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Of artists whose first shows were at the most prestigious venues, 59% ended there. Of those who began at the least, 10% got there

Artists born 1950 to 1990 with ten shows or more, by where their first five shows were

  • First shows at the top
  • First shows at the bottom
  1. Still exhibiting ten years onstarted at the top39.0%
  2. Still exhibiting ten years onstarted at the bottom14.0%
  3. Ended their careers at the topstarted at the top58.6%
  4. Ended their careers at the topstarted at the bottom10.2%
The numbers
MeasureStartedShare of artists
Still exhibiting ten years on, started at the topFirst shows at the top39.0%
Still exhibiting ten years on, started at the bottomFirst shows at the bottom14.0%
Ended their careers at the top, started at the topFirst shows at the top58.6%
Ended their careers at the top, started at the bottomFirst shows at the bottom10.2%

Venues (galleries and museums) are ranked by where their artists go on to show: a venue is near the top if its artists go on to show at other top venues, as MoMA’s, the Guggenheim’s, Gagosian’s and Pace’s do. Starting at the top means an artist’s first five shows were, on average, at the top fifth of venues; at the bottom, the bottom two-fifths. Source: Fraiberger, Sinatra, Resch, Riedl and Barabási, “Quantifying reputation and success in art”, Science 362 (2018).

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From the report

From first show to mega-gallery, in charts

The 122 artists born since 1970 whom Gagosian, David Zwirner, Hauser & Wirth, Pace and White Cube have signed since 2010, traced back to their first shows: who found them, who the mega-galleries took them from, how long the climb took, and what happened to the price of their work on the way up and since.

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