Ranking contemporary artists

Artfacts has created a ranking system for contemporary artists based on exhibition history, market prices and a few other factors. Listings like this are obviously difficult not get flawed. Currently hyped artists are ranked unreasonably high, while renowned artists with low production rates get low rankings.

Still, it’s far more interesting than the more usual "most influential" rankings that are always topped by Damien Hirst. Artfacts rank artists according to predetermined criteria, not arbitrary judgements.

The top five artists in 2005, according to Artfacts, was:

Pablo Picasso
Andy Warhol
Bruce Nauman
Gerhard Richter
Paul Klee

The highest ranking Scandinavian artist was Olafur Eliasson from Denmark at no 31 - placing him above big shots like Gilbert & George and Dan Flavin.