Artsy by the Numbers

2018

Sarah Sze, Ghost Print (Half-life), 2018. Courtesy of Gagosian.

Artsy by the Numbers 2018 2

Notoriously opaque, the art market can be challenging
to navigate, even for the most-seasoned collectors
and gallerists. But as the art world transitions online,
data about the art market and its players is becoming
more available, and has begun to shed new light
on old trends and behaviors.
As a leading online art platform, Artsy values
an analytical approach to helping art businesses grow
and thrive online.
As a result, our data—which covers topics from aspects
of collector behavior to the popularity of artists and
artworks—provides a unique window into the complex
inner workings of the art world online. From the
most frequently searched artists to the top categories
on Artsy, our gallery and analytics teams paired up to
gather the most compelling insights from 2018,
in hopes of aiding and informing your business as you
move into the new year.

With more than 1 million users from over 190

countries, as well as partnerships with premier galleries,
auction houses, and art fairs across the globe, Artsy
reaches every corner of the art market. We harness the
power of technology to expand the art market and
connect supply and demand at a global scale, in order
to support more artists and art around the world.
Artsy by the Numbers 2018 3

Artsy by the Numbers Registered Users Top 10 Largest Global Audiences

1,000,000+ United States

Great Britain
Artsy is the leading global platform for Users in the Last Year
collecting and discovering art. As the France
world’s largest art marketplace, Artsy 50% increase
partners with leading galleries, auction Russia
houses, art fairs, and museums across
the globe. Artists Added to Artsy in 2018 Germany
Today, Artsy partners with 3,000+ 36,000+ China
galleries, 800+ museums and institutions,
80+ international art fairs, and top Italy
commercial auction houses, such Artists
as Christie’s and Phillips. Artsy also has Brazil
over 3 million followers across our 100,000+
social channels: Facebook, Instagram, Netherlands
and Twitter.
Artworks Australia
1,000,000+
Artworks for sale

700,000+
Artsy by the Numbers 2018 Insights
Discovery
Understanding collector behavior and
interests, in terms of how they discover
and purchase works online, is a crucial
step in adapting your business to meet
online demand.
With a 50% increase in users over the past
year, Artsy’s audience data reflects that an
increasing number of serious art enthusiasts
and collectors are consulting information
online to nurture their collections.
In a mere five years, experts predict that
the online art market will be worth
a staggering $8.37 billion.1 Additionally,
70% of galleries this year sold their
artworks online to international clients.2
70% of galleries this year sold their
artwork online to international clients.
On Artsy, exceptional search engine
rankings for our artist and gallery pages
make it easy for collectors to find artists,
artworks, and galleries online. Our search
engine optimization (SEO) efforts ensure
that artists and artworks consistently
4
Traffic to Artsy by Device Inquiries on Artsy by Device
Mobile 52.7% Mobile 55%
Desktop 47.3% Desktop 45%
rank at the top of searches conducted
on major websites like Google and Bing.
For example, whenever a collector enters
an artist’s name in a search engine, their
Artsy page consistently ranks as one
of the top results, driving collectors to
Top 10 Artists Discovered Through Search Unique Visitors to Artsy.net in 2018
an educational and transactional page.
Additionally, Artsy’s iOS app includes
cutting-edge augmented reality (AR)
Vincent Van Gogh 22,000,000+
technology that allows collectors to
virtually place newly discovered works on
Takashi Murakami
the walls of their homes before bidding,
inquiring, or purchasing.
Jean-Michel Basquiat
This year, over 22 million people visited
Yayoi Kusama
Artsy to discover artists, artworks, and
galleries. The usage of mobile devices to
Kehinde Wiley
discover and purchase works has increased
substantially.3 Almost as many users
Gregory Crewdson
came to Artsy via mobile as they did via
desktop, and 55% of users made inquiries
Alec Monopoly
on works on Artsy via mobile. When it
comes to discovery, having your gallery,
Andy Warhol
artists, and works for sale accessible via
mobile will be a crucial step in ensuring
Jenny Saville
your artists’ and galleries’ success as the
online market continues to grow.
KAWS
1
Hiscox Online Art Trade Report 2018. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid.
Artsy by the Numbers 2018 Insights 5

Marketplace 10 Most Searched Artists on Artsy

KAWS Salvador Dalí

With over 1 million artworks—including In 2018, the most-popular categories
more than 700,000 for sale—by over filled out on Artsy during user onboarding
100,000 artists, Artsy’s database is one of included Emerging Art, Photography,
the most comprehensive in the art world. and Contemporary Asian Art—an
Banksy Jean-Michel Basquiat
exciting development for artists who have
historically seen less representation in the
The most viewed works on Artsy art world. In the same vein, while our
included pieces by up and coming list of most-followed artists had many Andy Warhol Keith Haring
minority and women artists. canonical names like Picasso and Warhol,
the most-viewed works on Artsy included
pieces by many up-and-coming minority
Given the size of our database, Artsy and women artists.
makes it a priority to help collectors
Pablo Picasso
discover art, artists, and galleries they’ll
love. On Artsy, every gallery partner gets
its own page that displays represented
artists, artworks, and shows. The Art Damien Hirst
Genome Project, Artsy’s classification
system, uses an algorithm to recommend
related artworks to collectors based
on artists, styles, and periods they like,
opening their world to hundreds of
Takashi Murakami
new artists and works. Within the past
year, we genomed over 18,000 works
by more than 4,000 artists—sharing
thousands of connections between David Hockney
artists, artworks, movements, and media
throughout history.
Artsy by the Numbers 2018 Insights 6

10 Most Popular Categories on Artsy

1. Photography
2. Emerging Art
3. Modern and Impressionist Art
4. Prints
5. Contemporary Asian Art
6. Post-War American Art
7. Design
8. Post-War European Art
9. Fashion Photography
10. Contemporary Art

Cai Guo-Qiang, Ignition of Spring, 2014. Courtesy of Cai Studio.

Artsy by the Numbers 2018 Insights 7

50 Most Followed Artists on Artsy

1. Pablo Picasso 7. Keith Haring 28. Albert Gleizes 39. He Xiangyu

2. Andy Warhol 8. Damien Hirst 29. George Condo 40. Gavin Turk
3. Banksy 9. Ai Weiwei 41. Takashi Murakami
4. Jean Michel-Basquiat 10. Hiroshi Sugimoto 42. Mark Rothko
5. Roy Lichtenstein 11. Jeff Koons 43. Tokihiro Sato
6. Francis Bacon 12. Marcel Duchamp 44. Peter De Francia
13. Frank Stella 45. Jim Dine
14. Helmut Newton 46. David Hockney
15. John Baldessari 47. Yayoi Kusama
16. Nobuyoshi Araki 48. Rosalyn Drexler
17. Shepard Fairey George Condo, Rodrigo and his Mistress, 2008. Courtesy of Simon

18. Tom Wesselmann Lee Gallery.

19. Juan Gris 30. Vincent Van Gogh

20. Georges Braque 31. Fernand Leger
21. Agnes Martin 32. Salvador Dalí
22. Robert Indiana 33. Ellen Von Unwerth
23. Robert Delaunay 34. Plastic Jesus
24. Tristan Eaton 35. KAWS
25. Mark Kostabi 36. Alec Monopoly Rosalyn Drexler, The Defenders , 1963. Courtesy of Garth Greenan Gallery.

26. James Rosenquist 37. Charles Gaines 49. Claude Monet

Francis Bacon, Study for Self-Portrait, 1981. Courtesy of Guggenheim
Museum Bilbao. 27. Kenny Scharf 38. Yasumasa Yonehara 50. Joseph Cornell
Artsy by the Numbers 2018 Insights 8

50 Top Viewed Artist Pages on Artsy

1. Takashi Murakami 22. Jeff Koons 31. Cy Twombly 44. Frank Stella
2. Jean-Michel Basquiat 23. Kerry James Marshall 45. Ansel Adams
3. Andy Warhol 24. Helmut Newton 46. Kara Walker
4. Banksy 25. William Eggleston
5. Yayoi Kusama 26. Georgia O’Keeffe
6. Vincent Van Gogh 27. Cindy Sherman
7. KAWS
8. Pablo Picasso
9. Kehinde Wiley Cy Twombly, Lepanto, 2001. Courtesy of Gagosian.

10. Keith Haring 32. Chuck Close

11. Gregory Crewdson 33. Joan Miró
12. Nobuyoshi Araki 34. Andy Goldsworthy
13. Roy Lichtenstein 35. Wolfgang Tillmans
14. David Hockney 36. Gerhard Richter
15. Damien Hirst 37. Shepard Fairey
16. Jock Sturges 38. Mark Rothko Kara Walker, The Emancipation Approximation (Scene #18), 1999-2000.

17. Jenny Saville 39. Salvador Dalí Courtesy of Bellevue Arts Museum.

18. Alec Monopoly Cindy Sherman, Untitled, 2004. Courtesy of Metro Pictures.
40. Marc Chagall 47. Alexander Calder
19. Ai Weiwei 28. Barbara Kruger 41. Jonas Wood 48. Hannah Hoch
20. Robert Mapplethorpe 29. Wayne Thiebaud 42. Anselm Kiefer 49. Retna
21. Diane Arbus 30. Mr. Brainwash 43. Henri Matisse 50. Andreas Gursky
Artsy by the Numbers 2018 Insights 9

10 Most Viewed Works on Artsy

Takashi Murakami, Flower Ball (Multicolor), 2016.

Courtesy of Museo Nacional del Prado.

Kehinde Wiley, Equestrian Portrait of King Philip II Hannah Höch, Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife Diego Velázquez, Las Meninas, 1656. Courtesy of
(Michael Jackson), 2009. Courtesy of Seattle through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch Museo Nacional del Prado.
Kehinde Wiley, Judith and Holofernes, 2012. Courtesy Art Museum. in Germany, 1919. Courtesy of Nationalgalerie,
of Seattle Art Museum. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Théodore Géricault, The Raft of the Medusa, 1818– Ivan Black, Square Wave, 2017. Courtesy of
1819. Courtesy of Musée du Louvre. ALICE BLACK.

Käthe Kollwitz, Woman with Dead Child, 1903.

Courtesy of Kunsthalle Bremen.

Piet Mondrian, Composition with Large Red Plane,

Yellow, Black, Grey and Blue, 1921. Courtesy of
Turner Contemporary.

Alberto Giacometti, Walking Man I, 1960. Courtesy of

Yuz Museum.
Artsy by the Numbers 2018 10

In 2018, nearly three-quarters (74%) of galleries

partnered with online platforms to sell art, an increase
from 59% in 2017 and 41% in 2016, according to the
2018 Hiscox Online Art Trade Report.4 Additionally,
over the last 12 months, “almost three-quarters (74%)
of online art buyers bought more than one art
object online.”5

For many gallerists, tailored support from gallery

liaisons and insights—provided through a partnership
with Artsy—help them work smarter, not harder.

Artsy can help your gallery enhance and optimize

its online presence.

Learn more

4
Hiscox Online Art Trade Report 2018. 5 Hiscox Online Art Trade Report 2018.