Here’s how much top Indian artists earned in 2023 as Anish Kapoor becomes most successful at Rs 80 crore

Having your family publicly appreciate art while privately denouncing the profession is the pinnacle of the core Indian experience. However, while most boomers might discard the career path due to well-established fears of the “struggling artist”, India’s most successful artists are anything but struggling, it turns out.

The Hurun Research Institute has just released their Art List of 2024, which encapsulates the top 50 most successful living painters and sculptors from India, or who have made India their place of work. With notable figures such as the creator of Chicago’s “The Bean” and various Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri recipients in the list, you can rest assured that this article is as Indian parent-friendly as can be.

Dominating the list for the sixth year in a row, 70-year-old sculptor Anish Kapoor continues to exercise his fame as India’s most successful artist alive. According to Hurun, the creator of ‘Cloud Gate’ — or ‘The Bean’ as it is commonly known – amassed a whopping Rs 79.9 crores via a plethora of sculptures last year. If not for The Bean, you might remember Anish from his involvement in the Vantablack controversy, when the artist signed a contract for exclusive rights to the new material’s use in painting and sculpture.

Such is the fame that Anish has carved out for himself that he even reigns far above the rest of the Indians on Hurun’s list, monetarily speaking. In second place comes 87-year-old Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, a Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awardee who earned an impressive Rs 24.1 crores last year. The richest woman artist with an inspiring banker-turned-painter story, 87-year-old Arpita Singh, came in third with Rs 22.9 crores.

In fact, while artists over 80 years of age litter most of the list — the oldest being the 99-year-old Krishen Khanna in fifth position with 18 crores — there is one unmissable and striking exception. 27-year-old Raghav Babbar became the eighth highest-selling Indian artist after totalling 12.1 crores in sales, providing a fantastic example that even youngsters can make money through art.

As for the individual pieces with the biggest price tags, Gulam Mohamed Sheikh’s 2015 piece ‘Ark: Kashmir’ stands far ahead of the competition after being sold at Rs 21 crores last year. In total, four art creations were sold for over Rs 5 crores last year, including designs from Arpita Singh, Anish Kapoor and Raghav Babbar. A sculpture of the Hulk constructed from stainless steel discs and plated fibreglass by Valay Shende was another of the top-selling works in 2023.

With a total of Rs 301 crores from 789 art lots sold, this year’s report shows a very clear trend: the demand for Indian art is indubitably on the rise. In fact, the entry point for artists in the top ten almost quadrupled from Rs 2 crores to Rs 7.7 crores in the mere span of three years. These figures helped India land the seventh place globally in terms of art auction turnover, according to Hurun.

"With rising middle-class incomes, our expectation is that Indian art will become one of the top preferred choices to 'invest' in a growing asset class and 'spend' on a meaningful lifestyle addition,” explains Anas Rahman Junaid, founder of Hurun India. He argues that India being one of the world’s oldest civilisations lends it an exponentially higher intrinsic art value compared to the status quo. This recognition will likely continue to help the Indian art sector grow at a good pace in the coming years.