Please note, we are in the process of retiring the public api. The public api, as well as its documentation and playground, will remain available until July 28th, 2025. This change will not affect integration partners using our partner api.


If you're an Artsy partner gallery, reach out to your Artsy Liaison or contact our Support team for assistance.

Public API Documentation > Resources > Artists

Artists API

An artist creates artworks.

An artist is generally one person, but can also be two people collaborating, a collective of people, or even a mysterious entity such as "Banksy".

Retrieving Artists

Retrieve artists by following the artists link from root.

curl -v "https://stagingapi.artsy.net/api/artists" -H "X-XAPP-Token: XAPP_TOKEN"

This endpoint accepts the following parameters.

Name Value
artwork_id Retrieve artists for a given artwork.
similar_to_artist_id Return artists similar to a given artist.
similarity_type Similarity type, either default or contemporary. See below.
gene_id Return a set of artists that represent a given gene.
artworks Only return artists with artworks.
published_artworks Only return artists with published artworks.
partner_id Return artists with artworks that belong to the partner.

The response is a paginated result with embedded artists.

Retrieving an Artist

Users can retrieve a specific artist by ID by rendering the "artist" link template from root.

curl -v "https://stagingapi.artsy.net/api/artists/{id}" -H "X-XAPP-Token: XAPP_TOKEN"

Retrieving an Artwork's Artists

Follow the "artists" link from an artwork, which calls this endpoint with the artwork_id parameter.

Retrieving Similar Artists

Artsy continuously computes a K-nearest-neighbor graph for artists using data from the Art Genome Project. Retrieve artists similar to another artist by following the "similar_artists" or the "similar_contemporary_artists" links in an artist resource, which calls this endpoint with the similar_to_artist_id parameter and an optional similarity_type value. The response is a non-paginated set of similar artists or similar contemporary artists, respectively.

Artist JSON Format

error: the server responded with status 404

Links

Key Target
self The artist resource.
thumbnail Default image thumbnail.
image Curied image location.
permalink An external location on the artsy.net website.
artworks All artist's artworks.
similar_artists Artists similar to this artist.
similar_contemporary_artists Contemporary artists similar to this artist.

Example

{
  "id": "4d8b92b34eb68a1b2c0003f4",
  "slug": "andy-warhol",
  "created_at": "2010-08-23T14:15:30+00:00",
  "updated_at": "2025-10-31T17:13:54+00:00",
  "name": "Andy Warhol",
  "sortable_name": "Warhol Andy",
  "gender": "male",
  "biography": "An American painter, printmaker, sculptor, draughtsman, illustrator, filmmaker, writer and collector, who became one of the most famous artists of the 20th century. Warhol began his career as a successful commercial artist and illustrator for magazines and newspapers but by 1960 was determined to establish his name as a painter. He quickly became renowned for painting everyday advertisements or images from comic strips that looked eerily similar to the originals and contained no traditional marks of an artist. Warhol accentuated this look through the use of silkscreens and by painting in collaboration with a team of assistants in a studio he called \"The Factory.\" In the late sixties, Warhol turned his attention to making experimental films and multimedia events, and in the 1970s, to creating commissioned portraits. During the 1980s Warhol continued to exert an influence on the art world, collaborating with young artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and creating a series of paintings, which engaged with Renaissance masterworks.",
  "birthday": "1928",
  "deathday": "1987",
  "hometown": "Pittsburgh, PA, USA",
  "location": "New York, NY, USA",
  "nationality": "American",
  "target_supply": true,
  "image_versions": [
    "four_thirds",
    "large",
    "square",
    "tall"
  ],
  "_links": {
    "thumbnail": {
      "href": "https://d32dm0rphc51dk.cloudfront.net/E-k-uLoQADM8AjadsSKHrA/four_thirds.jpg"
    },
    "image": {
      "href": "https://d32dm0rphc51dk.cloudfront.net/E-k-uLoQADM8AjadsSKHrA/{image_version}.jpg",
      "templated": true
    },
    "self": {
      "href": "https://stagingapi.artsy.net/api/artists/4d8b92b34eb68a1b2c0003f4"
    },
    "permalink": {
      "href": "https://staging.artsy.net/artist/andy-warhol"
    },
    "artworks": {
      "href": "https://stagingapi.artsy.net/api/artworks?artist_id=4d8b92b34eb68a1b2c0003f4"
    },
    "published_artworks": {
      "href": "https://stagingapi.artsy.net/api/artworks?artist_id=4d8b92b34eb68a1b2c0003f4&published=true"
    },
    "similar_artists": {
      "href": "https://stagingapi.artsy.net/api/artists?similar_to_artist_id=4d8b92b34eb68a1b2c0003f4"
    },
    "similar_contemporary_artists": {
      "href": "https://stagingapi.artsy.net/api/artists?similar_to_artist_id=4d8b92b34eb68a1b2c0003f4&similarity_type=contemporary"
    },
    "genes": {
      "href": "https://stagingapi.artsy.net/api/genes?artist_id=4d8b92b34eb68a1b2c0003f4"
    }
  }
}