The list of artworks is based on data from 155 different countries.
byHakim Bishara
Support Independent Arts Journalism
As an independent publication, we rely on readers like you to fund our journalism and keep our reporting and criticism free and accessible to all. If you value our coverage and want to support more of it, consider becoming a member today.
BECOME A MEMBER
With access to museums and galleries restricted since the COVID-19 pandemic started, millions around the world have resorted to the internet to quell their thirst for fine art. So what major artworks have they been Googling since the virus took hold of the globe last year? A new study has the answers.
Using the online analytics tool Ahrefs, the arts and crafts tutorials website Diys.com mined the 10 mostGoogled paintings in the world in 2020.Based on data from 155 different countries, the company quantified the average global search volume of each painting per month.
The list consists of famous masterpieces from theWestern canon of art history. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” ranks first among the most searched paintings of last year with over one million online searches on average each month. Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica”comes second, with almost half the monthly average search volume (454,500). In third is da Vinci’sLast Supper (343,000).
The ranking continues with other ubiquitous masterpieces by Western artists like Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” (1893), Grant Wood’s “American Gothic”(1930), and Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam” (c. 1508–1512).
The list is noticeably white and male, a damning testament to the historical marginalization of women and artists of color in Western art. Even immensely popular artists like Frida Kahlo and Hilma af Klintdon’t make it to the top 10.
See the full lists of 10 most Googled paintings in 2020 here (the figures represent the monthly average number of global online searches):
- Leonardo da Vinci, “Mona Lisa” (c. 1503–19)(1,024,000 views monthly)
- Pablo Picasso, “Guernica” (1937) (454,500 views monthly)
- Leonardo da Vinci, “The Last Supper” (1495–1498) (343,000 views monthly)
- Edvard Munch, “The Scream” (1893) (241,000 views monthly)
- Diego Velázquez , “Las Meninas” (1656) (140,000 views monthly)
- Grant Wood, “American Gothic” (1930) (136,000 views monthly)
- Michelangelo, “Creation of Adam” (c. 1508–1512) (105,150 views monthly)
- Johannes Vermeer, “Girl with a Pearl Earring” (1665) (86,000 views monthly)
- Salvador Dali, “The Persistence of Memory” (1931) (78,400 views monthly)
- Hieronymus Bosch, “The Garden of Earthly Delights” (1503–1515) (58,000 views monthly)
- Did Auguste Rodin Steal From Camille Claudel?
- Art Dealer Barbara Gladstone Dies at 89
- Five New York Shows to See Before June Ends
- The New York Housing Law That Helped Sustain Artists
- Real Photographer Beats Out Robots in AI Art Competition
The Latest
An Artist Contends With Brooklyn’s History of Enslavement
Adama Delphine Fawundu’s installation at the Lefferts Historic House in Prospect Park honors the 25 individuals who were once enslaved there.
by Maya Pontone
Weaver Roy Kady Is a Shepherd First
“That’s what traditional Navajo weaving is: an interpretation of your environment,” the Diné artist told Hyperallergic in an interview.
by Elaine Velie
Sponsored
Krannert Art Museum Hosts First Solo Exhibition of Artist Jen Everett
Could you dim the lights? showcases how Everett remixes images of herself with found photographs to discuss Black life, kinship, and collective gathering. On view in Champaign, Illinois.
Social Tensions From Antiquity to the End of the World
The trials of a post-apocalyptic New York and hedonistic Rome become one another’s mirrors and choirs in The Industry’s double opera Comet/Poppea.
by Nereya Otieno
Nona Faustine Unearths New York’s Buried History of Slavery
Faustine’s White Shoes photography series demands a reckoning with the histories and afterlives of slavery, settler colonialism, and genocidal violence.
by Alexandra M. Thomas
A Juneteenth Documentary Explores Faith’s Role in Black Liberation
Juneteenth: Faith and Freedom (2022) is screening at the Brooklyn Public Library in Flatbush on Thursday, June 20.
by Rhea Nayyar
Six Art Books to Read This Juneteenth
Delve into the long history of African-American photography, bell hooks’s essays on art and politics, a graphic novel on the Black Panther Party, and more.
by Lakshmi Rivera Amin
Sponsored
JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film
North America’s largest Japanese film festival presents two weeks of contemporary movies at Japan Society in NYC, July 10–21.
With a New Home and a New Name, LAXART Returns as “The Brick”
The LA arts nonprofit is marking a new chapter in its 20-year history.
by Matt Stromberg
Philip Yenawine’s Transformative Teaching
“I attribute what creativity I have to being gay,” explained the art historian and author in a conversation with Hyperallergic.
by Lakshmi Rivera Amin and Lisa Yin Zhang
