How Nice to be Dead (For and Artist)!

Picasso is still the top earner so far this year, having sold over $233 million in the first three quarters.



The list of the top ten artists, compiled by Artnet (see here), has only ONE artist still alive: 



Gerhard Richter, ranked 6th, with $124 million.



It goes to show how nice it is to be dead for an artist...



Keep your fingers crossed! I wish Gerhard Richter many more years of healthy production, I love his work - for example this one:







Gerhard Richeter 19.3.92   Source: Wahooart.com 

And here's the trailer of an interesting documentary film done by Corinne Belz (2011) showing how he works:







Incidentally, the high ranking of the two Chinese artists, Zhang Daqian and Qi Baishi who are major 20th century masters, may have to be revised due to the extent of fakes in the Chinese art market (see NYT article below): their paintings have hit record prices in China - like one of Qi Baishi's ink paintings ("An Eagle Standing on a Pine Tree" done in 1946) that sold for a staggering $65.4 million in 2011. But it still has not been paid for, as doubts were raised about its authenticity. 



Apparently, the extent of forgery in China is both a cultural phenomenon - the Chinese revere artistic tradition and see no moral problem in "repeating" the masters - and a result of Chinese capitalism, with new billionnaires and speculators adding to the "stir-fry" feel of the market, as the Chinese themselves describe it. I love that expression! The good news is that the Chinese government and the big Chinese auction houses like Poly International and China Guardian, are looking for ways to curb the abuses and restore consumer confidence.  The big Western auction houses - Sotheby's and Christie's - have recently been allowed to enter the Chinese market, presumably to provide healthy competition for the more than 350 Chinese auction houses that deal in fine art.



That's yet one more aspect of globalization of the art market at work...  











Related article:

China's Counterfeit Art Boom(nytimes.com)