Andy Warhol was the most successful and highly paid commercial illustrator in New York even before he began to make art destined for galleries. Nevertheless, his screenprinted images of Marilyn Monroe, soup cans, and sensational newspaper stories, quickly became synonymous with Pop art.
She employed painting, sculpture, performance art, and installations in a variety of styles, including Pop art and Minimalism. By her own account, Kusama began painting as a child, at about the time she began experiencing hallucinations that often involved fields of dots.
Keith Allen Haring was an American artist whose pop art and graffiti-like work grew out of the New York City street culture of the 1980s. Much of his work includes sexual allusions that turned into social activism. He achieved this by using sexual images to advocate for safe sex and AIDS awareness.
Günther Förg was part of the post-war generation of German popular artists who reacted against Modernism, and was one of the pioneers in exhibiting multi-disciplinary works. Förg’s modern art paintings are often concerned with the political climate of his era in Germany, and are known for their brightly saturated solid colours. He was considered to be one of the most interesting creators of contemporary art of his time.
Jeff Koons is famous among popular artists for turning banal objects into fine arts icons by utilizing concepts like celebrity, media, and commerce. In doing so, he holds up a mirror to society and reveals it in all its grotesque contradictions. His fascination with these subjects is also reflected in the commercial materials he uses. Whether you love him or hate him, he succeeded in taking the art world by storm and securing a permanent spot for himself as one of today’s most popular artists.
Jean-Michel Basquiat, one of the most famous American painters and one of he greatest painters of all time, emerged from the early ‘80s American Punk scene in New York and swiftly became recognised in the international art circuit for work such as his abstract paintings of faces. His “naïf” art skilfully merged styles and traditions, creating collage-type works of contemporary art which often referred to his urban and African-Caribbean heritage. Basquiat’s modern art paintings are an example of how counter-cultural art practice can become a completely recognised, embraced, and celebrated form of art by the commercial masses. His abstract paintings of faces sell for the highest prices on the art market today.
The world’s most expensive living artist, British painter David Hockney, has become an omnipresent figure in contemporary art. After three recent exhibitions in some of the world’s most famous contemporary art museums, the Tate Modern in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the MET in New York, the artist’s heavenly landscapes will be presented at an eagerly awaited sales at Christie’s.
Although this list stems from a deep study of the painters, their contribution to Western painting, and their influence on later artists; we are aware that objectivity does not exist in Art, so we understand that most readers will not agree 100% with this list. In any case, theartwolf.com assures that this list is only intended as a tribute to painting and the painters who have made it an unforgettable Art.