The names and works of these artists will be known for centuries.

10 Leonardo da Vinci (1492 - 1619)

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci went down in history as an outstanding architect, inventor, researcher, philosopher, mathematician, writer, musician, and, of course, an artist. His masterpieces "Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper" are known all over the world. They also note his merits in other sciences - in geology, astronomy and anatomy.

9 Raphael Santi (1483 - 1520)

The Italian Raphael Santi, a representative of the Renaissance (late 15th - early 16th centuries), was one of the greatest painters and architects. One of his famous works, The School of Athens, is now in the Vatican, in the Apostolic Palace. The name of Raphael stands next to the names of the great artists of the era, such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

8 Diego Velasquez (1599 - 1660)

Diego de Silva y Velasquez is famous for his portraits. The Spanish painter became popular thanks to a large number of works depicting the royal family, historical events and famous European personalities, which deserved to be considered one of the symbols of the golden age of painting. Velázquez worked on his paintings at the court of King Philip the Fourth, painting his most famous painting Las Meninas, depicting his family.

7 Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973)

Compatriot Diego Velaquez Picasso made an invaluable contribution to the visual arts of the twentieth century. He laid the foundation for a completely new direction in painting - cubism. His painting and sculpture have given him the title of the best and "most expensive" artist of the last century. The number of his works cannot be counted - it is measured in tens of thousands.

6 Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890)

Sixth place in the ranking was taken by the well-known painter Vincent Willem Van Gogh from the Netherlands. Unfortunately, his fame as one of the most prominent post-impressionists, he acquired after his death. His works are distinguished by a unique, recognizable style. Van Gogh's paintings: landscapes, portraits and self-portraits are valued incredibly highly. During his life, Vincent van Gogn wrote more than 2100 works, among them his series of works "Sunflowers" is especially distinguished.

5 Michelangelo (1475 - 1564)

The Italian Michelangelo Buonarroti brilliantly became famous for his works in sculpture, painting, architecture. He is also a famous philosopher and poet, who had a huge impact on the entire culture of mankind. The creations of Michelangelo - the sculptures "Pieta" and "David" are among the most famous in the world. But his frescoes, which are on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, undoubtedly gained great fame. Michelangelo also designed the dome of St. Peter's Basilica, leaving his mark on architecture.

4 Masaccio (1401 - 1428)

The outstanding mystery artist Masaccio, about whose biography we know very little, made an invaluable contribution to the visual arts, inspiring many artists. The life of this artist ended very quickly, but even during this period of time, Masaccio left a great cultural heritage. His fresco "Trinity" in Italy, in the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, is one of the four surviving frescoes that have become world famous. There is an opinion that the rest of his works by Masaccio could not be preserved intact and were destroyed.

3 Peter Paul Rubens (1577 - 1640)

The “bronze” of our rating rightfully goes to Peter Paul Rubens, an artist from the Southern Netherlands who worked in the Baroque era and became famous for his special style. Rubens brilliantly conveyed colors on canvas, his paintings fascinated with their liveliness. Everyone, looking at his paintings, could find something of his own - in landscapes, portraits. Rubens also painted historical paintings that tell about myths or religious subjects. Carefully painted over four years, the triptych "Descent from the Cross" won the attention of the whole world. The special style of painting of Rubens glorified him all over the world.

2 Caravaggio (1571 -1610)

The second place in the rating was given to another Italian artist who worked in the early Baroque era, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, who founded European realism. He liked to depict ordinary people from the streets on the canvas, carefully concentrating on important details: the play of light and shadow, colors and contrast. He depicted them in religious, holy images. As Caravaggio himself mentioned, he was proud of his Lute Player, written at the very end of the 16th century. Also mentioned are his paintings "Conversion of Saul", "Matthew the Evangelist", "Bacchus" and others.

1 Rembrandt (1606-1669)

The honorable first place is occupied by the world-famous Dutch artist Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. The artist liked to experiment with chiaroscuro in his works. His works include about three thousand different paintings, drawings and etchings. At the moment, the State Museum of Amsterdam houses the most famous work of Rembrandt - the painting "Night Watch", completed in the middle of the seventeenth century and having gigantic dimensions - four meters.

The mysterious world of art may seem confusing to an inexperienced person, but there are masterpieces that everyone should know. Talent, inspiration and painstaking work on every stroke give rise to works that are admired centuries later.

It is impossible to collect all the outstanding creations in one selection, but we have tried to select the most famous paintings that collect gigantic queues in front of museums around the world.

The most famous paintings by Russian artists

"Morning in a pine forest", Ivan Shishkin and Konstantin Savitsky

Year of creation: 1889
Museum

Shishkin was an excellent landscape painter, but he rarely had to draw animals, so Savitsky, an excellent animal painter, painted the figures of the cubs. At the end of the work, Tretyakov ordered Savitsky's signature to be erased, believing that Shishkin had done much more extensive work.

"Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan on November 16, 1581" by Ilya Repin

Years of creation: 1883–1885
Museum: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

To create a masterpiece, better known as "Ivan the Terrible kills his son", Repin was inspired by the symphony "Antar" by Rimsky-Korsakov, namely, its second movement called "The Sweetness of Revenge". Under the influence of the sounds of music, the artist depicted a bloody scene of murder and subsequent repentance, observed in the eyes of the sovereign.

Seated Demon, Mikhail Vrubel

Year of creation: 1890
Museum: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The painting was one of thirty illustrations drawn by Vrubel for the anniversary edition of the works of M.Yu. Lermontov. The "seated demon" personifies the doubts inherent in the human spirit, the subtle, elusive "mood of the soul." According to experts, the artist was to some extent obsessed with the image of a demon: this painting was followed by "Demon flying" and "Demon defeated".

"Boyar Morozova", Vasily Surikov

Years of creation: 1884–1887
Museum: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The plot of the Old Believer life "The Tale of the Boyar Morozova" formed the basis of the picture. The understanding of the key image came to the artist when he saw a crow spreading its black wings like a spot on a snowy canvas. Later, Surikov searched for a prototype for the noblewoman’s face for a long time, but could not find anything suitable, until one day he met an Old Believer woman with a pale, frantic face in the cemetery. The portrait sketch was completed in two hours.

"Bogatyrs", Viktor Vasnetsov

Years of creation: 1881–1898
Museum: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The future epic masterpiece was born as a small pencil sketch in 1881; for further work on the canvas, Vasnetsov painstakingly collected information about the heroes from myths, legends and traditions for many years, and also studied authentic ancient Russian ammunition in museums.

Analysis of Vasnetsov's painting "Three Heroes"

"Bathing the Red Horse", Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin

Year of creation: 1912
Museum: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Initially, the painting was conceived as a household sketch from the life of a Russian village, but during the work, the artist’s canvas acquired a huge number of symbols. By the red horse, Petrov-Vodkin meant "The Fate of Russia"; after the country's entry into the First World War, he exclaimed: "So that's why I painted this picture!". However, after the revolution, pro-Soviet art critics interpreted the key figure of the canvas as a "harbinger of revolutionary fires."

"Trinity", Andrey Rublev

Year of creation: 1411
Museum: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The icon that laid the foundation for the tradition of Russian icon painting of the 15th-16th centuries. The canvas depicting the Old Testament trinity of angels who appeared to Abraham is a symbol of the unity of the Holy Trinity.

The Ninth Wave, Ivan Aivazovsky

Year of creation: 1850
Museum

A pearl in the "cartography" of the legendary domestic marine painter, who can be without hesitation classified as one of the most famous artists in the world. We can see sailors miraculously surviving after the storm clinging to the mast in anticipation of a meeting with the "ninth wave", the mythical apogee of all storms. But the warm shades that dominate the canvas give hope for the salvation of the victims.

"The Last Day of Pompeii", Karl Bryullov

Years of creation: 1830–1833
Museum: Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Completed in 1833, Bryullov's painting was originally exhibited in the largest cities of Italy, where it caused a real sensation - the painter was compared with Michelangelo, Titian, Raphael ... At home, the masterpiece was met with no less enthusiasm, securing Bryullov's nickname "Charles the Great". The canvas is truly great: its dimensions are 4.6 by 6.5 meters, which makes it one of the largest paintings among the creations of Russian artists.

The most famous paintings by Leonardo da Vinci

"Mona Lisa"

Years of creation: 1503–1505
Museum: Louvre, Paris

A masterpiece of Florentine genius that needs no introduction. It is noteworthy that the painting received cult status after the incident with the abduction from the Louvre in 1911. Two years later, the kidnapper, who turned out to be a museum employee, tried to sell the painting to the Uffizi Gallery. The events of the high-profile case were covered in detail in the world press, after which hundreds of thousands of reproductions went on sale, and the mysterious Mona Lisa became an object of worship.

Years of creation: 1495–1498
Museum: Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan

Five centuries later, a fresco with a classical story on the wall of the refectory of a Dominican monastery in Milan is recognized as one of the most mysterious paintings in history. As conceived by Da Vinci, the picture depicts the moment of the Easter meal, when Christ notifies the disciples of the imminent betrayal. The sheer quantity of hidden symbols has given rise to an equally vast array of studies, allusions, borrowings, and parodies.

"Madonna Litta"

Year of creation: 1491
Museum: Hermitage, St. Petersburg

The painting, also known as the Madonna and Child, was kept in the collection of the Dukes of Litta for a long time, and in 1864 it was bought by the St. Petersburg Hermitage. Many experts agree that the figure of the baby was not painted personally by da Vinci, but by one of his students - a pose that is too uncharacteristic for a painter.

The most famous paintings of Salvador Dali

Year of creation: 1931
Museum: Museum of Modern Art, New York

Paradoxically, the most famous work of the surrealist genius was born from the thought of Camembert cheese. One evening, after a friendly dinner that ended with appetizers with cheese, the artist immersed himself in thoughts about the “spreading pulp”, and his imagination painted a picture like a melting clock with an olive branch in the foreground.

Year of creation: 1955
Museum: National Gallery of Art, Washington

A traditional plot that received a surreal canvas using arithmetic principles studied by Leonardo da Vinci. The artist put the original magic of the number "12" at the forefront, moving away from the hermeneutical method of interpreting the biblical story.

The most famous paintings by Pablo Picasso

Year of creation: 1905
Museum: Pushkin Museum, Moscow

The painting became the first signs of the so-called "pink" period in the work of Picasso. A rough texture and a simplified style are combined with a sensitive play of lines and colors, a contrast between the massive figure of an athlete and a fragile gymnast. The canvas was sold along with 29 other works for 2 thousand francs (in total) to the Parisian collector Vollard, changed several collections, and in 1913 it was acquired by the Russian philanthropist Ivan Morozov, already for 13 thousand francs.

Year of creation: 1937
Museum: Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid

Guernica is the name of a city in the Basque country that was bombed by the Germans in April 1937. Picasso had never been to Guernica, but was stunned by the scale of the catastrophe, like a "blow of a bull's horn." The artist conveyed the horrors of war in an abstract form and showed the real face of fascism, veiling it with bizarre geometric shapes.

The most famous paintings of the Renaissance

"Sistine Madonna", Raphael Santi

Years of creation: 1512–1513
Museum: Old Masters Gallery, Dresden

If you look closely at the background, which at first glance consists of clouds, you will notice that in fact Raphael depicted the heads of angels there. The two angels located at the bottom of the picture are known almost more than the masterpiece itself, due to the wide circulation in mass art.

The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli

Year of creation: 1486
Museum: Uffizi Gallery, Florence

The painting is based on the ancient Greek myth about the birth of Aphrodite from sea foam. Unlike many masterpieces of the Renaissance, the canvas has survived to this day in excellent condition thanks to the protective layer of egg yolk with which Botticelli prudently covered the work.

The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo Buonarotti

Year of creation: 1511
Museum: Sistine Chapel, Vatican

One of the nine frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, illustrating the chapter from Genesis: "And God created man in his own image." It was Michelangelo who first portrayed God as a wise-haired old man, after which this image became archetypal. Modern scientists believe that the contours of the figure of God and angels represent the human brain.

"Night Watch", Rembrandt

Year of creation: 1642
Museum: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

The full title of the painting is "Speech of the Rifle Company of Captain Frans Banning Cock and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenbürg." The painting received its modern name in the 19th century, when it was found by art critics, who, because of the layer of dirt covering the work, decided that the action in the picture takes place under the cover of night darkness.

The Garden of Earthly Delights Hieronymus Bosch

Years of creation: 1500–1510
Museum: Prado Museum, Madrid

Perhaps the most famous Bosch triptych, named after the central part of the composition: the figures depicted on it selflessly indulge in the sin of voluptuousness. In contrast to the full of small, "bustling" details of the middle part, the left wing of the picture, depicting a true paradise, conveys an atmosphere of peace and tranquility, while the right wing, full of diabolical mechanisms, on the contrary, recalls hellish torments.

The most famous paintings of the XX century

"Black Square", Kazimir Malevich

Year of creation: 1915
Museum: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Malevich wrote Black Square for several months; the legend says that a painting is hidden under a layer of black paint - the artist did not have time to finish the work on time and, in a fit of anger, covered up the image. There are at least seven copies of the "Black Square" made by Malevich, as well as a kind of "continuation" of the Suprematist squares - "Red Square" (1915) and "White Square" (1918).

"Scream", Edvard Munch

Year of creation: 1893
Museum: National Gallery, Oslo

Due to the inexplicable mystical effect on the viewer, the painting was stolen in 1994 and 2004. There is an opinion that the picture created at the turn of the 20th century anticipated numerous catastrophes of the coming century. The deep symbolism of The Scream has inspired many artists, including Andy Warhol, directors, musicians, and even animators.

Walk, Marc Chagall

Year of creation: 1918
Museum: Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

If you were also tormented by the question: “Why do people in the painting by Marc Chagall soar in the air?”, Here is the answer from the artist himself - the power that can give a person the opportunity to fly is nothing more than love. It is believed that the man and woman on the canvas are Marc Chagall and his wife.

No. 5, 1948, Jackson Pollock

Year of creation: 1948
Museum: Private collection, New York

This painting still causes a lot of controversy. Some art historians believe that the hype around the painting, painted in the proprietary spatter technique, was artificially created. The canvas was not sold until all the other works of the artist were bought, respectively, the price for a non-objective masterpiece skyrocketed. Number Five was sold for $140 million, making it the most expensive painting in history.

Diptych Marilyn, Andy Warhol

Year of creation: 1962
Museum: Tate Gallery, London

A week after the death of Marilyn Monroe, the scandalous artist began work on the canvas. 50 stenciled portraits of the actress were applied to the canvas, stylized in the pop art genre based on a 1953 photograph.
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If you ask art historians, critics and cultural scholars "who is the best artist?", there are dozens of different answers. This is because there is no single standard by which to measure the value of an artist or sculpture. Fine art is too subjective for such assessments. In addition, the reputation and attitude of a painter may vary depending on the current fashion. Sometimes critics contribute. For example, John Ruskin's review of Annibal Carracci made a huge impact on the reputation of the Bolognese school. Therefore, it is impossible to say with certainty who is still the best artist on the planet. However..

Expensive is not necessarily the best

Prices at famous auctions give some indication of the most valuable works of art and styles, but the vast majority of masterpieces are found in museums and public galleries. For example, Mona Lisa, the authorship of the genius Leonardo, is part of the permanent collection of the Louvre (Paris). Its value is estimated at 1 billion dollars, but it will never be sold at auction. The same applies to other masterpieces of the old masters such as Jan van Eyck, Titian, Rubens, Velazquez, El Greco, Rembrandt, Jan Vermeer, Goya, as well as painters of later years, such as William Turner, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Pollock. , Dali and others.

Gauguin painting sold for a record $300 million

Masterpieces that museums are unable to exhibit are often found in public buildings. The most striking example is the frescoes of the Florentine genius Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. Raphael's stanzas also perfectly illustrate this statement.

Conclusion: market prices in international trading floors are not a fair metric in assessing paintings.

Criteria for the best artist

In theory, one could make a list of criteria in order to try and create a specific list of the best painters or sculptors. For example, you can use the following factors as a primary guideline.

• Price. The importance of the price of a piece is refuted above.
• Strength and durability. The quality and solidity of the created work takes place in the comparison of works, but this will not help answer the main question, because in this case, most contemporary artists will not be able to take part in a kind of competition at all.
• Influence on contemporaries. It seems that contemporaries should be able to assess the significance of an artist or sculptor, but this is not so. Unfortunately, many great masters died incomprehensible and poor.
• current opinion. Undoubtedly, the most democratic criterion for identifying a great master. Although this approach does not exclude nationalist opinions. For example, the Spaniards will prefer Velasquez and Rubens, the French will like Monet and Renoir, the Germans will consider Durer and Holbein the best, and so on. The same can be said about the opinions given by the world's leading art museums.
• Artistic techniques and technique. It is difficult to agree with this evaluation criterion, since neither graduates of the best art academies, nor the greatest masters of oil painting can become the best creators in this case. Great art requires more than technical skill or the ability to use an unusual technique.

There are many authoritative (and not so) art books, articles on the Internet and various materials in the media that try to rank the best masters. Their problem is the subjectivity of the criteria and the substitution of concepts. Such sources can be used as a general guide. Of course, expert opinion matters, but it's just an opinion.

The best artist of all time? Personal decision!

In the end, the choice is given to the person asking the question. Try to convince an ardent admirer of impressionism that the greatest artist in history is Raphael. You won't get anything. Each of us has different aesthetic and stylistic preferences, be it Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque, Neoclassicism, Realism, Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism or Pop Art. Some like abstract images, others admire accuracy and realism. The lack of a single interpretation of "beauty" creates a lot of adored and hated directions. However, in order to make a balanced choice and eliminate errors in choosing the best artist, you need to get acquainted with a certain number of works of world art. After that, the choice is a personal matter.

Different cultures in art history

Most likely, most Western art critics are familiar with a few works of masters from China and Japan, and vice versa. Even if researchers and specialists study the works of art of foreign countries and cultures, most likely, attention, respect and understanding to the works will not increase. In other words, the opinion about the best sculptures and paintings is formed under the influence of culture and mentality.

List of top 10 painters and sculptors. Artrue version.

In view of the foregoing, this list has been created on the basis of the following principles:

• Reputation over the years;
• Outstanding compositions and aesthetic beauty (in the understanding of the editors);
• Impact on culture.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640)

An influential figure in the Baroque style, Rubens dabbled in almost every genre, including history and portraiture. In addition, he designed tapestries, book illustrations, jewelry, cartoons, sculpture designs, and more. To a significant extent, the style of the artist was influenced by the Flemish masters.

Auguste Rodin (1840–1917)

A shy workaholic, Rodin was one of the most influential sculptors of the modern era and a worthy heir to the traditions of Donatello, Michelangelo, Bernini and Giambologna. Constantin Brancusi described it as "the starting point of modern sculpture".

Thinker

Claude Monet (1840–1926)

A leader and adherent of French Impressionism and plein air painting, Monet had a passion for depicting various incarnations of light. Among the followers are Berthe Morisot, Edgar Degas, Edouard Vuillard and others.

William Turner (1775–1851)

The majestic landscape painter in art history exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy in London at the age of 15. His oil paintings and watercolor work had a revolutionary impact. Respected by his contemporaries, Turner himself had an infinite reverence for the old masters.

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519)

Mona Lisa

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)

In addition to masterpieces in the style of analytical and synthetic cubism, Picasso also had experience in sculpture and design. The revolutionary paintings of Pablo actually began a new era of fine art, and his influence on the masters of the 20th century can hardly be overestimated.

Avignon maidens

Rembrandt Van Rijn (1606–1669)

The Dutch genius of realism has created a huge number of stunning masterpieces, including historical works, group and individual portraits, genre paintings, still lifes and self-portraits. Rembrandt also influenced contemporary artists through his engravings.

Self portrait with beret

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564)

Vermeer

One of the most expressive representatives of genre painting. In addition to paintings, he is known for his interiors.

"Card Players"

Author

Paul Cezanne

Country France
Years of life 1839–1906
Style post-impressionism

The artist was born in the south of France in the small town of Aix-en-Provence, but began painting in Paris. Real success came to him after a solo exhibition organized by the collector Ambroise Vollard. In 1886, 20 years before his departure, he moved to the outskirts of his native city. Young artists called trips to him "a pilgrimage to Aix".

130x97 cm
1895
price
$250 million
sold in 2012
at private auction

Cezanne's work is easy to understand. The only rule of the artist was the direct transfer of the subject or plot to the canvas, so his paintings do not cause bewilderment of the viewer. Cezanne combined in his art two main French traditions: classicism and romanticism. With the help of colorful texture, he gave the form of objects an amazing plasticity.

A series of five paintings "Card Players" was written in 1890-1895. Their plot is the same - several people are enthusiastically playing poker. The works differ only in the number of players and the size of the canvas.

Four paintings are kept in museums in Europe and America (the Musée d'Orsay, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Barnes Foundation and the Courtauld Institute of Art), and the fifth, until recently, was an adornment of the private collection of the Greek billionaire shipowner George Embirikos. Shortly before his death, in the winter of 2011, he decided to put it up for sale. Potential buyers of Cezanne's "free" work were art dealer William Aquavella and world-famous gallery owner Larry Gagosian, who offered about $220 million for it. As a result, the painting went to the royal family of the Arab state of Qatar for 250 million. The largest art deal in the history of painting was closed in February 2012. This was reported to Vanity Fair by journalist Alexandra Pierce. She found out the cost of the painting and the name of the new owner, and then the information penetrated the media around the world.

In 2010, the Arab Museum of Modern Art and the Qatar National Museum opened in Qatar. Now their collections are growing. Perhaps the fifth version of The Card Players was acquired by the sheik for this purpose.

The mostexpensive picturein the world

Owner
Sheikh Hamad
bin Khalifa al-Thani

The al-Thani dynasty has ruled Qatar for over 130 years. About half a century ago, huge reserves of oil and gas were discovered here, which instantly made Qatar one of the richest regions in the world. Thanks to the export of hydrocarbons, this small country recorded the largest GDP per capita. Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani seized power in 1995, while his father was in Switzerland, with the support of family members. The merit of the current ruler, according to experts, is in a clear strategy for the development of the country, creating a successful image of the state. Qatar now has a constitution and a prime minister, and women have gained the right to vote in parliamentary elections. By the way, it was the Emir of Qatar who founded the Al Jazeera news channel. The authorities of the Arab state pay great attention to culture.

2

"Number 5"

Author

Jackson Pollock

Country USA
Years of life 1912–1956
Style abstract expressionism

Jack the Sprinkler - such a nickname was given to Pollock by the American public for his special painting technique. The artist abandoned the brush and easel, and poured the paint on the surface of the canvas or fiberboard during continuous movement around and inside them. From an early age, he was fond of the philosophy of Jiddu Krishnamurti, the main message of which is that the truth is revealed during a free "outpouring".

122x244 cm
1948
price
$140 million
sold in 2006 year
on the auction Sotheby's

The value of Pollock's work is not in the result, but in the process. The author did not accidentally call his art "action painting". With his light hand, it became the main asset of America. Jackson Pollock mixed paint with sand, broken glass, and wrote with a piece of cardboard, a palette knife, a knife, a shovel. The artist was so popular that in the 1950s there were even imitators in the USSR. The painting "Number 5" is recognized as one of the strangest and most expensive in the world. One of the founders of DreamWorks, David Geffen, bought it for a private collection, and in 2006 sold it at Sotheby`s for $140 million to Mexican collector David Martinez. However, the law firm soon issued a press release on behalf of its client stating that David Martinez was not the owner of the painting. Only one thing is known for certain: the Mexican financier has indeed recently collected works of contemporary art. It is unlikely that he would have missed such a "big fish" as Pollock's "Number 5".

3

"Woman III"

Author

Willem de Kooning

Country USA
Years of life 1904–1997
Style abstract expressionism

A native of the Netherlands, he emigrated to the United States in 1926. In 1948, a personal exhibition of the artist took place. Art critics appreciated the complex, nervous black-and-white compositions, recognizing in their author a great modernist artist. For most of his life he suffered from alcoholism, but the joy of creating new art is felt in every work. De Kooning is distinguished by the impulsiveness of painting, broad strokes, which is why sometimes the image does not fit within the boundaries of the canvas.

121x171 cm
1953
price
$137 million
sold in 2006 year
at private auction

In the 1950s, women with empty eyes, massive breasts, and ugly features appear in de Kooning's paintings. "Woman III" was the last work from this series participating in the auction.

Since the 1970s, the painting has been kept in the Tehran Museum of Modern Art, but after the introduction of strict moral rules in the country, they sought to get rid of it. In 1994, the work was taken out of Iran, and 12 years later, its owner David Geffen (the same producer who sold Jackson Pollock's "Number 5") sold the painting to millionaire Stephen Cohen for $137.5 million. It is interesting that in one year Geffen began to sell his collection of paintings. This gave rise to a lot of rumors: for example, that the producer decided to buy the Los Angeles Times.

At one of the art forums, an opinion was expressed about the similarity of "Woman III" with the painting by Leonardo da Vinci "Lady with an Ermine". Behind the toothy smile and shapeless figure of the heroine, the connoisseur of painting discerned the grace of a person of royal blood. This is also evidenced by the poorly traced crown crowning the head of a woman.

4

"Portrait of AdeleBloch-Bauer I"

Author

Gustav Klimt

Country Austria
Years of life 1862–1918
Style modern

Gustav Klimt was born into the family of an engraver and was the second of seven children. Three sons of Ernest Klimt became artists, and only Gustav became famous all over the world. He spent most of his childhood in poverty. After the death of his father, he was responsible for the entire family. It was at this time that Klimt developed his style. Before his paintings, any viewer freezes: under the thin strokes of gold, frank eroticism is clearly visible.

138x136 cm
1907
price
$135 million
sold in 2006 year
on the auction Sotheby's

The fate of the painting, which is called the "Austrian Mona Lisa", could easily become the basis for a bestseller. The work of the artist became the cause of the conflict of the whole state and one elderly lady.

So, the “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” depicts an aristocrat, the wife of Ferdinand Bloch. Her last will was to transfer the painting to the Austrian State Gallery. However, Bloch canceled the donation in his will, and the Nazis expropriated the painting. Later, the gallery hardly bought out the Golden Adele, but then the heiress appeared - Maria Altman, Ferdinand Bloch's niece.

In 2005, the high-profile trial "Maria Altman against the Republic of Austria" began, as a result of which the picture "left" with her to Los Angeles. Austria took unprecedented measures: loans were negotiated, the population donated money to buy the portrait. Good never conquered evil: Altman raised the price to $300 million. At the time of the trial, she was 79 years old, and she went down in history as the person who changed the will of Bloch-Bauer in favor of personal interests. The painting was purchased by Ronald Lauder, owner of the New Gallery in New York, where it remains to this day. Not for Austria, for him Altman reduced the price to $135 million.

5

"Scream"

Author

Edvard Munch

Country Norway
Years of life 1863–1944
Style expressionism

Munch's first painting, which became famous all over the world, "The Sick Girl" (exists in five copies) is dedicated to the artist's sister, who died of tuberculosis at the age of 15. Munch has always been interested in the theme of death and loneliness. In Germany, his heavy, manic painting even provoked a scandal. However, despite the depressing plots, his paintings have a special magnetism. Take at least "Scream".

73.5x91 cm
1895
price
$119.992 million
sold in 2012
on the auction Sotheby's

The full name of the painting is Der Schrei der Natur (translated from German as “the cry of nature”). The face of either a person or an alien expresses despair and panic - the viewer experiences the same emotions when looking at the picture. One of the key works of expressionism warns the themes that have become acute in the art of the 20th century. According to one version, the artist created it under the influence of a mental disorder, which he suffered all his life.

The painting was stolen twice from different museums, but it was returned. Slightly damaged after the theft, The Scream was restored and was ready to be shown again at the Munch Museum in 2008. For representatives of pop culture, the work has become a source of inspiration: Andy Warhol created a series of prints-copies of it, and the mask from the movie "Scream" is made in the image and likeness of the hero of the picture.

For one plot, Munch wrote four versions of the work: the one in a private collection is made in pastel. Norwegian billionaire Petter Olsen put it up for auction on May 2, 2012. The buyer was Leon Black, who did not spare a record amount for the "Scream". Founder of Apollo Advisors, L.P. and Lion Advisors, L.P. known for his love of art. Black is a patron of Dartmouth College, the Museum of Modern Art, the Lincoln Art Center, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It has the largest collection of paintings by contemporary artists and classical masters of past centuries.

6

"Nude against the background of a bust and green leaves"

Author

Pablo Picasso

Country Spain, France
Years of life 1881–1973
Style cubism

By origin he is a Spaniard, but in spirit and place of residence he is a real Frenchman. Picasso opened his own art studio in Barcelona when he was only 16 years old. Then he went to Paris and spent most of his life there. That is why there is a double stress in his last name. The style invented by Picasso is based on the denial of the opinion that the object depicted on the canvas can be viewed from only one angle.

130x162 cm
1932
price
$106.482 million
sold in 2010 year
on the auction Christie's

During his work in Rome, the artist met the dancer Olga Khokhlova, who soon became his wife. He put an end to vagrancy, moved with her to a luxurious apartment. By that time, recognition had found a hero, but the marriage was destroyed. One of the most expensive paintings in the world was created almost by accident - out of great love, which, as always with Picasso, was short-lived. In 1927, he became interested in the young Marie-Therese Walter (she was 17 years old, he was 45). Secretly from his wife, he left with his mistress for a town near Paris, where he painted a portrait depicting Marie-Therese in the image of Daphne. The painting was purchased by New York dealer Paul Rosenberg and sold in 1951 to Sidney F. Brody. The Brodys showed the painting to the world only once, and only because the artist was 80 years old. After her husband's death, Mrs. Brody put the work up for auction at Christie's in March 2010. In six decades, the price has risen more than 5,000 times! An unknown collector bought it for $106.5 million. In 2011, a “one-painting exhibition” was held in Britain, where it saw the light for the second time, but the name of the owner is still unknown.

7

"Eight Elvises"

Author

Andy Warhole

Country USA
Years of life 1928-1987
Style
pop Art

“Sex and parties are the only places where you need to appear in person,” said the cult pop artist, director, and one of the founders of Interview magazine, designer Andy Warhol. He worked with Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, designed record covers, and designed shoes for I.Miller. In the 1960s, paintings appeared depicting the symbols of America: Campbell`s soup and Coca-Cola, Presley and Monroe - which made him a legend.

358x208 cm
1963
price
$100 million
sold in 2008
at private auction

Warhol's 60s - the so-called era of pop art in America. In 1962, he worked in Manhattan at the Factory Studio, where all the bohemia of New York gathered. Its brightest representatives: Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Truman Capote and other famous personalities in the world. At the same time, Warhol tried the technique of silk-screen printing - multiple repetitions of one image. He also used this method when creating "Eight Elvises": the viewer seems to see frames from a movie where the star comes to life. Everything that the artist loved so much is here: a win-win public image, silver color and a premonition of death as the main message.

There are two art dealers promoting Warhol's work on the world market today: Larry Gagosian and Alberto Mugrabi. The first in 2008 spent $200 million to purchase more than 15 Warhol works. The second buys and sells his paintings like Christmas cards, only more expensive. But it was not them, but the humble French art consultant Philippe Segalo who helped the Roman art connoisseur Annibale Berlinghieri sell the Eight Elvises to an unknown buyer for a record amount for Warhol - $ 100 million.

8

"Orange,Red Yellow"

Author

Mark Rothko

Country USA
Years of life 1903–1970
Style abstract expressionism

One of the creators of color field painting was born in Dvinsk, Russia (now Daugavpils, Latvia), in a large family of a Jewish pharmacist. In 1911 they emigrated to the USA. Rothko studied at the art department of Yale University, achieved a scholarship, but anti-Semitic sentiments forced him to leave his studies. Despite everything, art critics idolized the artist, and museums pursued him all his life.

206x236 cm
1961
price
$86.882 million
sold in 2012
on the auction Christie's

Rothko's first artistic experiments were of a surrealist orientation, but over time he simplified the plot to color spots, depriving them of any objectivity. At first they had bright hues, and in the 1960s they were filled with brown, purple, thickening to black by the time of the artist's death. Mark Rothko warned against looking for any meaning in his paintings. The author wanted to say exactly what he said: only the color that dissolves in the air, and nothing more. He recommended looking at the works from a distance of 45 cm, so that the viewer is "dragged" into the color, like into a funnel. Caution: watching according to all the rules can lead to the effect of meditation, that is, gradually come the realization of infinity, complete immersion in oneself, relaxation, purification. The color in his paintings lives, breathes and has a strong emotional impact (sometimes it is said to be healing). The artist said: "The viewer should cry looking at them" - and there really were such cases. According to Rothko's theory, at this moment people live the same spiritual experience that he had in the process of working on the picture. If you managed to understand it at such a subtle level, then do not be surprised that these works of abstractionism are often compared by critics with icons.

The work "Orange, Red, Yellow" expresses the essence of Mark Rothko's painting. Its initial cost at Christie's auction in New York is 35-45 million dollars. An unknown buyer offered a price twice the estimate. The name of the happy owner of the painting, as is often the case, was not disclosed.

9

"Triptych"

Author

Francis Bacon

Country
Great Britain
Years of life 1909–1992
Style expressionism

The adventures of Francis Bacon, a full namesake and, moreover, a distant descendant of the great philosopher, began when his father disowned him, unable to accept his son's homosexual inclinations. Bacon went first to Berlin, then to Paris, and then his traces are confused all over Europe. Even during his lifetime, his works were exhibited in the leading cultural centers of the world, including the Guggenheim Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery.

147.5x198 cm (each)
1976
price
$86.2 million
sold in 2008
on the auction Sotheby's

Prestigious museums strove to possess paintings by Bacon, but the prim English public was in no hurry to fork out for such art. The legendary British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said of him: "The man who paints these horrific pictures."

The starting period in his work, the artist himself considered the post-war period. Returning from the service, he again took up painting and created the main masterpieces. Prior to the participation of "Triptych, 1976" in the auction, Bacon's most expensive work was "Study for a Portrait of Pope Innocent X" (52.7 million dollars). In the "Triptych, 1976" the artist depicted the mythical plot of the persecution of Orestes by the furies. Of course, Orestes is Bacon himself, and the furies are his torments. For more than 30 years, the painting was in a private collection and did not participate in exhibitions. This fact gives it a special value and, accordingly, increases the cost. But what is a few million for a connoisseur of art, and even generous in Russian? Roman Abramovich began to create his collection in the 1990s, in this he was significantly influenced by his girlfriend Dasha Zhukova, who has become a fashionable gallery owner in modern Russia. According to unofficial data, the businessman owns works by Alberto Giacometti and Pablo Picasso, bought for amounts exceeding $100 million. In 2008, he became the owner of the Triptych. By the way, in 2011, another valuable work by Bacon was acquired - "Three sketches for a portrait of Lucian Freud." Hidden sources say that Roman Arkadievich again became the buyer.

10

"Pond with water lilies"

Author

Claude Monet

Country France
Years of life 1840–1926
Style impressionism

The artist is recognized as the founder of impressionism, who "patented" this method in his canvases. The first significant work was the painting "Breakfast on the Grass" (the original version of the work of Edouard Manet). In his youth, he drew caricatures, and took up real painting during his travels along the coast and in the open air. In Paris, he led a bohemian lifestyle and did not leave it even after serving in the army.

210x100 cm
1919
price
$80.5 million
sold in 2008
on the auction Christie's

Besides the fact that Monet was a great artist, he was also enthusiastically engaged in gardening, adored wildlife and flowers. In his landscapes, the state of nature is momentary, objects seem to be blurred by the movement of air. The impression is enhanced by large strokes, from a certain distance they become invisible and merge into a textured, three-dimensional image. In the painting of the late Monet, a special place is occupied by the theme of water and life in it. In the town of Giverny, the artist had his own pond, where he grew water lilies from seeds specially brought by him from Japan. When their flowers bloomed, he began to paint. The Water Lilies series consists of 60 works that the artist painted over almost 30 years, until his death. His vision deteriorated with age, but he did not stop. Depending on the wind, season and weather, the view of the pond was constantly changing, and Monet wanted to capture these changes. Through careful work, an understanding of the essence of nature came to him. Some of the paintings of the series are kept in the leading galleries of the world: National Museum of Western Art (Tokyo), Orangerie (Paris). The version of the next "Pond with water lilies" went into the hands of an unknown buyer for a record amount.

11

False Star t

Author

Jasper Johns

Country USA
Year of birth 1930
Style pop Art

In 1949, Jones entered the design school in New York. Along with Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and others, he is recognized as one of the main artists of the 20th century. In 2012, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.

137.2x170.8 cm
1959
price
$80 million
sold in 2006 year
at private auction

Like Marcel Duchamp, Jones worked with real objects, depicting them on canvas and in sculpture in full accordance with the original. For his works, he used simple and understandable objects for everyone: a beer bottle, a flag or maps. There is no clear composition in the False Start picture. The artist seems to play with the viewer, often "incorrectly" signing the colors in the picture, turning the very concept of color: "I wanted to find a way to depict the color so that it could be determined by some other method." His most explosive and "insecure", according to critics, painting was acquired by an unknown buyer.

12

"Seatednudeon the sofa"

Author

Amedeo Modigliani

Country Italy, France
Years of life 1884–1920
Style expressionism

Modigliani was often ill from childhood, during a feverish delirium, he recognized his destiny as an artist. He studied drawing in Livorno, Florence, Venice, and in 1906 he left for Paris, where his art flourished.

65x100 cm
1917
price
$68.962 million
sold in 2010 year
on the auction Sotheby's

In 1917, Modigliani met 19-year-old Jeanne Hebuterne, who became his model and later his wife. In 2004, one of her portraits sold for $31.3 million, the last record before the sale of Seated Nude on a Sofa in 2010. The painting was purchased by an unknown buyer for the maximum price for Modigliani at the moment. Active sales of works began only after the death of the artist. He died in poverty, suffering from tuberculosis, and the next day, Jeanne Hebuterne, who was nine months pregnant, also committed suicide.

13

"Eagle on a Pine"

Author

Qi Baishi

Country China
Years of life 1864–1957
Style guohua

Interest in calligraphy led Qi Baishi to paint. At the age of 28, he became a student of the artist Hu Qingyuan. The Ministry of Culture of China awarded him the title of "Great Artist of the Chinese People", in 1956 he received the International Peace Prize.

10x26 cm
1946
price
$65.4 million
sold in 2011
on the auction China Guardian

Qi Baishi was interested in those manifestations of the surrounding world, which many do not attach importance to, and this is his greatness. A man without education became a professor and an outstanding creator in history. Pablo Picasso said about him: "I'm afraid to go to your country, because there is Qi Baishi in China." The composition "Eagle on a Pine Tree" is recognized as the largest work of the artist. In addition to the canvas, it includes two hieroglyphic scrolls. For China, the amount for which the product was bought is a record - 425.5 million yuan. Only the scroll of the ancient calligrapher Huang Tingjian was sold for 436.8 million dollars.

14

"1949-A-#1"

Author

Clifford Still

Country USA
Years of life 1904–1980
Style abstract expressionism

At the age of 20, he visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and was disappointed. Later, he signed up for a student arts league course, but left 45 minutes after the start of the class - it turned out to be “not his”. The first personal exhibition caused a resonance, the artist found himself, and with it recognition

79x93 cm
1949
price
$61.7 million
sold in 2011
on the auction Sotheby's

All his works, which are more than 800 canvases and 1600 works on paper, Still bequeathed to the American city, where a museum named after him will be opened. Denver became such a city, but only the construction was expensive for the authorities, and four works were put up for auction to complete it. Still's works are unlikely to be auctioned ever again, which raised their price in advance. Painting "1949-A-No.1" sold for a record amount for the artist, although experts predicted the sale of a maximum of 25-35 million dollars.

15

"Suprematist composition"

Author

Kazimir Malevich

Country Russia
Years of life 1878–1935
Style Suprematism

Malevich studied painting at the Kyiv Art School, then at the Moscow Academy of Arts. In 1913, he began to paint abstract geometric paintings in a style that he called Suprematism (from Latin “dominance”).

71x 88.5 cm
1916
price
$60 million
sold in 2008
on the auction Sotheby's

The painting was kept in the city museum of Amsterdam for about 50 years, but after a 17-year dispute with Malevich's relatives, the museum gave it away. The artist painted this work in the same year as The Manifesto of Suprematism, so Sotheby`s even before the auction announced that it would not go into a private collection for less than $60 million. And so it happened. It is better to look at it from above: the figures on the canvas resemble an aerial view of the earth. By the way, a few years earlier, the same relatives expropriated another "Suprematist composition" from the MoMA Museum in order to sell it at Phillips for $17 million.

16

"Bathers"

Author

Paul Gauguin

Country France
Years of life 1848–1903
Style post-impressionism

Until the age of seven, the artist lived in Peru, then returned to France with his family, but childhood memories constantly pushed him to travel. In France, he began to paint, was friends with Van Gogh. He even spent several months with him in Arles, until Van Gogh cut off his ear during a quarrel.

93.4x60.4 cm
1902
price
$55 million
sold in 2005
on the auction Sotheby's

In 1891, Gauguin arranged a sale of his paintings in order to use the proceeds to go deep into the island of Tahiti. There he created works in which one can feel the subtle connection between nature and man. Gauguin lived in a thatched hut, and a tropical paradise blossomed on his canvases. His wife was a 13-year-old Tahitian Tehura, which did not prevent the artist from engaging in promiscuity. Having contracted syphilis, he left for France. However, Gauguin was cramped there, and he returned to Tahiti. This period is called the "second Tahitian" - it was then that the painting "Bathers" was painted, one of the most luxurious in his work.

17

"Daffodils and a tablecloth in blue and pink"

Author

Henri Matisse

Country France
Years of life 1869–1954
Style Fauvism

In 1889, Henri Matisse had an attack of appendicitis. When he recovered from the operation, his mother bought him paints. First, out of boredom, Matisse copied colored postcards, then - the works of great painters that he saw in the Louvre, and at the beginning of the 20th century he came up with a style - fauvism.

65.2x81 cm
1911
price
$46.4 million
sold in 2009
on the auction Christie's

The painting "Daffodils and a Tablecloth in Blue and Pink" belonged to Yves Saint Laurent for a long time. After the death of the couturier, his entire collection of art passed into the hands of his friend and lover Pierre Berger, who decided to put it up for auction at Christie's. The pearl of the sold collection was the painting "Daffodils and a tablecloth in blue and pink", painted on an ordinary tablecloth instead of canvas. As an example of Fauvism, it is filled with the energy of color, the colors seem to explode and scream. Of the well-known series of tablecloth paintings, today this work is the only one that is in a private collection.

18

"Sleeping Girl"

Author

RoyLee

chtenstein

Country USA
Years of life 1923–1997
Style pop Art

The artist was born in New York, and after graduating from school, he went to Ohio, where he went to art courses. In 1949, Liechtenstein received his Master of Fine Arts degree. Interest in comics and the ability to be ironic made him a cult artist of the last century.

91x91 cm
1964
price
$44.882 million
sold in 2012
on the auction Sotheby's

Once, chewing gum fell into Liechtenstein's hands. He redrawn the picture from the insert on the canvas and became famous. This plot from his biography contains the whole message of pop art: consumption is the new god, and there is no less beauty in a gum wrapper than in Mona Lisa. His paintings are reminiscent of comics and cartoons: Lichtenstein simply enlarged the finished image, drew rasters, used screen printing and silkscreen printing. The painting "Sleeping Girl" belonged to collectors Beatrice and Philip Gersh for almost 50 years, whose heirs sold it at auction.

19

"Victory. Boogie Woogie"

Author

Piet Mondrian

Country Netherlands
Years of life 1872–1944
Style neoplasticism

His real name - Cornelis - the artist changed to Mondrian when he moved to Paris in 1912. Together with the artist Theo van Doesburg, he founded the neoplastic movement. The Piet programming language is named after Mondrian.

27x127 cm
1944
price
$40 million
sold in 1998
on the auction Sotheby's

The most "musical" of the artists of the 20th century made a living with watercolor still lifes, although he became famous as a neoplastic artist. He moved to the USA in the 1940s and spent the rest of his life there. Jazz and New York - that's what inspired him the most! Painting "Victory. Boogie Woogie is the best example of this. "Branded" neat squares were obtained through the use of adhesive tape - Mondrian's favorite material. In America, he was called "the most famous immigrant." In the sixties, Yves Saint Laurent produced the world-famous "Mondrian" dresses with a large colored check print.

20

"Composition No. 5"

Author

BasilKandinsky

Country Russia
Years of life 1866–1944
Style avant-garde

The artist was born in Moscow, and his father was from Siberia. After the revolution, he tried to cooperate with the Soviet authorities, but soon realized that the laws of the proletariat were not created for him, and emigrated to Germany not without difficulties.

275x190 cm
1911
price
$40 million
sold in 2007
on the auction Sotheby's

Kandinsky was one of the first to completely abandon object painting, for which he received the title of genius. During Nazism in Germany, his paintings were classified as "degenerate art" and were not exhibited anywhere. In 1939, Kandinsky took French citizenship, in Paris he freely participated in the artistic process. His paintings “sound” like fugues, which is why many are called “compositions” (the first was written in 1910, the last in 1939). “Composition No. 5” is one of the key works in this genre: “The word “composition” sounded like a prayer to me,” the artist said. Unlike many followers, he planned what he would depict on a huge canvas, as if writing notes.

21

"Study of a Woman in Blue"

Author

Fernand Léger

Country France
Years of life 1881–1955
Style cubism-post-impressionism

Leger received an architectural education, and then was a student at the School of Fine Arts in Paris. The artist considered himself a follower of Cezanne, was an apologist for cubism, and in the 20th century he also had success as a sculptor.

96.5x129.5 cm
1912–1913
price
$39.2 million
sold in 2008
on the auction Sotheby's

David Normann, president of Sotheby's International Impressionism and Modernism, believes the huge sum paid for The Lady in Blue is entirely justified. The painting belongs to the famous Leger collection (the artist painted three paintings on one subject, the last of them is in private hands today. - Ed.), and the surface of the canvas has been preserved in its original form. The author himself gave this work to the Der Sturm gallery, then it ended up in the collection of Hermann Lang, a German collector of modernism, and now belongs to an unknown buyer.

22

"Street scene. Berlin"

Author

Ernst LudwigKirchner

Country Germany
Years of life 1880–1938
Style expressionism

For German expressionism, Kirchner became a landmark person. However, local authorities accused him of adherence to "degenerate art", which tragically affected the fate of his paintings and the life of the artist, who committed suicide in 1938.

95x121 cm
1913
price
$38.096 million
sold in 2006 year
on the auction Christie's

After moving to Berlin, Kirchner created 11 sketches of street scenes. He was inspired by the bustle and nervousness of the big city. In the painting, sold in 2006 in New York, the artist's anxiety is especially acute: people on a Berlin street resemble birds - graceful and dangerous. She was the last work from the famous series, sold at auction, the rest are kept in museums. In 1937, the Nazis brutally treated Kirchner: 639 of his works were seized from German galleries, destroyed or sold abroad. The artist could not survive this.

23

"Restingdancer"

Author

Edgar Degas

Country France
Years of life 1834–1917
Style impressionism

The history of Degas as an artist began with the fact that he worked as a copyist in the Louvre. He dreamed of becoming "famous and unknown", and in the end he succeeded. At the end of his life, deaf and blind, 80-year-old Degas continued to attend exhibitions and auctions.

64x59 cm
1879
price
$37.043 million
sold in 2008
on the auction Sotheby's

“Ballerinas have always been for me just an excuse to depict fabrics and capture movement,” said Degas. The scenes from the life of the dancers seem to be peeped: the girls do not pose for the artist, but simply become part of the atmosphere caught by Degas's gaze. Resting Dancer sold for $28 million in 1999, and less than 10 years later it was bought for $37 million - today it is the artist's most expensive work ever put up for auction. Degas paid much attention to frames, he designed them himself and forbade changing them. I wonder what frame is installed on the sold painting?

24

"Painting"

Author

Juan Miro

Country Spain
Years of life 1893–1983
Style abstract art

During the Spanish Civil War, the artist was on the side of the Republicans. In 1937, he fled from fascist power to Paris, where he lived in poverty with his family. During this period, Miro paints the painting "Help Spain!", Drawing the attention of the whole world to the dominance of fascism.

89x115 cm
1927
price
$36.824 million
sold in 2012
on the auction Sotheby's

The second name of the painting is "Blue Star". The artist wrote it in the same year when he announced: “I want to kill painting” and mercilessly mocked the canvases, scratching the paint with nails, gluing feathers to the canvas, covering the work with garbage. His goal was to debunk the myths about the mystery of painting, but, having coped with this, Miro created his own myth - a surreal abstraction. His "Painting" refers to the cycle of "pictures-dreams". Four buyers fought for it at the auction, but one incognito phone call settled the dispute, and "Painting" became the artist's most expensive painting.

25

"Blue Rose"

Author

Yves Klein

Country France
Years of life 1928–1962
Style monochrome painting

The artist was born into a family of painters, but studied oriental languages, navigation, the craft of a gilder of frames, Zen Buddhism and much more. His personality and impudent antics were many times more interesting than monochrome paintings.

153x199x16 cm
1960
price
$36.779 million
sold in 2012
at Christie's auction

The first exhibition of solid yellow, orange, pink works did not arouse public interest. Klein was offended and the next time he presented 11 identical canvases, painted with ultramarine mixed with a special synthetic resin. He even patented this method. The color went down in history as the "International Klein Blue". The artist also sold emptiness, created paintings by exposing paper to rain, setting fire to cardboard, making prints of a human body on canvas. In a word, I experimented as best I could. To create the "Blue Rose" I used dry pigments, resins, pebbles and a natural sponge.

26

"Looking for Moses"

Author

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Country Great Britain
Years of life 1836–1912
Style neoclassicism

Sir Lawrence himself added the prefix "alma" to his surname in order to appear first in art catalogs. In Victorian England, his paintings were so in demand that the artist was awarded a knighthood.

213.4x136.7 cm
1902
price
$35.922 million
sold in 2011
on the auction Sotheby's

The main theme of Alma-Tadema's work was antiquity. In the paintings, he tried to depict the era of the Roman Empire in the smallest detail, for this he even engaged in archaeological excavations on the Apennine Peninsula, and in his London house he reproduced the historical interior of those years. Mythological stories became another source of inspiration for him. The artist was in great demand during his lifetime, but after his death he was quickly forgotten. Now interest is reviving, as evidenced by the cost of the painting "In Search of Moses", seven times higher than the pre-sale estimate.

27

"Portrait of a sleeping naked official"

Author

Lucian Freud

Country Germany,
Great Britain
Years of life 1922–2011
Style figurative painting

The artist is the grandson of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis. After the establishment of fascism in Germany, his family emigrated to the UK. Freud's works are in the Wallace Collection in London, where no contemporary artist has previously exhibited.

219.1x151.4 cm
1995
price
$33.6 million
sold in 2008
on the auction Christie's

While the fashionable artists of the 20th century created positive "color spots on the wall" and sold them for millions, Freud painted extremely naturalistic paintings and sold them for even more. “I capture the cries of the soul and the suffering of withering flesh,” he said. Critics believe that all this is the "legacy" of Sigmund Freud. The paintings were so actively exhibited and successfully sold that the experts had a doubt: do they have hypnotic properties? Sold at auction, "Portrait of a sleeping naked official", according to the Sun, was acquired by connoisseur of beauty and billionaire Roman Abramovich.

28

"Violin and Guitar"

Author

Xone gris

Country Spain
Years of life 1887–1927
Style cubism

Born in Madrid, where he graduated from the School of Arts and Crafts. In 1906 he moved to Paris and entered the circle of the most influential artists of the era: Picasso, Modigliani, Braque, Matisse, Leger, also worked with Sergei Diaghilev and his troupe.

5x100 cm
1913
price
$28.642 million
sold in 2010 year
on the auction Christie's

Gris, in his own words, was engaged in "planar, colored architecture." His paintings are precisely thought out: he did not leave a single accidental stroke, which makes creativity related to geometry. The artist created his own version of cubism, although he had great respect for Pablo Picasso, the founding father of the movement. The successor even dedicated his first Cubist work, Tribute to Picasso, to him. The painting "Violin and Guitar" is recognized as outstanding in the artist's work. During his lifetime, Gris was known, favored by critics and art historians. His works are exhibited in the world's largest museums and are kept in private collections.

29

"PortraitFields of Eluard»

Author

Salvador Dali

Country Spain
Years of life 1904–1989
Style surrealism

“Surrealism is me,” Dali said when he was expelled from the Surrealist group. Over time, he became the most famous surrealist artist. Dali's work is everywhere, not just in galleries. For example, it was he who came up with the packaging for Chupa-Chups.

25x33 cm
1929
price
$20.6 million
sold in 2011
on the auction Sotheby's

In 1929, the poet Paul Eluard and his Russian wife Gala came to visit the great provocateur and brawler Dali. The meeting was the beginning of a love story that lasted more than half a century. The painting "Portrait of Paul Eluard" was painted just during this historic visit. “I felt that I was entrusted with the duty to capture the face of the poet, from whose Olympus I stole one of the muses,” the artist said. Before meeting Gala, he was a virgin and was disgusted at the thought of having sex with a woman. The love triangle existed until the death of Eluard, after which it became the Dali-Gala duet.

30

"Anniversary"

Author

Marc Chagall

Country Russia, France
Years of life 1887–1985
Style avant-garde

Moishe Segal was born in Vitebsk, but in 1910 he emigrated to Paris, changed his name, and became close to the leading avant-garde artists of the era. In the 1930s, when the Nazis seized power, he left for the United States with the help of an American consul. He returned to France only in 1948.

80x103 cm
1923
price
$14.85 million
sold in 1990
at Sotheby's auction

The painting "Jubilee" is recognized as one of the best works of the artist. It has all the features of his work: the physical laws of the world are erased, the feeling of a fairy tale is preserved in the scenery of petty-bourgeois life, and love is in the center of the plot. Chagall did not draw people from nature, but only from memory or fantasizing. The painting "Jubilee" depicts the artist himself with his wife Bela. The painting was sold in 1990 and has not been bid since. Interestingly, the New York Museum of Modern Art MoMA keeps exactly the same, only under the name "Birthday". By the way, it was written earlier - in 1915.

draft prepared
Tatyana Palasova
rating compiled
according to the list www.art-spb.ru
tmn magazine №13 (May-June 2013)

Among all the most famous artists, I would like to highlight the work of the artist Miftyakhov Marat Khaidarovich.
The landscapes of Marat are amazing and unique.
Pictures are different realistic and unrealistic, understandable and incomprehensible.
If you see that a glass is drawn in the picture, then this is quite obvious and what is there to think about? You looked at the picture and realized that it was a glass, tomorrow you looked again and again and realized that it was a glass ... Most likely, after looking at a similar picture once, you no longer want to look at it again, since it is obvious and does not need in explanation. Marat's paintings are the complete opposite of such paintings. They attract and fascinate in that they depict completely unfamiliar and incomprehensible objects and landscapes, creating fantastic views in combination with each other.
The paintings contain many different small details.
It is very difficult to see the whole picture in detail at once, such pictures need to be viewed multiple times. And each time, approaching the picture, the viewer can discover something new, something that he had not noticed before. This quality is inherent in all the paintings of Marat and it attracts even more to their viewing. The pictures are informative and carry a deep philosophical meaning.

“I consider Renato Guttuso the most significant artist of modern Western Europe,” wrote J. Berger.

And here are the words of Carlo Levi “Guttuso is a great artist: and not only in Sicily and Italy. Now he is one of the largest artists in the world. I am deeply convinced of this and I am happy that I can state this without restrictions and reservations, with full responsibility.”

Renato Guttuso was born in Sicily in Bagheria near Palermo on December 26, 1911 (according to other sources - January 2, 1912), in the family of a surveyor. He received his first professional skills from the folk master Emilio Murdolo, who painted carriages. Studying at the Lyceum, Guttuso is also engaged in painting: he gets acquainted with books on art, visits the workshops of artists. At the end of the twenties, his first paintings appear.

At the first Quadriennale (a four-year exhibition of Italian artists), he had little success - two of his paintings drew the attention of critics.

Already during his lifetime, the name of Dali was surrounded by a halo of world fame. No one, except Pablo Picasso, could compare with him in fame.

The famous film director Alfred Hitchcock wrote: “I appreciated Dali for the cutting contours of his paintings - of course, in many ways similar to the paintings of de Chirico - for his long shadows, endless estrangement, elusive line that goes to infinity, for faces without form. Naturally, he invented many more very strange things that could not be realized.

Dali said about his painting: “How do you want to understand my paintings, when I myself, who created them, do not understand them either. The fact that I do not understand my paintings at the moment when I am painting does not mean that these paintings do not have any meaning, on the contrary, their meaning is so deep, complex, connected, involuntary that it eludes simple logical analysis.

Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dali y Domenech was born on May 11, 1904 in the small town of Figueres (province of Girona), in the family of a lawyer. He was christened with the same name as his brother, who died at the age of seven from meningitis. In his autobiography, the artist writes: “Having been born, I took the place of the adored deceased, whom they continued to love through me ... All my subsequent eccentric actions, all my inconsistent antics were the tragic constant of my life: I had to prove to myself that I was not mine. a dead brother, but a living one. That is how I encountered the myth of Castor and Pollux: by killing my own brother within me, I won my own immortality.”

“Realism is not a formula established once and for all, not a dogma, not an immutable law. Realism, as a form of reflection of reality, must be in constant motion,” says Siqueiros. And one more statement of his: “The viewer is not a statue that is included in the linear perspective of the picture ... he is the one who moves across its entire surface ... a person, surveying the painting, complements the artist’s work with his movement.”

On December 29, 1896, in the Mexican town of Chihuahua, Don Cipriano Alfaro and Teresa Siqueiros had a son, Jose David Alfaro Siqueiros. By the age of eleven, he showed the gift of a painter, so in 1907 the boy was sent to study at the National Preparatory School in Mexico City. Shortly thereafter, Alfaro begins to study in the classes of the San Carlos Art Academy.

Here Siqueiros becomes one of the student leaders and raises the academy to protest and strike. The artist recalls: “What were the aims of our strike? What did we require? Our demands concerned both educational and political issues. We wanted to do away with the musty academic routine that reigned supreme in our school. At the same time, we made some demands of an economic nature... We demanded the nationalization of the railways. All of Mexico laughed at us… Frankly speaking, I am deeply convinced that it was on that day that an artist-citizen was born in the soul of each of us, an artist living in public interests…”

Plastov's canvases are full of life-affirming power. Through color and thanks to color, he fills his paintings with a lively, quivering feeling. The artist says: “I love this life. And when you see her from year to year ... you think that you need to tell people about it ... Our life is full and rich, there are so many amazingly interesting things in it that even the ordinary everyday affairs of our people attract attention, shake the soul. You have to be able to see it, notice it."

Arkady Alexandrovich Plastov was born on January 31, 1893 in the village of Prislonikha, Simbirsk province, into the family of a village icon painter. His parents dreamed that their son would become a priest. After graduating from three classes of a rural school, in 1903 Arkady was sent to the Simbirsk Theological School. Five years later he entered the Simbirsk Theological Seminary.

In the spring of the same year, 1908, he came into close contact with the work of an artel of icon painters who were renovating the church in Prislonikha. “When they began to put up scaffolding,” the artist writes in his autobiography, “rubbing paints, cooking drying oil on the steep bank of the river, I myself was not myself and walked, as if enchanted, near the arriving miracle workers.” Watching how a new, unprecedented world of images was born on the walls of an old, sooty church, the boy firmly decided: "To be only a painter and nothing more."

Chagall can be understood through “feeling” and not “comprehension”. "The sky, flight - the main state of Chagall's brush," Andrey Voznesensky noted.

“I walked on the moon,” the artist said, “when there were no astronauts yet. In my paintings, the characters were in the sky and in the air ... "

Mark Zakharovich Chagall was born on July 7, 1887 in the city of Vitebsk. He was the eldest of ten children of a small merchant. His father served as a worker for a herring merchant, and his mother, Feiga, kept a petty shop. In 1905, Mark graduated from the four-year city trade school.

The first teacher of Mark was in 1906 Yu.M. Peng. In his autobiography, entitled “My Life,” Chagall dedicates the following lines to Yuri Moiseevich: “Peng is dear to me. So his trembling figure stands before his eyes. In my memory, he lives next to his father. Often, mentally walking along the deserted streets of my city, I stumble upon it every now and then. How many times I was ready to beg him, standing on the threshold of the school: I don’t need fame, if only I could become like you, a modest master, or hang, instead of your paintings, on your street, in your house, next to you. Let me!”

The famous critic Paul Husson wrote in 1922 of Modigliani:

“After Gauguin, he was undoubtedly the best able to express the feeling of the tragic in his work, but with him this feeling was more intimate and usually devoid of any exclusivity.

... This artist carries within himself all the unspoken aspirations for a new expressiveness, characteristic of an era that yearns for the absolute and does not know the ways to it.

Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was born on July 12, 1884 to Italian Jewish parents. His father, Flaminio Modigliani, after the bankruptcy of his office "Firewood, Coal", headed the office of an intermediary. Mother, Evgenia Garsen, came from a merchant family.

Picasso said: "Art is a lie that helps us understand the truth."

Pablo Ruiz Picasso was born on October 25, 1881 in Malaga, Spain, to the artist Don Jose Ruiz and Maria Picasso y Lopez. Over time, the artist took the name of his mother. My father was a modest art teacher, sometimes taking orders for interior painting. The boy began to draw very early. The very first sketches amaze with artistry, professional skill. The first picture of the young artist was called "Picador".

When Pablo turns ten years old, he moves with his family to A Coruña. In 1892, he entered the local Art School, where his father taught a class in drawing and ornamentation.

G.S. Oganov writes: “... The artist sought to reveal the life of the image through the expressiveness of form, hence the search for dynamic tension, rhythm and color. Of course, the viewer is not struck by these searches themselves, but, above all, by the result. And this result in Petrov-Vodkin still always goes beyond purely compositional-decorative, pictorial searches - there is always the life of the spirit in a concrete-psychological and at the same time philosophical-generalized expression. This gives a scale to his works and makes them, despite all the external, formal parallels with ancient Russian or modern Western European art, original, original, deeply independent works.

Kuzma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin was born on the Volga in the small town of Khvalynsk on November 5, 1878. He was the first-born in the family of the shoemaker Sergei Fedorovich Vodkin and his wife Anna Panteleevna, nee Petrova. When the boy was in his third year, his father was taken into the army and sent to serve in St. Petersburg, on Okhta. Soon Anna Panteleevna also moved there with her little son. Two and a half years later there was a return to Khvalynsk, where the mother entered the service in the house of the local rich. Kuzma lived with her in the wing.

I.E. Repin called Kustodiev "a hero of Russian painting." “A great Russian artist - and with a Russian soul,” another famous painter, M.V., said about him. Nesterov. And here is what N.A. Sautin: “Kustodiev is an artist of versatile talent. A magnificent painter, he entered Russian art as the author of significant works of everyday genre, original landscapes and portraits profound in content. An excellent draftsman and graphic artist, Kustodiev worked in linocut and woodcuts, performed book illustrations and theater sketches. He developed his own original artistic system, managed to feel and embody the original features of Russian life.

Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev was born on March 7, 1878 in Astrakhan. His father, Mikhail Lukich Kustodiev, who taught Russian language, literature, logic at the Astrakhan women's gymnasium and seminary, died when the boy was not even two years old. All worries about the upbringing of four children fell on the shoulders of the mother, Ekaterina Prokhorovna. Mother rented a small outbuilding in the house of a wealthy merchant. As Boris Mikhailovich recalls: “The whole way of a rich and abundant merchant life was in full view ... These were the living types of Ostrovsky ...” Decades later, these impressions materialize in Kustodiev’s paintings.

The founder of his own abstract style - Suprematism - Kazimir Severinovich Malevich was born on February 23, 1878 (according to other sources - 1879) in Kyiv. Parents Severin Antonovich and Ludwig Alexandrovna were Poles by origin. Later, the artist recalled: “The circumstances in which my childhood life proceeded were as follows: my father worked at beet-sugar factories, which are usually built in the deep wilderness, far from cities and towns.”

Around 1890, the father was transferred to the plant, which was located in the village of Parkhomovka, near Belopolye. Here, Kazimir graduated from a five-year agricultural school: “The village ... was engaged in art (I didn’t know such a word then) ... I watched with great excitement how the peasants made paintings, and helped them smear the floors of the hut with clay and make patterns on the stove ... The whole life of the peasants fascinated me strongly ... Against this background, feelings for art, for art, developed in me. Four years later, the family moved to a factory in Volchka, and then moved to Konotop.