For those keeping an eye on the art market, 2023 was characterized by one word: correction. After a string of successful sales and record spending in 2022, many believed that 2023, with its lingering economic uncertainty, would be the year of relative contraction. And given market volatility since the pandemic, many wondered if this year would represent a “new normal” for the art industry.
As the year comes to a close, it’s still difficult to speak definitively about the state of the art market in 2023. What we can do, however, is look at some of the key facts that sum up the year. After reviewing auction results as well as Artsy’s exclusive primary market data, we’ve come up with five key insights about the art market in 2023.
Predictably, the top end of the auction market generated just over half of the sales value compared to 2022.
In 2023, the most expensive works of art at auction paled in comparison to last year. The top 100 lots at auction this year totaled $2.4 billion, down from $4.1 billion in 2022. This decline was evident in the middle of the year, when combined sales at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips saw an 18% decline during the first half of the year 2023, according to ArtTactic, until the fall auction season in New York, which fell very flat against expectations.
You can see the stark year-over-year disparity simply by looking at the handful of most expensive works. This year they got two works of art that sold for more than 100 million dollars: Pablo Picasso’s Woman with watch (1932) and Gustav Klimt Lady with a fan (1917)—compared to six works in 2022. (Notably, only two artists appeared in the top 10 sellers in both years: Klimt and Jean-Michel Basquiat.)
Some quick math further underscores the imbalance between this year and last: The 13 best-selling works of art at auction this year total $800.7 million, less than the combined total of the six works of art that went to auction last year ( 809.6 million dollars). And you could buy the 19 most expensive works of art at auction in 2023 with the price paid for the nine most important works of art last year, with some change to spare.
The relative valuations of certain artists’ works year after year also allow for interesting comparisons. Of the top 500 artworks sold at auction in 2023, 11 were by Andy Warhol. The combined sum of the sales of these artworks is $81.4 million, less than half the price of the most expensive Warhol artwork sold in 2022, the record $195 million. Sage Blue Marilyn shot (1964).
It is important to note that this iconic work (with its impressive provenance) became the most expensive work of art of the 20th century to sell under the hammer and was the top lot in an overall strong auction year. The strong results in 2022 were driven at the top end by impressive works of art and historic collections sales, including Paul Allen’s sale at Christie’s, the biggest sale in auction history.
In 2023, the auction market continued to weigh towards theirs very upper end The 25 best-selling lots at this year’s auction have a combined value higher than those ranked between 100 and 500. And this weight, as you might expect, is heavily skewed towards deceased artists: only three of the 20 works auctioned this year were by living artists (Jasper Johns, Gerhard Richter and Ed Ruscha); however, that is an increase compared to 2022, when there was only one (Johns). And, as is typical of the market, you could buy the top 500 lots by ultra-contemporary artists (born 1975 or later) for the price of the first two lots at auction this year, and walk away with $10 million.
Ultra-contemporary artists experienced the strongest increase in demand.
Although works by established artists command the highest prices in the secondary market, the opposite is true in the primary market. A key measure of primary market demand that we analyze is the year-over-year growth in inquiries for works by artists listed on Artsy.
As the chart above illustrates, younger artists are experiencing the strongest increases in demand. All but one of the 20 artists who experienced the largest increase in demand in 2023 fall into the ultra-contemporary category (artists born in 1975 or later). However, many artists in this cohort are also experiencing strong results on the secondary market.
Chinese artist Yuan Fang, who tops the list, made a strong debut at auction this March, for extension (mask) (2022), which sold for $88,900; and six more lots are sold at auction this year, beating their average estimates by an average of 162%. Others such as Francesca Mollett, meanwhile, are already fetching six-figure prices under the hammer: The British artist’s painting Two Thistles (2021) sold for £254,000 (US$307,975) in October.
The only artist who doesn’t fall into the ultra-contemporary category is Germany’s Janaina Tschäpe, who had her first solo show in Los Angeles, “Restless Moraine,” with Sean Kelly Gallery in March, as well as a London show with the gallery in October.
Ultra-contemporary artists are also experiencing the biggest boost in terms of popularity.
As commercial activity increases, ultra-contemporary artists are also seeing their profiles rise further.
The chart above, which identifies year-over-year follower growth on Artsy, shows that all but one artist in the top 10 are ultra-contemporary. It is worth noting that all 20 artists are painters.
At the top of the list is Bill Braun, an outlier as the only artist born before 1975, as well as an artist who gained the most traction through social media. A viral video of the artist’s work made the rounds on TikTok and Instagram earlier this year as a narrator marveled at Braun’s mastery of trompe l’oeil.
Most of the rest of the artists on this list are garnering attention in prominent galleries and with gusto. New York artist Leonard Baby, for example, had a breakout year with shows in Los Angeles, London and New York. Meanwhile, Amy Lincoln, also based in New York, has participated in seven group exhibitions this year, as well as an acclaimed solo exhibition at Sperone Westwater.
Studio Lenca is a name that has been making waves on social media and in galleries: the London-based Salvadoran artist has over 20,000 followers on Instagram and has had solo exhibitions this year at galleries from Tang Contemporary Art in Bangkok to Soho Revue in London, as well as a collaboration with fashion brand egg.
Ultra-contemporary women artists are seeing more capital in the auction market than their forebears.
As we identified in our Women Artists Market Report earlier this year, women artists are vastly underrepresented in major auction results. And marginal progress between 2022 and 2023: only three of the 50 most expensive sales at auction in 2023 were by female artists (Louise Bourgeois, Georgia O’Keeffe and Joan Mitchell), compared to zero last year. The most expensive work by a female artist sold at auction this year was by Louise Bourgeois spider (1996), which fetched $32.8 million, a new auction record for the artist.
Clearly, there is still a long way to go to achieve overall parity, but as our report found, younger generations of female artists are better represented in the auction market compared to their male peers. Twenty-one of the top 50 works by ultra-contemporary artists sold at auction this year were by female artists. And when the sample size is restricted to artists born in 1985 or later, female artists actually make up the majority, accounting for 34 of the top 50.
by Avery Singer No title (2016) was the most expensive work by an ultra-contemporary artist at auction this year, selling for $4.1 million. Other works by ultra-contemporary women artists set new records this year, including Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Emma Webster, Ilana Savdie and Caroline Walker.
As November’s auction season in New York illustrated, demand for works by female ultra-contemporary artists remained strong through the end of the year. Jadé Fadojutimi, for example, broke his auction record twice during the fortnight A thistle beat (2021) sold for $1.68 million at Sotheby’s, and then Quirk my mannerism (2021) sold for $1.9 million at Phillips less than a week later.
As for the ultra-contemporary category more broadly, that of Matthew Wong River at dusk (2018) was the most expensive work at auction by an artist in the category, selling for $6.7 million. And with seven works in the top 50, Nicolas Party is the artist whose works appeared most frequently among the top results.
Figuration remains the market favorite.
In 2023, the increased enthusiasm for abstract art was a marked trend. In our Art Industry Trends 2023 report, published this spring, the galleries we consulted identified abstract paintings as the most important for sales; and in Art Collector Insights 2023, published this fall, abstraction was also the most important genre for collectors.
But looking at the data, figurative artists and works of art are the most popular among buyers. Of the list of the 100 most in-demand artists on Artsy, which shows the artists who have grown the most in demand year after year, 61 are names who work primarily in figuration.
This also applies to the top end of the auction market, where figuration is still fetching most of the top prices. At auction, 67 of the top 100 results at auction in 2023 are for figurative works, down slightly from 70 in 2022. This can be attributed to trophy lots fetching the highest prices at auction, which tend to be by canonized artists, most . of which are known for figurative styles and some of which predate modern abstract movements in art history. And perhaps for that reason the balance becomes more even when we restrict the list to the top 100 results of living artists: the number of abstract works of art sold at auction amounts to 47.
That is not to say that abstract art is not satisfied with the demand. At the November auctions in New York, it was clear that enthusiasm for the genre was strong, with several notable examples among the best results at various auctions. by Richard Diebenkorn Memories of a visit to Leningrad (1965) became the most expensive abstract work of the year, selling for $46.4 million at Christie’s; twinned with that of Mark Rothko Untitled (yellow, orange, yellow, light orange) (1955), which sold for the same price. Works by abstract luminaries such as Agnes Martin, Joan Mitchell, Arshile Gorky, Ad Reinhardt, Joan Snyder and Hedda Sterne also set new auction records for the artists.
Arun Kakar
Arun Kakar is the editor of Artsy’s art marketplace.
Header and thumbnail works: Left: Jonas Wood, Green Pattern Rug, 2018. Courtesy of the artist and BravinLee Programs, New York. Right: Francesca Mollett, Scattered rest, 2022. Courtesy of the artist and GRIMM, Amsterdam.
