Events
January – First issue of Axis, a quarterly review of abstract art edited by Myfanwy Piper in England, is published.
February 15–March 2 – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People stages an exhibition Art Commentary on Lynching in New York City.
May 7 – Artists' Unit group of British modernists announced, superseding Unit One.
December – Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler undergoes forced sterilization in accordance with Nazi eugenics policies and never paints again.
Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, designed by Hendrik Petrus Berlage, completed in the Netherlands.
William Coldstream edits the GPO Film Unit documentary Coal Face.
Picasso's poetry takes precedence over his graphic work this year.
Works
Pierre Bonnard – Nude in the Bathtub
Alessandro Bruschetti – Fascist Synthesis
Óscar Domínguez – Le Dimanche
Gerardo Dottori – Fascist Creations
Jacob Epstein – Ecce Homo (marble)
M. C. Escher – Hand with Reflecting Sphere (lithograph)
James Earle Fraser – sculptures, Washington, D.C.
Guardianship
Heritage
Frida Kahlo
A Few Small Nips (Unos cuantos piquetitos)
Self-Portrait with Curly Hair
Fernand Léger – Two Sisters
L. S. Lowry – The Fever Van
René Magritte
The Discovery of Fire
The Human Condition (second version)
The Portrait
Joan Miró
Man and Woman in Front of a Pile of Excrement
Metamorphosis
Paul Nash – Equivalents for the Megaliths
Pablo Picasso – Jeune Fille Endormie
Candido Portinari – Coffee
Diego Rivera – The Spanish Conquest of Mexico
William Rothenstein – Barn at Cherington, Gloucestershire
Amrita Sher-Gil
Camels
Hill Women
Three Girls
Kārlis Zāle – Freedom Monument (Riga, Latvia)
Awards
Archibald Prize: John Longstaff – A B ('Banjo') Paterson
Knighthood: William Reid Dick
Births
2 January – David McKee, English author and illustrator (d. 2022)[2]
12 January – Teresa del Conde, Mexican art critic and historian (d. 2017)
26 January – Paula Rego, Portuguese-born painter (d. 2022)
10 February
John Alcorn, American illustrator (d. 1992)
Konrad Klapheck, German painter (d. 2023)
1 June – Vladislav Lalicki, Serbian painter (d. 2008)
13 June – Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Bulgarian & Moroccan-born American installation artists (d. 2020 & 2009 respectively)[3]
22 June – Floyd Norman, American animator, writer and comic book artist[4]
19 August – Victor Ambrus, Hungarian-born British illustrator (d. 2021)
23 August – Roy Strong, English art historian and curator
8 September – William Vance, Belgian comics artist (d. 2018)
16 September – Carl Andre, American minimalist artist (d. 2024)[5]
26 September – Juan Zanotto, Italian-born Argentine comic book artist (d. 2005)
30 September – James McKendry, Northern Irish sculptor and painter
1 October – Walter De Maria, American minimalist, conceptual artist and land artist (d. 2013)
3 October – Sinikka Kurkinen, Finnish painter
9 October – Don McCullin, English war photographer
Full date unknown
Nina Alovert, Russian-born American ballet photographer
Rasheed Araeen, Pakistan-born British conceptual artist
Félix Aráuz, Ecuadorean painter (d. 2024)
John Barry, English film set designer (d. 1979)
Deaths
February 8 – Max Liebermann, German-Jewish impressionist painter (b. 1847)[6]
February 16 – Carolina Benedicks-Bruce, Swedish sculptor (b. 1856)
March 25 – William de Leftwich Dodge, American muralist (b. 1867)
April 15 – Anna Ancher, Danish member of the Skagen Painters group (b. 1859)[7]
April 22 – Frederick Farrell, Scottish watercolourist, war artist, pneumonia (b. 1882)
May 3 – Jessie Willcox Smith, American illustrator (b. 1863)
May 15 – Kazimir Malevich, Polish-Russian painter, art theoretician (b. 1879)[8]
May 24 – Granville Redmond, American landscape painter (b. 1871)
July 17 – George William Russell ('Æ'), Irish critic, poet and painter (b. 1867)
August 15 – Paul Signac, French neo-impressionist painter (b. 1863)[9]
August 27 – Childe Hassam, American impressionist painter (b. 1859)[10]
October 2 – Georg Jensen, Danish silversmith (b. 1866)
October 4 – Jean Béraud, French painter (b. 1849)
October 9 – Archibald Thorburn, Scottish-born wildlife painter (b. 1860)
October 11 – Samuel Peploe, Scottish painter (b. 1871)
October 18 – Gaston Lachaise, French-American sculptor (b. 1882)[11]
October 23 – Charles Demuth, American painter (b. 1883)[12]
November 28 – Joaquín Clausell, Mexican impressionist landscape painter, lawyer and political activist (b. 1866)
Undated
Harry Fidler, English painter (b. 1856)
Eva Watson-Schütze, American portrait photographer and curator (b. 1867)