Masterworks, the first platform for buying and selling shares representing an investment in iconic artworks, introduced some artists and paintings which guarantee the very high-end segment of the art market that has predictable returns in the long run.
Masterworks research team uses proprietary data to pinpoint the best artist markets. Once purchased, Masterworks files them with the SEC to get the art pieces securitized (this allows anyone to buy shares of the works). In other words, it converts artwork into securities anyone can purchase.
Being considered as investment opportunities by Masterworks, these paintings give investors the chance to own a fraction of these high-priced investments with a much smaller amount of money.
Value of a painting comes from what’s put into the art object and by the person who created it. Understanding how an artwork’s meaning relates to the wider world view of that artist, their culture, and their historical moment, we will be given chances to interpret what that person says and does and know what makes a painting valuable.
Here are some remarkable artworks and artists selected by Masterworks to introduce to art investors as financial assets in September, 2023.
Jean Michel Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s (b.1960-d.1988) artworks continue to shape the visual culture of contemporary art today. Since his passing, there has been a sense of urgency to acquire the unique yet scarce pieces he made.
Basquiat’s artwork has only become more highly sought after in recent years. His pieces now sell for as high as $110.5 million, setting one of the highest art values for an American artist
Pollo Frito , 1982. Acrylic, oil, and enamel on canvas, in two parts | 60 x 120 in. (152 x 305 cm.)
Pollo Frito (1982) is a complex example of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s distinct aesthetic and visual vocabulary. Executed in 1982, the painting brings together key elements of the artist’s influential style, including direct references to popular culture and a pithy use of language. Masterworks is offering more than 1.8 million Class A shares of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1982 painting, Pollo Frito, for $36.7 million
Yayoi Kusama
Yayoi Kusama was born in Matsumoto, Japan in 1929 and began to create art at an early age, as a way to deal with her mental illness. She is one of the most prolific artists living today. Since the 1950s, Kusama has worked actively in various media, including performance, painting, sculpture and immersive installations.
After she arrived in New York in 1957, the artist focused on abstraction, and developed her now infamous “Infinity Nets” series, which garnered early recognition. Kusama exhibited frequently alongside Minimalist and Pop artists, including Donald Judd, Andy Warhol, and Dan Flavin. Notably, she was included in the “1961 ‘Whitney Annual’” at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
Infinity Nets – QNTBH, 2006 . Acrylic on canvas | 64 x 51 in. (163 x 130 cm.)
Masterworks is offering more than 171,850 Class A shares of Infinity Nets, for $3,4 million.
Nets Obsession (T.O.W.E), 2002. Acrylic on canvas | 36 x 45 in. (91 x 114 cm.)
More than 11,000 Class A shares of Nets Obsession are being offered by Masterworks for $2,2 million.
George Condo
George Condo (b.1957) remains one of the most celebrated and influential American artists working today, known for his innovative style blending abstraction with figuration.
Back Channel is typical of George Condo’s distinctive approach, which frequently combines ideas from art history with his fascination with modern culture and human psychology.
Back Channel, 2017. Oil, graphite, colored pencil and acrylic on linen | 75 x 90 in. (190 x 229 cm.)
The painting, created in 2017, is an example of Condo’s visual language that draws inspiration from Cubism, Old Master paintings, and cartoon imagery. Pablo Picasso’s influence is particularly obvious in the painting.
“I describe what I do as Psychological Cubism. Picasso painted a violin from four different perspectives at one moment. I do the same with psychological states.”, Condo said. Masterworks is offering more than 160,950 Class A shares of Back Channel , for $3,2 million.
Yoshitomo Nara
Yoshitomo Nara (b.1959) is one of the most beloved and recognizable Japanese artists working today. During the mid to late 1990s Nara exhibited and traveled widely throughout Asia, Europe and the United States, and in 1995, he gained representation through the Los Angeles based Blum & Poe gallery.
Between 2002 and 2021 demand for Nara’s works have rapidly increased, with the average hammer price for his works increasing from approximately $26,000 in 2002 to $2.0 million in 2022.
Wounded, 2014. Acrylic and collage on canvas | 47 x 43 in. (119 x 109 cm.)
The painting, created in 2014, is a medium-scale, half-length portrait of a child with a paper bandage collaged over their right eye. Nara has rendered the subject in his deceptively simple “kowa kowaii” or ‘creepy cute’ style which is rooted in deep personal reflection and a careful process of layering and erasure of paint. Masterworks is offering more than 333,550 Class A shares of Wounded, for $6,6 million.
Alex Katz
Alex Katz (b.1927) is an influential American figurative painter notable for his portrayal of scenes from the daily life of his friends and family
He had numerous solo exhibitions of both prints and painted portraits at notable institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, as well as the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Jean with Horse, 1976. Oil on linen | 72 x 89 in. (183 x 226 cm.)
The artist has frequently drawn inspiration from cinema and advertising throughout his nearly seven-decade career. The simplified features of the figure, as well as the placement of the objects in an ambiguous external context, demonstrate these specific influences. The close framing of the subject gives the painting intimacy and closeness, while its blank look simultaneously evokes a certain distance. Masterworks is offering more than 64,400 Class A shares of Jean with horse, for $1,3 million.
Bridget Riley
Bridget Riley (British, b. 1931) was born in Norwood, a suburb of London, and spent her childhood in Cornwall and Lincolnshire. She is a leading figure of the Op art movement, known for her use of line, formal color arrangements and geometric precision to create optical visual effects.
In the early 1960s, Riley created her first “Op art” paintings in black and white, which are so named for the disorienting optical effect they produced. Later, Riley introduced colorful, clean lines into her oeuvre, while continuing to focus on geometric abstractions
Dauphin, 1982. Oil on canvas | 65 x 56 inches
Dauphin is a prime example of Bridget Riley’s ongoing use of line and color to explore optical sensations of vibration and movement, achieved through various changes in color, scale, and composition of repetitive stripes. Masterworks is offering more than 124,900 Class A shares of Dauphin, for $2,4 million.
After the 1970s, Riley traveled around the world and found inspiration at the new places she discovered. Executed in 1982, the painting belongs to a series of works characterized by their vertical stripes and vibrant colors, which Riley calls her “Egyptian Palette.” The series was inspired by a trip to Cairo in the winter of 1979 to 1980, where she studied the tombs of the later Pharaohs.
In the painting, Riley employs evenly spaced, vertical bands consisting of several colors, including sky blue, brown, green, and ochre with accents of white. Riley stated: “The line has direction and length, it lends itself to simple repetition and by its regularity it simultaneously supports and counteracts the fugitive, fleeting character of color”.
Photo: Masterworks, AD
