“I am against limitations like perspective. Perspective is illusion, it's the opposite of presence, and art is presence.
Pierre Soulages
A lot of Brits are interested in modern art. While self-portraits, oil paintings, still life, etc., are often popular, abstract art and new artistic movements aren’t always enjoyed or appreciated by the general public. After Fauvism, Cubism, Surrealism, and Impressionism, contemporary artists in the 20th century struggled to gain recognition.
But do we really know the best current painters? Who are the famous contemporary painters today?
| Artist | Birth / Origin | Style / Movement | Key Works / Traits | Major Exhibitions / Highlights |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Georg Baselitz | 1938, Germany | Neo-Expressionism | Inverted figures challenging perception | Guggenheim NY, Royal Academy London, Venice Biennale |
| Pierre Soulages | 1919–2022, France | Abstract / Lyrical Abstraction | Painting 1948-49; Encre sur papier; 'Painter of black and light' | Global retrospectives; Musée Soulages |
| Marlene Dumas | 1953, Cape Town, South Africa | Expressionism | Figurative works exploring race, sexuality, identity | MoMA NY, Tate Modern, Fondation Beyeler |
| Gerhard Richter | 1932, Dresden, Germany | Abstract / Photo-realism | Abstract Painting; 1024 Colours; Cage series | Cologne Cathedral commission; record auction prices |
| Yan Pei-Ming | 1960, Shanghai (Chinese-French) | Monochromatic portraiture | Portrait de Mao; The Funerals of Mona Lisa; Barack Obama | Exhibited globally; Villa Medici residency |
| Yue Minjun | 1962, China | Cynical Realism / Surrealism | Execution; Free and Leisure-10; smiling self-portraits | Saatchi Gallery, MOMA NY, Fondation Cartier |
| Martial Raysse | 1936, Golfe-Juan, France | Pop Art / Nouveau Réalisme | Made in Japan; neon and plastic sculptures | Centre Pompidou, New York exhibitions |
| Anselm Kiefer | 1945, Germany | Neo-Expressionism / Post-Romanticism | Lasst Tausend Blumen Bluhen; WWII & Holocaust symbolism | Musée d’Art Moderne Paris, Tate Modern |
| Gérard Garouste | 1946, Paris, France | Contemporary Figurative / Symbolic | Mythological and biblical subjects; The Restless One | Élysée Palace; Théâtre du Châtelet |
| Miquel Barceló | 1957, Mallorca, Spain | Abstract / Neo-Expressionism | Ceiling of UN Human Rights Room (Geneva) | Major European retrospectives |
| David Hockney | 1937, Bradford, UK | Pop Art / Digital Art | A Bigger Splash; iPad drawings; Harry Styles portrait | Tate Britain, Royal Academy; digital exhibitions |
| Yoshitomo Nara | 1959, Japan | Superflat / Pop-Inspired | Knife Behind Back; Superflat; child portraits | Global exhibitions; $24M record sale |
| Julie Mehretu | 1970, Ethiopia | Abstract Expressionism | Stadia I & II; migration and identity themes | Whitney Museum (2024), Tate Modern |
| Kerry James Marshall | Birmingham, Alabama, USA | Figurative / Social Realism | School of Beauty, School of Culture; De Style | MoMA, Met, National Gallery |
| Sasha Gordon | 1998, New York, USA | Hyperrealism / Figurative | Self-portraits exploring identity & body | David Zwirner Gallery, ICA Miami |
| George Rouy | c.1993, UK | Expressionist Figuration | Motion-based human figures | Hauser & Wirth representation |
| Lucy Bull | 1990, New York, USA | Abstract / Psychedelic | 16:10; 9:59; vibrant colour merges | Sotheby’s auctions; major US galleries |
| Firelei Báez | 1981, Dominican Republic | Figurative / Afro-Caribbean Diaspora | Mythological large-scale works | Studio Museum in Harlem (2018) |
| Helen Marten | 1985, UK | Conceptual / Mixed-Media | Sculpture, video, installation art | Turner Prize (2016); Venice Biennale |
| Robert Nava | 1985, USA | Expressive / Mythological Abstraction | Whimsical creature paintings | Pace Gallery solo (2025) |
| Han Bing | 1986, China | Urban Abstraction | Cityscape-inspired textures | Art Basel Hong Kong; Thaddaeus Ropac |
| Justin Caguiat | 1989, Japan/USA | Abstract-Figurative Fusion | Layered Japanese-Western imagery | Greene Naftali NY; Modern Art London |
| Julien Nguyen | 1990, USA | Renaissance-Inspired / Speculative | Classical + gaming imagery | Whitney Biennial (2017), Swiss Institute |
| Ludovic Nkoth | 1994, Cameroon | Figurative / Diasporic Identity | Impasto portraits on migration | Maison La Roche solo (2023) |
Modern Painters
Georg Baselitz
Born in Germany in 1938, Georg Baselitz’s upside-down motifs have helped viewers lose their minds. The artist - whose works are considered today as some of the best paintings of all time - grew up in Soviet-occupied territory before studying in West Germany, where his career took off. A famous German neo-expressionist painter, his canvases brought him a lot of success. The artist now teaches at the Berlin University of the Arts.
Pierre Soulages
Pierre Soulages was born in France in 1919 and has painted over 1,500 works throughout his career. He’s famous in the world of abstract art for his use of black. His works tend to use long strokes of the colour.
Pierre Soulages is exhibited all over the world in huge exhibitions. Find acrylic painting lessons on Superprof.
Marlene Dumas
Marlene Dumas headed to the Netherlands in 1976 to study art and take her first painting classes, at the Ateliers ‘63 in Haarlem. She then gave up art for a few years in order to study psychology. She finally exhibited her works in Paris in 1979 and became known in the Paris art scene.
Inspired by the racist events in South Africa, literature, and sexuality, she is part of the expressionist movement. In order to express the themes dear to her, Marlene Dumas generally uses the human body, which you can see in most of her works.
Contemporary Painters
Gerhard Richter
Born in 1932 in Dresden, Germany, Gerhard Richter is one of the most famous contemporary artists in the world. In 2012, one of his works sold for 34.2 million dollars. This record was broken the following year with a price of 37 million dollars. His work can also be appreciated outside a museum, an example being Richter's work in the Cologne Cathedral.
The German painter has been famous in the art world since the 80s. His rather abstract style included figurative subjects. He learnt to paint in the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, where he developed his skill for abstract art. He then taught in several art schools around the world.
Yan Pei-Ming
Born in 1960 in Shanghai, Yan Pei-Ming is a Chinese artist born to a working-class family. At 20, he left China during the Cultural Revolution and moved to France. He studied in the École des Beaux-Arts de Dijon and then in the Institut des Hautes études en arts plastiques de Paris.
As a naturalised French citizen, Yan Pei-Ming now lived in Dijon and Paris. He was fortunate enough to take up residence in the Villa Medici in Rome where he developed his artistic style.
Today, the artist is famous for his large portraits. His painting of Barack Obama is one of his most famous works. A lot of his paintings cover the subject of war, sorrow or solitude.
Yue Minjun
Yue Minjun was born in China in 1962. A painter and sculptor, he studied at Hebei Normal University before drawing portraits of his colleagues in the early 80s.
Today, Yue Minjun lives in Beijing and creates works that are famous around the world. He is part of the cynical realism movement. His paintings are recognisable due to their worrying smiles. Laughter is one of his main themes, and his work often denounces uniformisation in Chinese society. He is one of the younger recognised artists of our time.
Martial Raysse
Born in Golfe-Juan, France, in 1936, Martial Raysse now works in Dordogne, France. His works have made him one of the most famous contemporary artists. After an exhibition alongside Jean Cocteau in 1958, he headed for the United States of America where he joined the pop art movement. At the start of the 60s, he was briefly part of the Nouveau Réalistes. He didn’t hang around for long.
Martial Raysse is also a sculptor who uses everyday plastic objects to represent our consumer culture.
In 2014, there was an exhibition dedicated to him in the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Anselm Kiefer
Born in Germany in 1945, Anselm Kiefer couldn’t escape the post-war feeling in the country, and you can see it in his work. Now living in France, the painter started by studying law and literature in Germany before training as an artist in various German art academies.
Anselm Kiefer became famous by taking photos of himself doing the Nazi salute in different European cities. His goal was to alert people that Nazism was still present in Europe. During a time of high tension, he also wanted to break the taboos of the time. War became his main subject. He explained himself by saying:
“History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into different and unexpected images.
Earth, ashes, soot, or sand, his works regularly display the chaos of the Second World War and the Holocaust. The artist declared himself part of the post-romantic movement.
Gérard Garouste
One of the biggest representatives of contemporary French painting, Gérard Garouste, was born in Paris in 1946. A painter, engraver, and sculptor, this artist spent his life between Paris and Normandy.
Most of his pieces are on the topic of heritage, myths, and culture. The intergenerational transmission of things is an obsession of his. Inspired by the Bible and popular stories, Gérard Garouste fills his canvases with fantastical animals and characters.
Miquel Barcelo
Born in 1957 in Mallorca, Spain, Miquel Barcelo is a world-famous contemporary artist. As well as a designer, engraver, and sculptor, he’s also a member of the neo-expressionist movement. While he’s widely known for his sculptures, Miquel Barcelo is first and foremost a painter.
He became popular in the 80s with his exhibition in Axe Art Actuel in Toulouse, France. He started to meet famous artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and make a name for himself in the art world. He was thus thrust into the limelight.
Current Artists
David Hockney
One of the most important modern artists of the last century, carving his name on the list of the greatest artists of all time, is without a doubt the British artist David Hockney.
His artistic legacy is one of the most prolific and multifaceted, starting with his pop art developed in the 1960s, which catapulted him to the big leagues thanks to works such as the iconic "A Bigger Splash"; he is also world-famous due to his numerous autoportraits and portraits of both illustrious figures (among which we find, more recently, that of the singer Harry Styles) or simply people who have crossed his path in life and pass by his house in France.
Today, Hockney continues his painting journey through digital art on the iPad, a product of his life in Normandy during the pandemic.
Hockney's work has transcended the world of painting, and his works in opera sets and photography are well known. In the later stages of his life, after more than 60 years of active experience, at 88 years of age, David Hockney has turned to digital art, creating various immersive experiences through drawing and animation and maintaining his status as one of the most active contemporary artists in the world.
Yoshitomo Nara
Yoshitomo Nara's paintings of children with tender features, extremely expressive eyes, and sometimes serious or sad expressions have sold millions of copies in recent years, making him one of the most commercial contemporary artists.
The Japanese artist grew up influenced by pop culture, including cartoons and rock music, which may lead some to associate his style directly with movements like manga. However, although his drawings may seem tender at first glance, they are an invitation to explore a deeper side of emotions and even the social context (it is not uncommon to see elements of war in his images, contrasting the shapes, colours, and nature of these elements).
Yoshitomo Nara's art is more closely associated with his knowledge of Buddhism, his childhood memories, the impact of discovering that he had a sister, one he never met, who died at birth, and of course, growing up in a post-war environment in Japan, with all the tensions that this entails. His art is also influenced by his life in Germany, where he studied for several years at the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf.
Julie Mehretu
One of the artists who is truly bringing art to the masses is Julie Mehretu. In 2024, the artist Julie Mehretu exhibited her work at The Whitney Museum in New York, making another meaningful contribution beyond her art.
The artist made a multi-million-dollar donation so that, for three years, young people under 25 could enter the museum free of charge, making it more accessible to see works by renowned modern artists such as Georgia O'Keeffe and Edward Hopper. Born in Ethiopia, Julie's paintings are recognised for their dynamic yet abstract style.
Julie Mehretu's paintings are works of current art based on the abstract expressionist movement, large in size - up to 6 meters - reflect movement and explore themes such as catastrophes, social connections in a globalised world, chaos, identity or migration, an experience lived by the author who at only six years old left her native country to settle with her family in the United States, where she studied and acquired the perspectives reflected in her work.
Kerry James Marshall
Kerry James Marshall is one of the most celebrated contemporary painters, especially for his perspective and his work associated with the recognition in the history of the black population in the United States, dealing with themes that often seem obliterated from books or art, such as the arrival of Africans through slavery and the treatment they received from that moment on.
Kerry James Marshall's paintings depict everyday scenes and pay tribute to various characters who marked the history of black communities, such as the figure of the Black Venus. He recognises episodes such as abolitionism and poets and writers who played an essential role in the development of the art of this sector of the population in a time of clear repression.
The art of Kerry James Marshall, reflected in grandiose works with intense colour plays, is a vital testimony to post-colonialist black history.
Top contemporary artists in the world of painting to watch in 2025
Sasha Gordon
Following the pandemic, Sasha Gordon has represented a real explosion of success among art fairs and major galleries, including David Zwirner in New York, Matthew Brown in Los Angeles, and establishments such as the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami.
The young Sasha Gordon and aspiring to get her work on the best paintings of all time, this artist is - for the moment - one of the most essential names in emerging art over the past few years. Born in New York in 1998, of Polish and Korean descent, Sasha Gordon's work focuses on the nature of women from a perspective that questions the body, our relationship to it, and prejudices.
Gordon combines powerful colours, gazes and faces, and naked, free bodies to evoke intense feelings. Through her art, which includes already famous self-portraits and paintings that have sold for over $200,000 USD, Sasha Gordon explores themes ranging from identity, self-perception, and our relationship with the body.
Sasha is a painter with a hyperrealistic style that combines exact replicas of the human body with almost fantastical or dreamlike settings, always questioning all types of beauty archetypes.
George Rouy
At just over 30 years old, British painter George Rouy recently entered the big leagues of contemporary art as the youngest artist represented by the prestigious Hauser & Wirth gallery, thanks to his enormous canvases, which primarily depict intense interplays of the body in motion.
The bodies in George Rouy's paintings appear to lack clear definition at first glance, yet they radiate energy through these diffuse images. A graduate of Fine Arts from Camberwell College of Arts in London, with exhibitions in New York, Paris, and Asia, George Rouy offers an interesting interpretation of human figures that are at once chaotic, fragile, and powerful.
Lucy Bull
Born in 1990 in New York, the painter's name has gained even more prominence since her works "16:10" and "9:59" were acquired in recent months for $1.8 million and $1.3 million, respectively, at Sotheby's auctions.
With a painting style that can be classified as psychedelic, Lucy Bull's works mesmerise through their playful merging of colours. Lucy Bull continues to gain ground in contemporary painting thanks to the power and electricity that permeate her works.
Emerging Artists Making Headlines
Curators, buyers, and art enthusiasts have recognised this 2025 the work of the following emerging artists as some of the most ambitious and original in the art world. Winners of the Turner Prize (Helen Marten) and collaborators with the world's biggest brands, such as Dior (Ludovic Nkoth) and J.W. Anderson (Julien Nguyen), these artists are just a sample of how multifaceted the art world has become today.
| Artist | Birth Date and Origin | Type of Work / Painting Style | Career Highlight (Gallery/Fair etc) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Firelei Báez | 1981 (Dominican Republic) | Works on paper, canvas, and large-scale sculpture; explores Afro-Caribbean diasporic histories and mythologies combining figure, landscape, and design. | Solo exhibition 'Firelei Báez: Joy Out of Fire' at Studio Museum in Harlem (2018). |
| Helen Marten | 1985 (UK) | Sculpture, video, installation, and drawing; combines found objects and crafted elements to question material culture. | Winner of the Turner Prize (2016); exhibited at Serpentine Gallery and the 56th Venice Biennale. |
| Robert Nava | 1985 (USA) | Large-scale expressive paintings featuring mythological and whimsical creatures; gestural and playful aesthetic. | Solo exhibition at Pace Gallery, New York (2025). |
| Han Bing | 1986 (China) | Urban-inspired paintings deconstructing reality with textures, patterns, and abstraction drawn from cityscapes. | Exhibited at Thaddaeus Ropac (Paris) and shown at Art Basel Hong Kong via Antenna Space. |
| Justin Caguiat | 1989 (Japan/USA) | Paintings that merge abstraction and figuration; layered surfaces blending Japanese and Western imagery. | Solo exhibitions at Greene Naftali (New York, 2022) and Modern Art (London, 2023). |
| Julien Nguyen | 1990 (USA) | Paintings merging early Renaissance references, video-game aesthetics, and speculative fiction imagery. | Included in Whitney Biennial (2017); solo exhibitions at Swiss Institute (NY) and Kunstverein München. |
| Ludovic Nkoth | 1994 (Cameroon) | Thick-impasto figurative portraits exploring Black diasporic identity, migration, and belonging. | Solo show at Maison La Roche, Paris (2023), one of only two living artists to exhibit there. |
Innovative Techniques & Modern Mediums
“Immersive Art” is a term increasingly heard, especially since the spread of techniques such as mapping, 3D printing, virtual reality and other engineering technologies. This type of art allows a level of interaction never seen before through figures and spaces where the spectator participates beyond mere sight; often, the works (sculptures, installations, or materials) can be touched or manipulated to evoke emotions that extend beyond visual perception.
The artist creates the setting for immersive art installations, but the experience is shared; the viewer becomes a co-creator. Immersive art is an audiovisual experiment and a new experience that allows one to explore art from within.
Renowned artists such as Yayoi Kusama (a true pioneer with her “Infinity Mirror Rooms,”) have brought to life their sculptures and paintings, finding new audiences in this dynamic medium.
Artists like Kusama have benefited from the latest engineering techniques to produce impressive new artworks in record time, as shown in 2023 with the enormous sculpture of herself in the middle of the Seine River.
Projection Mapping technology has allowed us to explore the work of history's most important painters as never before. The art world, especially in painting and installation, is undergoing a period of profound evolution thanks to the development of this type of video.
If you want to learn more about modern and contemporary art you can always visit an art museum and see the different works of art on display. As long as you live in a moderately-sized city, you'll probably be able to visit an art gallery with a decent permanent collection of artworks and find lessons only by typing "painting classes near me". If not, sometimes even smaller cities borrow temporary collections from bigger museums and galleries.
Art museums aren't the only place you can learn about the visual arts, you can also get in touch with a private tutor to teach you about art history, fine art, expressionism, prints, American art, modernism, abstract expressionism, renaissance, or the masters. Whatever you want to learn about, you can find a tutor to help you with both painting and sculpture.
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