The Artists You Should Know

Hi Everyone,

I hope you’re well, and welcome back to The Art & Artists Report.

Thank you all so much for subscribing.

Today, I am excited to share perhaps the most anticipated post of The Art & Artists Report, which will focus on artists and shares the answers to the following question:

If someone wanted to engage more deeply with modern and contemporary art, who are 4-5 artists they should know about, who will have a lasting presence in 5-10 years? Why did you choose them?

I’ve delayed sharing the answers to this question until well into the report. This was not a marketing ploy to keep you reading until we got here. Instead, I wanted to avoid joining the seemingly unending scrum of listmakers who detail the “next,” “hottest,” or “future” artists. Most of the time, these lists are superficial. They devalue artists and artworks, making them akin to Amazon products. And the point of this report was to push back against this aspect of art marketing and provide meaningful analysis.

At the same time, I still believe there is real value—maybe more than ever— in having truly expert voices identify artists who will influence the future. At the end of the day, most of today’s lists are not the product of expert input. And artists are still the center of the art world, the raison d’être for the entire enterprise. And art history is inherently a practice of choosing which artists to pay attention to.

As with the previous art tendencies post, a few respondents (and fewer than last week) disputed making such a list. They were all curators. One simply answered, “PASS.” Another said such a list was impossible because “it really depends on what area you specialize in— market-focused art, socially engaged art, participatory art, etc.” An additional respondent called any list like this “unfair,” especially because there are so many audiences in the art world right now, and different artists resonate with different groups. This respondent also questioned whether anyone had the ability to predict the future, since times change, often in ways we cannot anticipate. They explained: “Think about the modern masters, Picasso, Gauguin, or even people like Damien Hirst. Even a decade ago, these guys would've still been listed as top 5, 10, whatever. Right now? Very different perception.” Finally, someone said that the art world is now just too big for this, and “there are way too many [artists]” to make any judgments.

Now, on to the results…

Among the 230 responses, whether there was consensus is debatable. On one hand, nine artists were mentioned more than three times, and they are below:

• Simone Leigh (6)

• Njideka Akunyili Crosby (4)

• Jeffrey Gibson (4)

• Hugh Hayden (4)

• Marina Abramović (3)

• Lawrence Abu Hamdan (3)

• Nicholas Galanin (3)

• David Hammons (3)

• Jeff Koons (3)

This list is very interesting. What do we notice? For one, the strong presence of Black artists. Then there is the lack of white men from the West, except Koons. Crosby is the only artist who exclusively makes two-dimensional work. We also see the influence of Venice Biennale representation (Leigh and Gibson were the last two American representatives). There is, furthermore, the lagging influence of artists who have been predominant for decades and who (in some respects) “cannot not” be on a list of influential artists, such as Koons and Abramović. They also both stand for specific types of influential work—large-scale, monumental, “contemporary pop” sculpture (Koons) and contemporary (provocative) performance (Abramović). There’s a mixed sense of what is contemporary too; I personally was surprised by the older artists appearing on this list (e.g., Koons, Hammons, Abramovic). Hamdan represents a major voice within activist art.

Recent, significant exhibitions also affect the list and keep certain artists on people’s minds. This past fall, for example, Hayden opened two one-person exhibitions at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas and the Rose Art Museum in Waltham, MA.

Finally, we also see the power of market value. Crosby’s work, which is in high demand because of both its quality and the slow, exacting pace of her studio practice, achieved one of the highest prices at auction last year for a contemporary artist. Her painting Thread (2012) sold at Sotheby’s New York for $1,996,000. Crosby’s value was further reinforced in 2023 when David Zwirner chose her (among its very large roster) to inaugurate his first Los Angeles gallery. Finally, the presence of Galanin (like Gibson) reflects the art world’s recent attention to Indigenous artists and his particular critical embrace: Galanin recently won the $200,000 Don Tyson Prize for outstanding achievement in American art.

Since you may be interested in doing further research on these artists, I have linked them all to one source each that I thought might be helpful. In my own work, my favorite sources on artists vary according to the particular artist. For these well-known names, the challenge is not to find information but to determine what to pay attention to and what to ignore. (This is especially true with today’s Internet, where so much of the content is just copied and pasted from other sources or, increasingly, generated by AI.) A best bet is to start with the bibliographies (and, if they are available, the press packs) that galleries often provide on their websites. These are often the most reliable starting points—and I stress “starting points” here because galleries almost never include press that would be critical of the artist.

After the top group, 25 artists were mentioned twice:

• Refik Anadol (2)

• Nairy Baghramian (2)

• Nancy Baker Cahill (2)

• Jean-Michel Basquiat (2)

• Cecily Brown (2)

• Jordan Casteel (2)

• Nick Cave (2)

• Marcel Duchamp (2)

• Nicole Eisenman (2)

• Jeremy Frey (2)

• Charles Gaines (2)

• Damien Hirst (2)

• Pierre Huyghe (2)

• Rashid Johnson (2)

• Isaac Julien (2)

• Ragnar Kjartansson (2)

• Yayoi Kusama (2)

• Rebecca Morris (2)

• Pablo Picasso (2)

• Gerhard Richter (2)

• Amy Sherald (2)

• Tavares Strachan (2)

• Sarah Sze (2)

• Mickalene Thomas (2)

• Kara Walker (2)

And now, here is everyone else:

• Rita Ackermann

• Igshaan Adams

• Terry Adkins

• Hilma af Klint

• Laurie Anderson

• Marwa Arsanios

• Kader Attia

• Francis Bacon

• John Baldessari

• George Baselitz

• Meriem Bennani

• Joseph Beuys

• Frank Bowling

• Diedrick Brackens

• Heather Brown

• Gerard Byrne

• Widline Cadet

• Victoria Cantons

• Leonora Carrington

• Carolina Caycedo

• Lenka Clayton

• Gisela Colon

• Sofia Cordova

• Alison Croney Moses

• Alex Da Corte

• Rhea Dillon

• Tara Donovan

• Letaru Dralega

• Marlene Dumas

• Torkwase Dyson

• Olafur Eliasson

• Tracey Emin

• Cao Fei

• Teresita Fernandez

• Derek Fordjour

• Louis Fratino

• Lucian Freud

• Dominique Fung

• Theaster Gates

• Gego

• Isa Genzken

• Sonia Gomes

• Sasha Gordon

• Emilie Louise Gossiaux

• Miles Greenberg

• Núria Güell

• Solène Gün

• Wade Guyton

• Petrit Halilaj

• Lauren Halsey

• Cannupa Hanska Luger

• Libby Heaney

• Edgar Heap of Birds

• Lynn Hershman Leeson

• Sheila Hicks

• Elaine Hoey

• Loie Hollowell

• Sky Hopinka

• Roni Horn

• Sedrick Huckaby

• Hanna Hur

• Anne Imhof

• Nour Jaouda

• Jennie C. Jones

• Donald Judd

• Frida Kahlo

• Jitish Kallat

• Titus Kaphar

• Nina Katchadourian

• Grada Kilomba

• Kierah KIKI King

• Suzanne Kite

• Emily Kraus

• Mous Lamrabat

• Doron Langberg

• Zoe Leonard

• Lehuauakea

• Tau Lewis

• Glenn Ligon

• Xin Liu

• Steve Locke

• Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

• Tala Madani

• Guadalupe Maravilla

• Kerry James Marshall

• Agnes Martin

• Patrick Martinez

• Ahmed Mater

• Mary Mattingly

• Rodney McMillian

• Allison Miller

• Kent Monkman

• Ronald Moran

• Richard Mosse

• Zanele Muholi

• Suchitra Muttai

• Wangechi Mutu

• Toyin Ojih Odutola

• Alex Olson

• Sarah Oppenheimer

• Laura Owens

• Yuri Pattison

• Rajni Perera

• Kate Pincus-Whitney

• Gala Porras-Kim

• Seth Price

• Laure Prouvost

• Charles Ray

• Casey Reas

• Wendy Red Star

• Megan Reed

• Rhiannon (Reko) Rennie

• Rahi Rezvani

• Anna Ridler

• Deborah Roberts

• Rachel Rose

• Veronica Ryan

• Mohammed Sami

• Máret Ánne Sara

• Tomás Saraceno

• Jacolby Satterwhite

• Ana Segovia

• Tschabalala Self

• Joan Semmel

• Cindy Sherman

• Amy Sillman

• Marianna Simnett

• Taryn Simon

• Cauleen Smith

• Soko

• Val Souza

• Hiroshi Sugimoto

• Christine Sun Kim

• Stephanie Syjuco

• Anh Tran

• Rosemarie Trockel

• Simón Vega

• Andy Warhol

• Marie Watt

• Dominic White

• Carmen Winant

• Amelia Winger-Bearskin

• Issy Wood

• Tintin Wulia

• Rose Wylie

• Lynette Yiadom-Boayke

Though there are some surprising inclusions—particularly artists who are definitely not considered “contemporary” (such as Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Bacon, and a few others), I believe this list is an excellent jumping-off point for curious readers to learn about notable contemporary artists. I definitely could not have made it myself, and I am indebted to the experts who helped me compile it.

As I want to be sensitive to your inboxes, I won’t further analyze these lists (and extend the length of this post). I’ll let it speak for itself and I hope that you take the time to explore at least some of these artists and their disparate practices. Perhaps there are a number of names you weren’t familiar with—and hopefully this post will serve as your inspiration to learn more.

As a final note, I was surprised by a few omissions. So below are some artists I’d add, in no particular order:

• Tania Bruguera

• Shirin Neshat

• Ai Weiwei

• Lorna Simpson

• Mark Bradford

• Julie Mehretu

• Wolfgang Tillmans

• Hito Steyerl

That’s it for this week. I wonder if you agree with this list of “top” artists? Do you believe someone should have received more votes? Has anyone important been left off the list altogether?

I can’t believe it, but the next post will be the last of this year’s report, and it will focus on the following question:

Who are 3-4 of today’s curators or art “leaders” who will have a lasting impact?

See you then.

Best,

Matthew

Matthew Israel
matthewisrael.com
A Year in the Art World
Art & Artists