German painter Gerhard Richter has secured the top position in two major art world rankings for this year, demonstrating his continued dominance in the international art scene. The 93-year-old artist leads both the Kunstkompass and Monopol magazine's Top 100 lists, marking nearly half a century of consistent recognition since the rankings began.
People love best-of lists, especially at year-end when reflections on the past twelve months are commonplace. Among the ritual rankings in the art world is the Kunstkompass, which has been published for more than half a century since its creation by art and business journalist Willi Bongard. For nearly half of that time, painter Gerhard Richter has led the list. The evaluation is based on the number of exhibitions, specialist articles, awards, and museum acquisitions. Based on these criteria, Gerhard Richter is likely to maintain his position at the top for the foreseeable future.
Richter is followed by American artist Bruce Nauman in second place, with two other Germans, Georg Baselitz and Rosemarie Trockel, ranking immediately behind him. Even more intriguing are the "stars of tomorrow" - artists who recorded the greatest point gains outside the Top 100. The top position in this category is held by 96-year-old Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, followed by American artist Tschabalala Self, and Swiss artist Julian Charrière, who lives in Berlin, in third place. In the special ranking of deceased artists, Joseph Beuys remains unchanged at the top.
Two days after the Kunstkompass release, art magazine Monopol published its own Top 100 list, though only half consists of artists while the other half includes collectors, museum professionals, and gallerists as enablers of the art world. Beyond market prices and auction records, Monopol uses the more important criterion of who shaped the current discourse of the nearly past year. To their own surprise, Gerhard Richter also claimed first place in Monopol's ranking, despite the art magazine previously viewing him more as an art historical figure rather than a decisive position in contemporary debates.
Richter's triumph was largely attributed to his spectacular retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, which generated so much attention in the art scene that Monopol placed the 93-year-old at the top of their list for the first time. Second place went to an entire region - the Gulf States - where more new museums are being established and cultural infrastructure is being built than anywhere else. Next year will also see the launch of Art Basel Qatar and Frieze Abu Dhabi. The founding of these two art fairs is a consequence of the estimated 142,000 millionaires who relocated to the Gulf States in 2025, attracted primarily by the tax-free environment there. This is also leading to shifts in the art world.
For many, it may be reassuring that Western players still predominantly shape the art world, including many who live and work in Germany. Artists Katharina Grosse, Anne Imhof, Florentina Holzinger, and Leiko Ikemura rank in the top positions, along with Marion Ackermann, the new president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, and the two directors of Hamburger Bahnhof, Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath. These rankings reflect the continuing influence of German and Western European cultural institutions in shaping global art discourse, even as new centers of power emerge in other regions.
