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Doing it for the moneyWhen it comes to cash, are artists painting by numbers?By Barry Neild for CNN  Lucian Freud is one of the most actively traded living artists. QUICKVOTERELATEDPAINT IT GOLDMost actively traded artists (2005) Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Andy Warhol (1928-1987) Claude Monet (1840-1926) Canaletto (1697-1768) Mark Rothko (1903-1970) Marc Chagall (1887-1985) Willem de Kooning (1904-1997) Fernand Leger (1881-1955) Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) Lucian Freud (1922- ) Source: Artprice.com LONDON, England (CNN) -- Forget the stock market, oil fields and roulette wheel, if you want to make some serious cash, pick up a brush and get painting. It may be rather a simplistic view -- oils and easel are no guarantees of a glittering career -- but with the massive sums of money pouring into today's modern art market, the days of talented artists dying poor and hungry seem to be a thing of the past. Whereas massive price tags were once reserved for the enigmatic smiles and religious symbolism of gloomy old masters, art bidders are just as likely to get their checkbooks out for the pop and shock of cutting-edge creativity. While this is clearly good news for artists, it does raise concerns for the state of the current art scene. Stripped of the traditional muses of poverty and despair and constantly tempted by the prospect of raking in stacks of greenbacks, are contemporary craftsmen in danger of compromising their visions? It is a tantalizing prospect. In a recent top 10 of the world's most actively traded artists (topped by Pablo Picasso), almost all were painters who had reached the peak of their careers as recently as the last half century. Sitting comfortably in a top 50 compiled by French data service Artprice.com are a handful of still living artists, the most profitable being Lucian Freud, whose unflattering nudes helped clock up a 2004 turnover in excess of $33 million. "The contemporary art market is good, in fact it is better than good," says Fernando Mignoni, the director of post war and contemporary art for Christie's auction house. "At our last two auctions in London in June and New York in May, both achieved the highest totals ever for a sale in these categories. The contemporary art market is now outperforming other categories." Mignoni says the reason for the upturn is the emergence of a younger breed of private collector who, unlike their conservative predecessors, are more inclined to forward thinking, looking for future trends and work that they can relate to. Also helping ramp up prices is the emergence of big-bucks investors, such as advertising executive Charles Saatchi or even Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the world's richest man, whose spin-off company Corbis has spent millions of dollars purchasing the rights to reproduce images, injecting even more cash into the art market. The buoyant contemporary market can be a problem for museums and galleries who must cough up steeper insurance premiums or face higher bills when trying to acquire new work, says Mignoni. "From the artist's point of view it is good," he told CNN. "If you think of Vincent Van Gogh who basically committed suicide in a very precarious situation, I think it is good that artists are now getting the recognition they deserve." But while rich patronage is not a new development in an art world which owes some of its roots to the largesse of benefactors such as Italy's Medici family, for artists, a bulging wallet is not necessarily the greatest incentive. Jean-Michel Basquiat, who clocks in at number nine on the Artprice chart, was earning hundreds of thousands of dollars as he emerged from New York's 1970s graffiti scene to become one of the most lauded living artists.  Non-mainstream artists such as Heather Connelly believe art delivers value for money Basquiat's success helped fuel his serious drug addictions, ultimately leading to his death from a heroin overdose at the age of 27. Other artists have turned the rampant market to their advantage, with Britain's Damien Hirst pocketing almost $20 million from the auction of artworks and fixtures from his Pharmacy restaurant in London. But the huge sums commanded by Hirst and other, primarily young and British, artists has stirred a backlash, with leading Australian critic Robert Hughes condemning a scene "swollen with currency" and riding on the "vanity of inflated reputation." Even the emergence of a new Asian art scene -- artists such as Qiu Zhijie and Wang Qingsong are commanding reserve prices of up to $25,000 at an upcoming Bonhams auction in London -- is unlikely to dilute the market, particularly as since China's economic boom has produced yet more buyers. "It is difficult to predict, but I see no indication why things could change," adds Mignoni. "There are plenty of new collectors eager to buy works of the highest quality." For those artists working outside of the mainstream, money is a juggling act, seen as both a necessity and potential pitfall. But few would dispute that those who pay top dollar (most of which goes to art dealers rather than artists) get value for money. "Artists amass a huge amount of knowledge and experience, and this has to be recognized," says Heather Connelly, a British-based artist who combines work on art projects with employment as a lecturer and consultant. "Money is always on my mind and I am advocating the need for my other artists' time to be paid for in the same way an architect or consultant are paid for. Connelly said that while it is still a struggle for unsupported artists to get their careers off the ground, she would always choose to tighten purse strings rather than abandon her ideals. "As a lecturer, my only concern is that art does not become the latest fad and that everyone assumes it's a way to fame -- rather like 'Pop Idol.'" 
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