Amy Sillman
Blue-chip#7
Egon Investment Scores
Liquidity
7/10
How easily works can be bought and sold at auction
Institutional
9/10
Museum collections, biennials, and institutional recognition
Momentum
8/10
Recent price trends, gallery moves, and market buzz
Discovery
1/10
Undervaluation opportunity relative to peer artists
Risk
1/10
Investment risk factors — higher means more volatile
Market Position
- Pricing
- 2020 2024
- Building momentum with works in $10,000-$100,000 range
- 2025 Current
- Consolidating at $6,000-$20,000 for smaller works, major paintings command six figures
- Primary Market
- Contact David Zwirner for current pricing - gallery move signals upward trajectory
- 2023 Breakthrough
- First work over $900,000 establishing new price ceiling
- Auction History
- Date
- November 2023
- Work
- Junker 1
- Estimate
- $400,000-600,000
- Amount USD
- $984,250
- Performance
- Exceeded high estimate
- Year Created
- 2009-2010
- Auction House
- Sotheby's New York
- Previous Record
- Year
- 2021
- Notes
- Record broken in 2023
- Amount USD
- $870,000
- Alternative Record Cited
- Work
- U (2008)
- Notes
- Cited by Ocula as auction record, may be same or earlier sale
- Amount USD
- $855,000
- Recent Auction Performance
- Lots Sold
- 5
- Notable Sales
- Date
- October 2025
- Work
- Flower Face (1994)
- Price USD
- $17,780
- Auction House
- Sotheby's
- Date
- February 2025
- Work
- Untitled
- Price USD
- $20,320
- Performance
- Exceeded high estimate
- Auction House
- Phillips
- Date
- June 2025
- Work
- Untitled
- Price USD
- $12,065
- Auction House
- Phillips
- Database Period
- 2025-onward (partial data)
- Price Range USD
- $6,350 - $20,320
- Sell Through Rate
- 100%
- Average Hammer USD
- $13,367
- Market Position
- Market Positioning
- Liquidity
- Moderate to good - works appear regularly at major auction houses
- Collector Base
- Institutional collectors, sophisticated private collectors focused on contemporary painting
- Geographic Markets
- Strong in US and Europe, particularly New York, London, Berlin
- Secondary Market Activity
- Active with consistent auction presence
- Broader Market Context
- Market Segment
- Six-figure artist with growing blue-chip positioning
- Price Range All Time
- $46 - $984,250 USD
- Annual Lots Sold Recent
- 55 lots
- Average Price 12 Months
- $68,657 USD
- Historical Sell Through 36 Months
- 33.3%
Institutional Presence
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Art Institute of Chicago
Smithsonian Institution (Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden), Washington DC
Tate Modern, London
Brooklyn Museum, New York
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris
Moderna Museet, Stockholm
Museum Brandhorst, Munich
Lenbachhaus, Munich
Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, New York
Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin
Arts Club of Chicago
Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Italy
Saatchi Gallery, London
- Exhibitions
Title Year Venue — 2014 — — 2022 — — 2000 PS1 Amy Sillman: one lump or two 2013 Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston Directions, Amy Sillman: Third Person Singular 2008 Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC Amy Sillman: Oh, Clock! 2024 Kunstmuseum Bern Artist's Choice: Amy Sillman—The Shape of Shape 2019-2020 Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York — 2015-2016 Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria — 2016 Portikus, Frankfurt am Main After Metamorphoses 2017 The Drawing Center, New York Landline 2018 Camden Arts Centre, London Alternate Side (Permutations #1–32) June 2025 - May 2026 Dia Bridgehampton - Museum Collections
- Curatorial Projects
Year Venue 2019 MoMA 2008 Hammer Museum 2005 Artists Space
- Awards and Recognition
- Awards and Honors
Year Award 2001 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in Painting 1999 Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship 1999 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award 1999 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship 2009 Guna S. Mundheim Fellowship in the Visual Arts (American Academy in Berlin) 2012 Asher B. Durand Award 2014 Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters 2024 Yaddo Artist Medal 2020 Election to American Academy of Arts and Letters 1995 National Endowment for the Arts
Career & Biography
- Career
Period Description 1970s Early formative experiences including work in Alaska cannery, feminist silkscreen factory in Chicago, training as Japanese interpreter at NYU, involvement with feminist journal Heresies 1979-1995 Post-BFA period focused on learning, working as assistant to Pat Steir, participating in downtown feminist and counterculture movements Mid-1990s-2000s Began gaining attention with solo exhibitions at Lipton Owens Company, Casey Kaplan, Brent Sikkema (later Sikkema Jenkins) 1997-2013 Teaching at Bard College MFA painting program, serving as chair of painting department (2002-2013) 2014-2019 Professor of Fine Arts at Städelschule, Frankfurt, Germany 2013-present Major institutional recognition with museum survey 'one lump or two' and subsequent international exhibitions - Identity
- Birth Location
- Detroit, Michigan, USA
- Current Location
- New York, USA
- Professional Roles
- PainterDraftspersonWriter/Art CriticCuratorEducatorZine-makerAnimator
- Artistic Context
- Artistic Influences
- Philip GustonWillem de KooningAbstract Expressionism (critically engaging rather than emulating)New York SchoolEva HesseLouise BourgeoisMaria LassnigDowntown feminist and counterculture movements of 1970s-80s NYC
Artistic Profile
- Themes and Subjects
- Formal
- Abstraction-figuration oscillationShape as primary concernColor as materialProcess and revision as contentTime-based approach to painting
- Conceptual
- Doubt and unknowabilityAwkwardness and humorFeminist critique of mastery and geniusBody as abstractionContradiction and dialecticsNon-linguistic thinking
- Psychological
- Intimate relationships and couplingAwkward feelings and affectSelf-deprecationVulnerability in mark-making
- Movements and Periods
- Distinctive Characteristics
- Touch
- Equally tender and ruthless
- Affect
- Playful yet serious, humorous yet anxious, awkward yet prowess-filled
- Composition
- Film noir slants, scaffolds, orthogonal plunges, eccentric shapes
- Color Palette
- Vivid, often surprising - key lime greens, riotous reds and pinks, acidic tones
- Visual Language
- Hybrid, idiosyncratic imagery that resists categorization
- Techniques and Mediums
- Drawing
- Core of practiceSequential, film-like progressionsiPad and iPhone applicationsCartoonish idiom with economy of mark-makingWatercolor washes and bold black line
- Painting
- Accumulation and redaction of innumerable layersConstructive erasure and 'unpainting'Use of rags, trowels, scrapers instead of brushesOil and acrylic combined on single canvasSilkscreen integration with painting
- Mixed Media
- Zine-making (The O-G series)Digital animationInstallation strategiesCollage and printmaking
Critical Reception
- Critical Reception
- Writing by Artist
- Regular contributor to Artforum, Texte zur Kunst, Bomb Magazine, The Washington Post
- Essays on John Chamberlain, Eugène Delacroix, Rachel Harrison, Laura Owens, Nicole Eisenman
- Defense of Abstract Expressionism ('Ab-Ex and Disco Balls' 2011)
- Known for intelligent, witty art criticism
- Critical Positioning
- Discourse
- Central to contemporary conversations about painting's relevance, abstraction vs figuration debates
- Influence
- Described as 'artist's artist' with strong influence on peers and younger painters
- Recognition
- Widely recognized as one of most significant painters of her generation
- Scholarly Attention
- Subject of major critical essays and catalogue contributions
- Significant Reviews and Articles
Date Description Author Context Publication February 2007 Major essay 'The Elephant in the Painting' discussing fearless pursuit of painting that registers discomfort and absurdity Linda Norden — Artforum September 2024 — Barry Schwabsky — Artforum — Deemed Sillman's approach exemplary of virtuous 'unknowability' and feminist ethos countering mastery and power Helen Molesworth Curator essay — — Praised show's 'robust visual appetite' addressing fear of painting, color and form Roberta Smith MoMA Shape of Shape exhibition New York Times February 2018 Called show 'a thrilling, rollercoaster-like experience' Phyllis Tuchman Review of 'Mostly Drawing' at Gladstone ARTnews 2006 — Jan Avgikos — Artforum
- Publications and Media
- Major Publications
- Year
- 2020
- Title
- Amy Sillman: Faux Pas
- Publisher
- After 8 Books
- Description
- Collection of artist's writings, republished in expanded and foreign language editions
Gallery & Representation
- Fair Presence
- Recent
- Works shown at FIAC, Frieze Week exhibitions
- History
- Regular participation at major art fairs including Art Basel, Frieze
- Representation
- Previous Representation
Period Location Gallery Through 2025 — Gladstone Gallery Early 2000s New York Sikkema Jenkins & Co. Mid-1990s New York Casey Kaplan - Gallery Move Significance
- To
- David Zwirner
- Date
- January 2026
- From
- Gladstone Gallery
- Market Signal
- Strong institutional validation and blue-chip positioning
- Collector Impact
- Significant confidence boost, expected price increases for primary market works
- Institutional Backing
- David Zwirner praised work as 'endlessly intelligent' with 'remarkable ability to mine entire history of medium'
- Current Primary Representation
Location Gallery Status Tier — David Zwirner — Tier 1 London Thomas Dane Gallery Ongoing relationship Tier 2 Berlin Capitain Petzel Ongoing relationship Tier 2
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