Yayoi Kusama’s exhibit at her exhibition in Singapore. Picture taken at National Gallery Singapore, Singapore.
Best-selling contemporary artist in 2023
According to the Hiscox Artist Top 100 (HAT), Yayoi Kusama was the best-selling contemporary artist in 2023. The report covers key trends in the market for contemporary art since 2000 and reveals that Kusama’s works generated $80.9 million in auction sales last year, toppling David Hockney (who sold $50.3 million) from the top spot.
Female artists outperform
Last year, female artists accounted for 32% of contemporary sales, up from 29% the year before. The number of female artists represented with contemporary works at auction has risen sharply in the last five years, from 261 in 2019 to 728 female artists in 2023, marking a 179% increase.
The value of sales of contemporary artworks made by women fell by 8%, although the number of lots sold was up by 21%. The market for female artists has been much more resilient than that of male artists, whose sales by value reduced by 20%.
Sustained interest in female artists
Interest in female artists is expected to continue, as revealed by the 2024 exhibition calendar for many high-profile galleries and museums. Among these are the recently opened retrospectives of Yoko Ono at Tate Modern and British artist Leslie Thornton at MoMA in New York and exhibitions focusing on an older generation of female artists.
Robert Read, Head of Art and Private Clients at Hiscox commented: “Despite being 95 years old, Japanese trailblazer Yayoi Kusama remains one of the most influential female artists. Her work and life continue to attract global followers and deliver blockbuster shows, but female representation begins to wane as we move through the HAT 100 list.”
Progress and challenges ahead
“Contemporary female artists have always been undervalued and underrepresented. Meaningful progress has been made in recent years, as the market gradually begins to recognise the importance and value of their work, but we are still some way from parity,” Read added. The number of artists whose works went to auction within two years of being made, which we define as ‘wet paint’ works, has risen significantly in the past five years.
The numbers have increased from 238 in 2019 to 624 in 2023, and the total number of wet paint pieces sold has followed a similar five-year trajectory, increasing from 397 in 2019 to 1,110 last year. This suggests that more art is being bought with an eye on making a short-term profit – or, to put it bluntly, buyers are increasingly flipping pieces to cash in on particular artists or trends – which comes with the financial risk of a low or no return.
Wet paint sales in 2023
Wet paint sales brought fewer financial rewards in 2023, particularly for pieces from younger creators. The value of wet paint sales fell 36% to £69 million despite an increase in the number of wet paint works sold. Sales by artists under the age of 45 fell 42% year-on- year to $39 million (2022: $67 million), despite the number of lots remaining more or less the same.
Fewer than half (45%) of the works by younger artists sold for prices above their mid-estimate, compared to 65% the year before. The risk of not selling at all has jumped; bought-in (unsold) rates were 17%, up from 6% in 2022. While the market for these young artists remained very busy, the market value of this segment has fallen considerably, with total sales value by artists under 45 down 43% in 2023 compared to the previous year.
Contemporary art market trends
Whilst almost four in every ten (39%) contemporary art lots sold in 2023 were by artists under 45 (around the same as the year before at 41%), these artists accounted for just 21% of sales by value, down from 30% in 2022. Robert Read, Head of Art and Private Clients at Hiscox commented: “As we can see, art trends move at quite a pace. Flipping continues but is less lucrative, and since we last reported, the market has softened considerably. This is particularly challenging for younger artists who’ve seen the price of their work reduce considerably.”
The HAT 100 report provides various insights into the art market. Yayoi Kusama generated $80.9 million in auction sales of her works produced after 2000. She was followed by David Hockney ($50.3 million), Yoshitomo Nara ($36.0 million), and Cecily Brown ($31.7 million), who jumped seven places from her 2022 listing.
Demand for Asian artists
Most (80%) of Kusama’s works were sold at auction in Hong Kong, a sign of strong Asian demand fuelled by the major retrospective exhibition, Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now, at the M+ Museum. US- based Ethiopian Julie Mehretu broke the record for the highest sales price of any work by an African-born artist at auction when her painting Walkers With The Dawn and Morning fetched $10.7 million at Sotheby’s in New York in November 2023.
Although the number of female artists represented at auction in 2023 significantly increased, fewer made it into the HAT 100 (30 compared to 33 in 2022). As the investment bubble in next-generation artists began to deflate in 2023, the number of artists aged below 45 who made it into the HAT 100 fell to 27 from 36 in 2022.
Wet paint works in the HAT 100
Nearly a quarter of the HAT 100 artists’ lots offered for sale were wet paint works. Over a third (34%) of the lots offered for sale by artists aged below 45 in the HAT 100 rank were wet paint works. Since 2019, the number of artists selling contemporary artworks at auction has almost doubled (+91%). In 2023, 2,330 artists were represented at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips, up 22% year-on- year (2022: 1,911 artists).
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