Vincent Award winner Anri Sala named France's leading artist

PanARMENIAN.Net - Anri Sala followed by François Morellet (2), Christian Boltanski (3) and Daniel Buren (4) head the rankings of French-born and French-based artists in the latest survey complied by Le Journal des Arts. Called Artindex France, the top-100 list is based on the number of their solo exhibitions worldwide and prestige of the venues, using data provided by Artfacts.net, The Art Newspaper reports.

For the third survey, Sala comes out on top. The Berlin-based, French-Albanian artist, who was France’s representative at the Venice Biennale in 2013, mainly exhibits in institutions outside of France, with recent shows in Israel and the US. His solo show at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art closed in March while the Art Institute of Chicago showed his video work Mixed Behaviour (2013) from last November until April, for example.

Last year there were no female artists among the nominees for the prestigious 2014 Marcel Duchamp Prize, which was won by Julien Prévieux (95). Women are also in a minority in the Artindex France list—only 19 make the top 100. However, six feature among the top 20. Highest is Sophie Calle (5) up one place, followed by Claire Fontaine (6). Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (19) rose five places. Camille Henrot (31) has seen a dramatic rise, up 32 places, so is now one place ahead of Pierre Soulages. London-based and 2014 Turner Prize-winning artist Laure Prouvost made an even bigger jump, a rise of more than 50 places to 49 on the list. The 2015 Marcel Duchamp Prize nominees include one woman, Zineb Sedira (68), who is French-Algerian and based in London.

Céleste Boursier-Mougenot (70) will represent France at this year’s Venice Biennale (9 May—22 November), which should turn around his fall of nine places. The impact of a major retrospective is also significant. A major survey of Claude Viallat’s (89) paintings at the Musée Fabre in Montpellier last year saw him rise 25 places and so into the top 100. Meanwhile, the French-Haitian artist Hervé Télémaque's ranking (162) fell 20 places but that should improve in the next survey after his Centre Pompidou’s retrospective, which closes on 18 May.