Glittering SuperstARTs

Pink Marilyn by Andy Warhol, courtesy of The Hospital

In today's world where a work made by a Damien Hirst employee goes for insurmountable amounts of cash and branding is the key to artistic success, Julie Pallot looks back over the history of the artist as a celebrity and comes up with the Top Ten superstars. Her criteria: ground-breaking work, big characters, influential and the quality that defines real fame: recognition by everyone from the art establishment to the man on the street.

Long before film and pop music sprouted A-Listers to pose on the red carpet pouting at the paparazzi  artists were the house-hold names on the celeb circuit.
Very few artists reached such status in their own lifetimes but this handful were the must-have at all the right dinner parties.
The artist rising to celebrity status came about during the Renaissance when they began to be employed not just as church painters (which had formerly been the case ) but by the rich.
‘Names’ started to emerge of artists who had gained some notoriety and the artist as a persona and a celebrity was born.

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519) 
As an out right genius, Renaissance Man and creator of perhaps the most famous painting in the world, The Mona Lisa, Leonardo became famous in his own time through his Patron Ludovico Sforza of Milan.
Working and living at his court for 16 years he organised elaborate festivals for the rich and famous of Italy.
Inventor, architect, scientist and mathematical star as well as artist he was the first real artist celeb.
 In a time when the artist was still seen as a servant to his employer it was symbolic to Leonardo’s status that, it is claimed, he died in the arms of the French King.

Raphael (1483-1520)
 If there was ‘Hello’ magazine in the 1500’s Raphael would have been in it.
Similarly to Damien Hirst and many other artists of today Raphael had a workshop where his assistants would churn out paintings and he would simply add the finishing touches and his signature.
He did not shy away from being a celebrity and as a consequence his fame was broad  -  unlike the shy and retiring Michelangelo who he was strongly influenced by but intensely competitive with.

J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) 
Studied at the Academy of Arts from aged 15, Turner became a great British asset. On his death left his fortune to the nation and ‘The Turner Prize’ was born.
And although the Romantic Master lived the life of a recluse he reached the height of fame by the age of 30.
Turner’s epic  Romantic works  were ground-breaking and became increasingly abstract towards the end of his life.

Claude Monet (1840-1926)
 Avant-garde genius.
 Impressionism brought the establishment to its knees and it was largely  down to Monet. His paintings of the light changing in the gardens of Giverny are classics and instantly recognised.


Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) 
A tormented sole, most famous for cutting part of his ear off in a manic state of love for a woman.
Yet he still managed to produce over two thousand art works.
Unfortunately for him celebrity status did not come until very near his death and he lived in poverty his whole life.
His fame grew in the late 1880’s after a French newspaper called him a genius and artists including Monet commented on his outstanding work.
By the 1920’s he was considered to be at the forefront of the modern art movement.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
 Incredibly famous throughout most of his life it was his persona as well as his art  - including, of course, the iconic Guernica - that brought attention to the Spanish star.
Shocking the established order as a young artist with Les Demoiselles d'Avignon - a painting of prostitutes -  he went on to become a celebrity through his ground-breaking Cubist paintings along with massive media attention.
In the last 20 years of his life his fame was so huge that he had to move to a  remote part of France to escape adoring fans.
 
Salvador Dali (1904-1989)
The Surrealist star hit the big time in America in the 1940’s and created his own ‘brand’.
As Van Gogh before him he embodied the stereotype of the mad artist, with curly moustache and flowing overalls to boot.
Breton named him ‘Avida Dollars’ as he was allegedly inspired by money more than art and positively welcomed fame.

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)
Famous for his drip dry action paintings inspired by Native American Art. Propelled to stardom through an article in Life magazine in 1949, it was his extreme character that caught the eye of the press.
He was an alcoholic, depressive and a wife-beater who died in a car crash whilst drinking at the wheel.
Successful in his own life largely through the support of heiress Peggy Guggenheim he is now filed under Abstract Expressionist in the canon of Art History.

Andy Warhol (1928-1987)
Pop Art king and socialite, New Yorker Warhol was the ultimate celebrity who coined the phrase “ famous for fifteen minutes.”
Frank about his homosexuality many of his films and art have content  which was unseen before and went some way to bringing acceptability to homosexuality in the US.
He’s currently doing battle with graffit artist Banksy in Warhol vs Banksy at The Hospital, 24 Endell St, WC2H 9HQ, www.warholvsbanksy.com


Damien Hirst (1965- )
Saatchi plucked him from relative obscurity to form the YBA’s and he's now, arguably ,  the most famous living artist on the contemporary art scene today.
His spot paintings adorn the walls of many A-listers and according to The Times Rich List he now has a fortune of £130 million.

Tracey Emin (1963-) 
Another Saatchi off-spring, her infamy surpasses Hirst due to her outlandish behaviour, which came to the general public’s attention during a drunken appearance on Channel 4 in 1996.
 Criticized for bringing matters of sexual and domestic abuse to the forefront in her art, her work is as outrageous as her.
Emin's ‘Unmade Bed’, complete with stains, and bloody pants being her most famous work.
Now representing Britain at the Venice Biennale she has become, like Hirst, part of the artistic establishment.
 
Almost famous – Artists who were arguably just as famous in their own time. Frida Kahlo, Carravagio, Whistler, Michelangelo, Titan, Paul Gauguin, Manet, Van Dyck, Vermeer, Matisse, Renoir, Cézanne, Degas, Rothko, Magritte, Rembrandt, Velázquez, Donatello, Henry Moore.

What do you think of our top ten?
Email feedback@openmagazine.co.uk

• add to del.icio.us
• digg this article!