The New Masters: The Best Modern Artists to Invest in 2023

Probably one of the most influential female portraitists of the 20th century is Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Kahlo's work helped forge the pre-Columbian Mexican identity through her meticulous portraiture that was highlighted by floral adornments and an unkempt brow that challenged normative western beauty standards. Kahlo's stunning self-portraits, as well as surrealist landscapes, topped a million dollars in recent years, but, in comparison, her work across other media has been radically cheaper at auction. 

If there's one artist whose inspired vision made their name synonymous with artistic greatness, it is Pablo Picasso. Picasso's name lives in infamy, not just in the world of art where he pioneered foundational styles like cubism, futurism, dadaism, but also as the cultural definition of creativity, from rap music to Hollywood films. Needless to say, Picasso is one of the most sought-after artists in the world and his work is arguably the best modern art investment of the 21st century, with floor prices usually dangling above one million dollars and sale prices for his best works breaching seven figures.

One of the most unique American artists is the abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock. After his untimely demise, Pollock gained posthumous recognition by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City for his distinct drip technique which involved splattering colors in a frenzy of gesticulations. Pollock was a prolific painter under the patronage of Peggy Guggenheim, but he produced few works in his later life, working mostly on sculptures in the year leading up to his death. Over the past decade, Pollock has been one of the best steadily appreciating blue-chip artists to invest in, but while his paintings can either hit or miss on the secondary market, they still range from the low thousands to the tens of millions of dollars.

The American pop-cultural aesthetic wouldn't have been refined if it wasn't for Andy Warhol. From the array of Campbell soup cans to the colorful portraits of mononymous figures of the 1950s like Elvis, Marilyn, and Mao, Warhol's work exploring celebrity and consumerism defined—and perhaps even created—the folk heritage known as Americana. A prolific pop artist, Warhol also ventured into film and magazine writing with work that explored the true New York characterized by its various subcultures. While Warhol's screen prints and ink drawings are accessible to most investors, the real value lies in his colorful silkscreen portraits featuring grid and collage patterns normally auctioned for tens of millions of dollars.

Last year, we lost one of the boldest feminist artists of the silent generation: Mary Beth Edelson. Edelson's work was uninhibited by the taboo of sex or the shame of nudity, but rather embraced those things in her critiques of patriarchal society. From depicting goddesses and idols of pagan pantheons to appropriating Da Vinci's The Last Supper by replacing Christ and his apostles (minus Judas) with her own feminine icons, like Georgia O'Keeffe, Edelson's work heavily features religion. Like many female artists, Edelson's work suffers from the unfortunate trend of gifted female artists being underappreciated in juxtaposition to their male counterparts.

One of the most inspired yet tragic artists of recent times is American neo-expressionist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Basquiat was raised by his mother to love art, but it was his fondness for cartoons and comic books that fueled his artistic energy. After his mother was admitted to a psychiatric institution, Basquiat began doing drugs and ran away from his father's home to begin his pilgrimage toward the graffiti scene of lower Manhattan in the late 1970s. His work was cubist and Picasso-esque, with heads and figures portrayed with a tinge of darkness that perhaps expressed a feeling of despair.

Look, I get it, it's hard to afford blue-chip art, especially with the prices we are seeing these days. However, hard doesn't mean impossible. Just like investing in stocks, securitized art is a new way that practically anyone can invest in a Picasso, Basquiat, or whatever work is deemed investment-worthy by the experts over at Masterworks. It's an art investing platform where every painting starts at $20. Masterworks' operates a secondary market that provides an unprecedented level of liquidity by allowing art investors to buy and sell shares of their paintings whenever they want. Art investing has never been more accessible or convenient than with Masterworks.