Top Art Websites

The New York Arts magazine published a ranking of the top art internet sites of the world in its special issue of December 2006. Throughout 300 pages of images and short texts, museums, such as the Guggenheim in New York, galleries, non-profit exhibition venues, public institutions (including the Federal Chancellery), art fairs, magazines and artists from all over the world are concisely listed. 900 items are introduced. Among the top sites listed, it becomes apparent that editorial commitment to quality in terms of content stands out particularly. 30 items are held by Thomas Kellner's pages. That is 3.3% of all pages listed worldwide. Among others sites dedicated to Jochen Dietrich, Jürgen King and Georgia Krawiec. The other artists listed under Thomas Kellner all stem from the project "photographers:network", in which the artist shows a selection of works from his colleagues in an annual exhibition held in his atelier in Siegen. This successful group exhibition is set to return again this summer.

List of top artists worldwide

A similar ranking results in a database of artists worldwide on the Internet. Artfacts.net now includes entries for 1.2 million artists worldwide and displays a list of the top 80,000 artists, updated daily. In this case, living artists are considered alongside deceased ones. Picasso and Warhol occupy the first positions, naturally. This artist's ranking is determined by factors such as range of influence, importance, prestige, and currency, attributed by discerning, specialist experts (curators, gallery owners, etc.) from the the art world.
A quick search for the better known projects from the top artists of our region, such as "Die Spitze des Eisbergs" (project of the Kunstverein Siegen 2003+4), as well as the KunstNetzNRW (project by the Stiftung Künstlerdorf Schöppingen with support from the KulturSekretariat Gütersloh), conveys remarkable results: At least seven artists from the region of South Westphalia are among the top 100.000 worldwide, including the artists from Siegen Sonja Braas, Heike Weber, Ulrich Langenbach and Thomas Kellner (Artist Rank Dec. 2007: 3141 / Artist Rank Dec. 2008: 2454), which can be found among the top 10.000. Thus, according to this database, they rank among the top 1% of artists worldwide. 

It's amazing that the artists from our region, perhaps better known for its industrial sector, also count as so-called silent market leaders. Congratulations!