. Noland’s practice mainly focuses on sculpture and explores, in clear antithesis of the myth of the American Dream, what she calls ‘the American Nightmare’.

Related: The Women’s Decade of Revenge

1. Jenny Saville, Propped

In November 2018, the American Jenny Saville made both art world and feminist history when she became the most valuable living female artist in the world. Propped, oil on canvas, painted in 1992, was sold by Sotheby's in London for $12.4 million. The painting, a self-portrait that challenges the stereotypes of female beauty, comes from the collection of David Teiger, a famous patron and historical director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, who died in 2014.

Discover more from the art world with Barnebys Magazine

This is an updated version of an article first published on March 15, 2021