Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Uneven Distribution of International Success in the Visual Artists Among Nations, According to the Rankings of the ‘Top 100 Artists in the World’

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Art and the Challenge of Markets Volume 1

Part of the book series: Sociology of the Arts ((SOA))

Abstract

What part do various countries play in the contemporary visual arts world today, and how can the rankings of the most visible or recognized artists be used to illustrate this? After presenting the genesis of rankings in the visual arts, Quemin introduces the two main rankings of international contemporary artists, that is, the Kunstkompass and Capital Kunstmarkt-Kompass. He analyzes and explains how they are built, their biases, and how their measures are similar or different. He then shows how these rankings can help to reveal a very uneven distribution of artistic success among different countries in the world and the pivotal role the USA plays in this.

This text is an adapted version of Quemin , A. 2014, “International Fame, Success and Consecration in the Visual Arts. A Sociological Perspective on the two Rankings of the ‘Top 100 Artists in the World’: the ‘Kunstkompass’ and the ‘Capital Kunstmarkt Kompass.’” In D. Danko, O. Moeschler & F. Schumacher (eds.), Kunst und Öffentlichkeit. Wiesbaden 2014. Springer VS, pp. 345–364.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The public, for its side, generally favors works of art that resonate with their lives (Halle and Tiso 2014).

  2. 2.

    As a matter of fact, preliminaries of rankings of contemporary artists can be found in the French art magazine Connaissance des Arts as early as 1955. Still, the methodology was much looser than that of Kunstkompass and rankings were only published five times, on a five-year periodicity (Verger 1987). Besides, it should be mentioned here that, once again, 1955 is, more or less, simultaneous to 1945, the date of the emergence of contemporary art as a category for art historians. There, again, the very first attempt to rank artists in terms of visibility or talent was close to the emergence of a new category of art, that of contemporary creation.

  3. 3.

    Although one is supposed to be able to ask for the methodology, our demands have generally been ignored.

  4. 4.

    Two artists share their time between the country where they were born and another one.

  5. 5.

    We attributed a half-point for each country in the case of artists sharing their time between the two of them.

References

Research Material

  • Rohr-Bongard, L., ed. 2001. Kunst = Kapital. Der Capital Kunstkompass von 1970 bis heute. Köln: Salon Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • The figures analyzed in this contribution come from the various editions of the Kunstkompass or from the competing ranking published by Artfacts. Although the main methods used here are quantitative, the research was also based on a hundred or so interviews, some of which were proper in-depth ones and others were much more informal, especially as we were doing fieldwork as an art journalist and art critic.

    Google Scholar 

Research Literature

  • Bartelson, J. 2000. Three Concepts of Globalization. International Sociology 15 (2): 180–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker, H.S. 1982. Art Worlds. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellavance, G., ed. 2000. Monde et réseaux de l’art: diffusion, migration et cosmopolitisme en art contemporain. Montreal: Liber.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. 1993. Sociology in Question. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, Pierre, and Alain Darbel. 1991 (1969). The Love of Art. European Art Museums and Their Public. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowness, A. 1989. The Conditions of Success. How the Modern Artist Rises to Fame. London: Thames & Hudson.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Piles, R. 1969. Cours de Peinture par Principes. Genève: Slatkine Reprints. (Original edition: Cours de Peinture par Principes compos» par Mr. de Piles. Paris 1708. Jacques Estienne. (Amsterdam/Leipzig: Arkstée & Merkus 1766)).

    Google Scholar 

  • Florida, R. 2002. The Rise of the Creative Class. And How It Is Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halle, D., and E. Tiso. 2014. New York’s New Edge: Contemporary Art, the High Line and Megaprojects on the Far West Side. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Heinich, N. 1998. Le Triple jeu de l’art contemporain. Paris: Minuit.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merton, R. 1968. The Matthew Effect. Science 159 (3810): 56–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moulin, Raymonde. 1967. Le marché de la peinture en France. Paris: Editions de Minuit.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1992. L’artiste, l’institution et le march. Paris: Flammarion.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moulin, R., and A. Quemin. 1993. La certification de la valeur de l’art. In Experts et expertises. Annales ESC, Special Issue Mondes de l’art, no. 6, 1421–1445. novembre–décembre.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quemin, A. 2001. Le rôle des pays prescripteurs sur le marché et dans le monde de l’art contemporain. Paris: Ministère des Affaires Etrangères.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2002a. In L’art contemporain international. Entre les institutions et le march, ed. Jacqueline Chambon. Nîmes/Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d’Or: Artprice.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2002b. L’illusion de l’abolition des frontiÀres dans le monde de l’art contemporain international. La place des pays ‘périphériques’ á l’ère de la globalisation et du métissage. Sociologie et Sociétés XXXIV (2): 15–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2006. Globalization and Mixing in the Visual Arts. An Empirical Survey of ‘High Culture’ and Globalization. International Sociology 21 (4): 522–550.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2013a. International Contemporary Art Fairs in a ‘Globalized’ Art Market. European Societies 15 (2): 162–177.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2013b. Les stars de l’art contemporain. Notoriété et consécration artistiques dans les arts visuels. Paris: Editions du CNRS.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2014. International Fame, Success and Consecration in the Visual Arts. A Sociological Perspective on Two Rankings of the ‘Top 100 Artists in the World’: The ‘Kunstkompass’ and the ‘Capital Kunstmarkt Kompass’, Kunst und Öffentlichkeit, Reihe “Kunst und Gesellschaft”, ed. D. Danko, O. Moeschler, and F. Schumacher, 345–364. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quemin, A., and F. van Hest. 2015. The Impact of Nationality and Territory on Fame and Success in the Visual Arts Sector: Artists, Experts and the Market. In Cosmopolitan Canvases: The Globalization of Markets for Contemporary Art, ed. O. Velthuis and S. Baia Curioni. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sassen, S. 1991. The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Therborn, G. 2000. Globalizations. Dimensions, Historical Waves, Regional Effects, Normative Governance. International Sociology 15 (2): 151–179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Hest, F. 2012. Territorial Factors in a Globalized Art World? The Visibility of Countries in International Contemporary Art Events. Rotterdam: ERMeCC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vasari, G. 1896. The Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, from Cimabue to Our Times (Le Vite de’ pi˘ eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori da Cimabue insino a’ tempi nostri, Florence 1550, ed. Lorenzo Torrentino). New York: Scribner’s.

    Google Scholar 

  • Velthuis, O. 2013. Globalization of Markets for Contemporary Art. Why Local Ties Remain Dominant in Amsterdam and Berlin. European Societies 15 (2): 290–308.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Verger, A. 1987. L’art d’estimer l’art. Comment classer l’incomparable? Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales 66–67: 105–121.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Paris 8, Institut d’Etudes Européennes, Saint-Denis, France

    Alain Quemin

Authors
  1. Alain Quemin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Creative and Cultural, Entrepreneurship Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK

    Victoria D. Alexander

  2. University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland

    Samuli Hägg

  3. University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland

    Simo Häyrynen

  4. University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland

    Erkki Sevänen

Appendix 1: Table of the Country Abbreviations Used in the Ranking Lists

Appendix 1: Table of the Country Abbreviations Used in the Ranking Lists

AL = Albania

AT = Austria

AU = Australia

BE = Belgium

BR = Brazil

CA = Canada

CH = Switzerland

CZ = The Czech Republic

D = Germany

DK = Denmark

F = France

GB = Great Britain (see, also, the United Kingdom)

GR = Greece

IND = India

IR = Iran

IT = Italy

JP = Japan

LB = Lebanon

MEX = Mexico

NL = The Netherlands

RO = Romania

RS = Serbia

RU = Russia (see, also RUS)

RUS = Russia

SE = Sweden

SRB = Serbia

TH = Thailand (see, also, THA)

THA = Thailand

UK = The United Kingdom

ZA = Republic of South Africa

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Quemin, A. (2018). The Uneven Distribution of International Success in the Visual Artists Among Nations, According to the Rankings of the ‘Top 100 Artists in the World’. In: Alexander, V., Hägg, S., Häyrynen, S., Sevänen, E. (eds) Art and the Challenge of Markets Volume 1. Sociology of the Arts . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64586-5_9

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64586-5_9

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-64585-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-64586-5

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation