What is the name of a popular, modern contemporary artist?

I need the name of a modern contemporary artist that is well known.

What is the name of a popular, modern contemporary artist?
first you should know that "modern" and "contemporary" are not the same thing. when referring to art, "modern" means "modernism," or an era of art when traditional ways of seeing were turned on their ears. the first link below can tell you more about modern art.





contemporary art (art of right now) is more "postmodern" or after modern.





some of the suggestions below are good.





damien hirst is the guy famous for exhibiting corpses of animals suspended in tanks of colored liquid. he's always fun. the second link below will show you his work.





jeff koons became famous in the eighties for deliberate kitsch. he's famous for porcelain sculptures of michael jackson, and of himself and his porn-star wife having sex. the third link below is his website.





cindy sherman is famous for her series of photographs in which she dressed herself up as characters from movies that were never made. a link to her website is below as well.





laylah ali is an artist who makes cartoonish paintings that think about violence and race. there's a link to information about her below as well.





and you might really like tom friedman, who uses everyday materials, like toothpaste and construction paper, to make beautiful, funny, and weird sculpture. he doesn't have a website, so i've included a link to a google image search for his work at the bottom.
Reply:Demian Hirst, popular , controversial and all around pretty intriguing. Frankly forget about Kinkade, you want to explore contemporary art? Take a stab at Hirst.
Reply:Mark Rothko (although I think he died recently)





William Kentridge (makes charcoal drawings which he turns into movies. He made a movie as the backdrop to the recent production of the opera The Magic Flute - I think it premiered in Berlin)





Tretchikoff also died recently. During his lifetime he was seen as kitsch and bad taste, but after his death there's been a reappraisal of his work. He's certainly well-known.
Reply:Kinkade is a plein air painter and not considered a real artist by savvy collectors. go to wiki and enter modern artists....or visit the whitney museum website in nyc for current art shows.
Reply:Thomas Kinkade, often referred to as "The Painter of Light," has become a very popular, "Christ-centered" artist with his flowery paths of cobblestones leading to little thatched roof cottages, or bridges, with glowing streetlights.





The problem, however, is that all of his work is mass-marketed through the use of oil reproductions on canvas, which are "hand-highlighted" by his personal staff. Then there are the night lights, the calendars, the wall clocks, the Christmas ornaments, and the list goes on and on and on.





Although I do own an early edition by Kinkade, I speculate that his work will not increase much in value as with other art, because of how he has mass-marketed so many knick-knacks, and, well, you name it.





People do like his serene, pastoral scenes of gardens, and sometimes even churches. I, however, bought a painting of a log cabin hidden in the cove of a lake at the base of a looming mountain. Actually, I wish I had the money I spent on it now, because after 7 years, it is actually worth $5.00 less than I originally paid for it.





But, since I can't have the log cabin, the painting will have to do right now.