Artsy APIartsy.net ↗
Access 300,000+ Artsy artist profiles, auction results, and shows. Search by name, browse alphabetically, and retrieve biographies, genres, and artwork counts.
What is the Artsy API?
The Artsy API exposes 5 endpoints covering artist discovery, auction search, and show search across Artsy's database of 300,000+ artists. Use get_artist to retrieve a full artist profile — including biography fields, genre classifications, nationality, and artwork counts — or use search_artists for fast name-based lookup returning up to 7 matched records with images.
curl -X GET 'https://api.parse.bot/scraper/432d8fd8-0d14-4c65-831d-e06c39b39a25/list_artists?page=1&size=5&letter=o' \ -H 'X-API-Key: $PARSE_API_KEY'
Typed, relational, agent-ready
A generated client with real types, enums, and the links between objects — the structure a flat JSON response can't carry. Autocompletes in your editor and reads cleanly to coding agents.
- Fully typed · autocompletes
- Objects link to objects
- Typed errors & pagination
Typed Python client. Set up the SDK in your uv project, then pull this API’s typed client:
uv add parse-sdk uv run parse init uv run parse add --marketplace artsy-net-api
uv run parse add --marketplace pulls a pinned snapshot of this canonical API — it won’t change underneath you. To customize it, subscribe and swap to your own copy.
"""Artsy Artists API — browse, search, and explore artist profiles."""
from parse_apis.artsy_artists_api import Artsy, Letter, ArtistNotFound
client = Artsy()
# List artists starting with a specific letter, bounded.
for artist_summary in client.artists.list(letter=Letter.P, size=5, limit=5):
print(artist_summary.name, artist_summary.nationality, artist_summary.formatted_label)
# Search for an artist, drill into the first result's full profile.
match = client.artists.search(query="andy warhol", limit=1).first()
if match:
full = match.details()
print(full.name, full.nationality, full.formatted_label)
print(full.counts.artworks, full.counts.for_sale_artworks)
for gene in full.genes[:3]:
print(gene)
# Direct get by slug.
try:
picasso = client.artists.get(slug="pablo-picasso")
print(picasso.name, picasso.biography[:80])
for insight in picasso.insights[:2]:
print(insight.label, insight.description)
except ArtistNotFound as exc:
print(f"Artist not found: {exc.artist_id}")
# Search auctions.
for auction in client.auctions.search(query="contemporary", limit=3):
print(auction.name, auction.slug)
# Search shows.
for show in client.shows.search(query="photography", limit=3):
print(show.name, show.href)
print("exercised: artists.list / artists.search / artists.get / match.details / auctions.search / shows.search")
List artists alphabetically with optional letter filtering. Returns paginated results with basic info including nationality and date labels. The total_pages field is capped at 100 by the upstream API regardless of actual total count.
| Param | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| page | integer | Page number (1-based). |
| size | integer | Number of artists per page (max 100). |
| letter | string | Filter by first letter (a-z). Omit to list all artists. |
{
"type": "object",
"fields": {
"page": "current page number",
"count": "number of artists in this page",
"letter": "filter letter applied or 'all'",
"artists": "array of artist summary objects",
"total_count": "total artists matching filter",
"total_pages": "total pages available (capped at 100)",
"has_next_page": "boolean indicating more pages exist"
},
"sample": {
"data": {
"page": 1,
"count": 5,
"letter": "a",
"artists": [
{
"href": "/artist/a",
"name": "A",
"slug": "a",
"birthday": "",
"deathday": "",
"internal_id": "653bbf4da2bcbf000de2d235",
"nationality": "",
"formatted_label": ""
}
],
"total_count": 17404,
"total_pages": 100,
"has_next_page": true
},
"status": "success"
}
}About the Artsy API
Artist Discovery and Profiles
The list_artists endpoint returns paginated artist records browsable alphabetically. Pass a letter parameter (a–z) to filter by first letter, and use page and size (up to 100) to page through results. Each page response includes total_count, total_pages (capped at 100), and a has_next_page boolean. The search_artists endpoint accepts a query string and returns up to 7 matching artists with images and basic metadata, suited for autocomplete or name-resolution workflows.
Detailed Artist Profiles
get_artist takes an artist slug (e.g. andy-warhol, pablo-picasso) and returns a single record with fields including name, genes (an array of genre and category label strings), counts (object containing follows, forSaleArtworks, and artworks integers), gender, birthday, deathday, hometown, and any awards text. If the slug does not match a known artist, the endpoint emits an input_not_found error rather than returning an empty result.
Auctions and Shows
search_auctions and search_shows both accept a keyword query and return up to 10 matching records each, with name, slug, href URL, and image per result. These endpoints use autosuggest-style matching, so broad terms like photography or contemporary work well for discovery. Results are not paginated — each call returns a single batch of up to 10 items.
The Artsy API is a managed, monitored endpoint for artsy.net — not a raw scraper you maintain. Every endpoint is automatically health-checked on a schedule, and when artsy.net changes and a check fails, the API is automatically queued for repair and re-verified. It is built to keep working as the site underneath it changes.
This isn't an official artsy.net API — it's an independent, maintained REST wrapper over public data. Where the source has no official API (or only a limited one), Parse gives you a stable contract over a source that never promised one, and keeps it current. Need a new endpoint or field? You can revise it yourself in plain English and the agent rebuilds it against the live site in minutes — contributing the change back to the shared API is free.
Will this API break when the source site changes?+
Is this an official API from the source site?+
Can I fix or extend this API myself if I need a new endpoint or field?+
What happens if I call an endpoint that has an issue?+
- Build an artist lookup tool that resolves typed names to Artsy slugs via
search_artistsbefore fetching full profiles. - Aggregate artwork counts and genre tags from
get_artistto classify artists by medium or movement. - Enumerate all artists beginning with a specific letter using the
letterfilter inlist_artistsfor directory-style browsing. - Find upcoming or past photography auctions by querying
search_auctionswith genre keywords. - Discover gallery shows related to a specific medium or style using
search_showswith keyword queries. - Cross-reference artist nationality and birth/death years from
get_artistfor art-historical research datasets. - Track forSaleArtworks counts from the
countsfield to monitor market availability for specific artists.
| Tier | Price | Credits/month | Rate limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 100 | 5 req/min |
| Hobby | $30/mo | 1,000 | 20 req/min |
| Developer | $100/mo | 5,000 | 100 req/min |
One credit = one API call regardless of which marketplace API you call. Exceeding the rate limit returns a 429 response. Authenticate with the X-API-Key header.
Does Artsy have an official developer API?+
What does `get_artist` return beyond a biography?+
genes array (genre and movement labels), a counts object with integer values for artworks, forSaleArtworks, and follows, plus gender, birthday, deathday, hometown, and any awards text. It does not return free-form biography prose as a distinct field in the current response shape.How does pagination work in `list_artists`, and is there a hard cap?+
page and size parameters, with size capped at 100 artists per page. The total_pages value is capped at 100 regardless of how many total artists match the filter, so deep browsing beyond page 100 is not supported. The has_next_page boolean in each response tells you whether an additional page exists within that limit.Does the API return individual artwork listings or auction sale prices for an artist?+
forSaleArtworks and artworks integer counts) and lets you search auctions and shows by keyword, but it does not expose individual artwork records, lot-level auction results, or hammer prices. You can fork this API on Parse and revise it to add an endpoint targeting artwork or auction-result data.Can I filter artists by nationality, movement, or medium rather than just by letter?+
list_artists endpoint supports filtering only by the first letter of the artist's name. Genre and movement data is available in the genes field on individual artist records from get_artist, but it cannot be used as a filter in the list endpoint. You can fork this API on Parse and revise it to add genre- or nationality-based filtering.