The Most Famous Sculptors Today: A Reasoned Top 20 Using Objective Career Facts

In this article, we are pleased to present you the most extensive online resource on contemporary sculpture, with a reasoned selection of 20 highly established artists, ranked from 20 to 1 using the Artfacts algorithm measuring their influence and importance using objective data and career facts, such as exhibitions at major institutions, auction results, participation in major art events, art fairs and exposure in major art publications.

As we can only touch briefly on every artist, we have included hyperlinks at the end of every artist biography, referring to the best monographic publication available on the artist in question.

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ℹ️ About CAI:
CAI is the abbreviation of 'Contemporary Art Issue,' a hybrid platform for contemporary art including:

👨 About the host Julien Delagrange:
Julien Delagrange is an art historian, contemporary artist, and the founder and director of CAI. Delagrange studied Science of Arts at Ghent University, Belgium, and worked for the Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR) in Brussels, the Jan Vercruysse Foundation, the Ghent University Library, and has contributed to the international contemporary art scene as an art critic, lecturer, curator, gallery director, consultant, advisor, and as an artist. As an artist, he is represented by Galerie Sabine Bayasli in Paris, France, and Gallery Space60 in Antwerp, Belgium.

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Table of contents:
0:00 – Intro
0:20 – Contemporary Sculpture
01:30 – Honorable Mentions
02:03 – 20. Richard Long
02:49 – 19. Tony Cragg
03:24 – 18. Christian Boltanski
04:04 – 17. Alicja Kwade
04:45 – 16. Anish Kapoor
05:31 – 15. Jenny Holzer
06:08 – 14. Isa Genzken
07:00 – 13. Jeff Koons
07:45 – 12. Richard Serra
08:29 – 11. Franz West
09:16 – Intermezzo
09:47 – 10. Ai Weiwei
10:33 – 9. Marcel Broodthaers
11:30 – 8. Kiki Smith
12:02 – 7. Yayoi Kusama
12:55 – 6. Nam June Paik
13:43 – 5. Rosemarie Trockel
14:27 – 4. Erwin Wurm
15:22 – 3. Louise Bourgeois
16:18 – 2. Bruce Nauman
17:11 – 1. Joseph Beuys
18:20 – Outro

[clemenskurz]

Antony Gormley.... seriously one of the greats of our time needs to be somewhere up there!!!

[matthewseed]

Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder. Though many artists could arguably fit on this list, the sculpture I enjoyed the most was that of the Neglected Golden Retriever on your right. Inspiring and adorable life imitating art.

[petaruric]

Many artist in this list are sculptors in the broadest of terms, and only couple of them can be described as sculptors, but in a broader sense, it is a nice list of conceptual/site specific/instalation/ready made artists.

[konstantinospapaioannou]

Τhank you for this great video with the list of these amazing contemporary sculptors.

[puriaqara]

Thank you dear friend- Excellent Information about contemporary sculptures - I love Anish Kapoor and ...

[LauraGonzalez-vncc]

Awesome video for humans and puppies! Thank you.

[ivanklymenko]

Thank you for the acquaintance with the works of sculptors

[CasperLCat]

Koons isn’t a sculptor, or an artist, he’s an art businessman.

[gasxjolylux]

You forgot Brancusi, boss ...Without Brincusi there is no modern sculpture

[chrislethbridge]

Great video - perhaps my ignorance but several are new on me. As revealing for who is not on the list as who is…..since you include some who were active in the mid C20 and who died in the 70s or 80s, begs the question why no Jannis Kounellis or Mario Merz? (To name but two from what could otherwise be a very long list!) 😁

[georgemohr]

Your videos amaze me. You keep hitting the ball out of the park. Thank you.

[miqyeznik]

Thank you so much for these videos ❤️
Much love and support. Please keep going

[sirmelanieofzundert]

Don't wanna be so mean or rude but I must say that I'm really looking forward to what the new generations will bring. Though I can't deny that most of these sculptors DO have a sense of proportions and know how to enhance the space to amplify the viewer's experience, I can't but feel such dullness when looking at most of their artpieces. Even wonder if the future generations will be able to consider them "art pieces" if one of those goes unknown and unrecord.

[aquelpibe]

Many undisputable names (Bourgeois, Serra, Kapoor, Koons, Cragg, Kusama, Wei Wei, etc), some not so much of an unanimity. Christo, Gormley, Rachel Whiteread, Ernesto Neto, Jaume Plensa should have found a place in the list. Martin Puryear too. I don´t understand why Beuys is listed, for the reason stated Damien Hirst would have fit in better. I don´t know if Calder and Donald Judd are not considered contemporary enough, they were both sufficiently influential to make it. As usual a very Germano-centric selection, and I know it is not intentional but that is how it comes across. Thank you very much anyway, it is a thoughtful selection and it is always interesting to compare viewpoints.

[fusain-en-un-seul-souffle]

A very informative, very clear video 👍👍👍

[jdones]

Keep up the good work! Love your videos. They bring new names which I haven’t heard before.

[valeriehitier]

Super tour d ´ horizon très intéressant et riche

[sedayavuz]

Thank you for making this video. Arman also should be in this content.

[dansmith]

Hirst only an honourable mention 😲. I could see your beautiful retriever wanted to interject about this lol

[marinarodriguesart]

I loved the video and the selected artists. Serra and Weiwei could not be left out. I'm already following you on Instagram. Thank you, from Brasil. 💛👍🏼