Japanese artists

Every fortnight Artprice posts a new or updated ranking in its TOP series. The theme of today’s TOP article is the 10 best auction results generated by Japanese artists.

Japanese buyers were the principal market players during the previous speculative bubble that gripped the art market between 1987 and 1990 (accounting for three of the ten best results during that period) investing in the biggest names in the Impressionist & Modern segment. Today, it is Japan’s artists who attract the world’s attention.

Top 10 : best auction results generated by Japanese artists

Takashi Murakami

Takashi MURAKAMI is currently by far the most expensive Contemporary Japanese artist on the market. He has held this title since 2008 when his My Lonesome Cowboy fetched his all-time auction record of $13.5m. This 2.54 metre sculpture – in a limited edition of 4 – representing the triumphal ejaculation of a manga-styled satyr, went under the hammer at more than three times its high estimate ($3m – $4m).
During the same year, Murakami signed five other results above the $1m line, including $3m for Dob in the Strange Forest (Red Dob) (12 November 2008, Christie’s New York) and the equivalent of $2.3m (£1.2m) for Panda, which doubled its high estimate. His spectacular 2008 annual revenue total of $30m owed much to these three results (in 2002, his annual revenue total was just $802,000).
2010 was also a good year for the manga artist with $2.7m for Kaikai Kiki at Christie’s on 14 October, tripling its pre-sale estimated price range. However his best result of the year was generated by his Miss ko² which fetched $6m at the sale organised by Philippe Ségalot for Phillips de Pury & Co on 8 November 2010.
Takashi Murakami, whose current exhibition at the London Gagosian gallery (25 June – 5 August 2011) is drawing to a close, declared earlier this year that he considers his works too expensive …

Tsuguharu Foujita
Until 2008, Tsuguharu FOUJITA was the most expensive Japanese artist on the market. His six best auction results were generated during the 1989 – 1990 period, but since 1999 his best score has been $950,000 and his auction record has stood unbroken since 16 May 1990 when Young Girl in the Park fetched $5.6m at Christie’s New York. That record was $2.5m better than his previous record set six months earlier with Children with Doll ($3.1m, Christie’s New York, 14 November 1989). His third best result was for Two sisters which fetched $2.1m on 16 November 1989 at Sotheby’s in New York.
Foujita interests the American, French, Japanese and UK auction houses through which 93% of his auction revenue is generated (respectively 31%, 27%, 20% and 15%).

Yayoi Kusama
The “doyenne” of Japanese Contemporary art, Yayoi KUSAMA generated the 4th and 7th positions in this TOP. Her No. 2, a painting considered to be highly representative of the artist’s obsessive work, generated $5.1m on 12 November 2008 at Christie’s New York and that remains her all-time auction record (4th in the TOP). Her second best result was for an oil on canvas entitled No. G.A. White which generated $2.9m at Christie’s in New York on 11 November 2010.
While 48% of her lots sell in Japan, the USA accounts for 49% of her auction revenue vs. 28% from Japan and 12% from the UK.