May 17 – First known instance of a chimpanzee (Congo) painting. His mentor Desmond Morris organises an exhibition of chimpanzee art at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.
Gruppe SPUR, an artistic collaboration, is founded in Germany.
Chicago's Lithuanian community opens the Čiurlionis Art Gallery.
John Lennon enrols at Liverpool College of Art where he will meet Stuart Sutcliffe.
Man Ray's Object to Be Destroyed (1923) is destroyed
Three new neo-grotesque sans-serif typefaces are released: Folio (designed by Konrad Bauer and Walter Baum), Neue Haas Grotesk (designed by Max Miedinger) and Univers (designed by Adrian Frutiger); all will be influential in the International Typographic Style of graphic design.
Archibald Prize: Ivor Hele – Self Portrait
January – Yves Klein – Proposte Monochrome, Epoca Blu ("Proposition Monochrome; Blue Epoch"), Gallery Apollinaire, Milan.
Jean Arp – Evocation of a Form: Human, Lunar, Spectral (cast bronze)
Maurice Boitel – The Hens
Paul-Émile Borduas – Étoile noire
Arthur Boyd – Dreaming Bridegroom 1
Yves Klein – Aerostatic Sculpture (Paris).
L. S. Lowry – Man Lying on a Wall; Portrait of Ann
Isamu Noguchi – Endless Coupling
Charles Sheeler – Red Against White
Clyfford Still – 1957-D No. 1
January 27 – Frank Miller, American comic-book artist
April 3 – Yves Chaland, French cartoonist (d. 1990)
August 7 – Mark Bagley, American comic-book artist
August 9 – Rick Leonardi, American comic-book illustrator
August 28 – Ai Weiwei, Chinese installation artist
October 16 – Jim Hodges, American installation artist
November 18 – Ernst Billgren, Swedish sculptor
November 26 – Félix González-Torres, Cuban artist (d. 1996)
Bill Barker, American Schwa conceptual artist
Mike Bernard, English painter and multi-media artist
January 1 – Óscar Domínguez, Spanish painter (b. 1906)
January 17 – Jože Plečnik, Slovene architect (b. 1872)
January 20 – John Minton, English painter and illustrator (b. 1917)
February 4 – Miguel Covarrubias, Mexican painter and caricaturist (b. 1904)
February 11 – Gwen Raverat, English wood engraver (b. 1885)
February 14 – Emanuel Hahn, German Canadian sculptor (b. 1881)
March 16 – Constantin Brâncuși, Romanian-born sculptor (b. 1876)
March 28 – Jack Butler Yeats, Irish painter and illustrator (b. 1871)
March 23 – Andrzej Wróblewski, Polish figurative painter (mountaineering accident) (b. 1927)
May 14 – Marie Vassilieff, Russian-born painter (b. 1884)
May 18 – Bruce Rogers, American book designer and typographer (b. 1870)
June 12 – Mario Urteaga Alvarado, Peruvian painter (b. 1875)
July 7 – Kiyoshi Koishi, Japanese photographer (b. 1908)
August 2 – Lasar Segall, Lithuanian-born Brazilian Jewish painter (b. 1891)
August 15 – C. T. Loo, Chinese-born art dealer (b. 1880)
August 19 – David Bomberg, English painter (b. 1890)
September 26 – Pompeo Coppini, Italian American sculptor (b. 1870)
October 11 – René Auberjonois, Swiss Post-Impressionist painter (b. 1872)
October 15 – Henry van de Velde, Belgian-born painter, architect and designer, a founder of the Art Nouveau movement (b. 1863)
October 24 – Christian Dior, French fashion designer (b. 1905)
November 2 – Mahonri Young, American sculptor (d. 1877)
November 20 – Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Russian-born graphic artist (b. 1875)
November 24 – Diego Rivera, Mexican painter (b. 1886)
November 30 – Paja Jovanović, a leading Serbian Realist painter (along with Đorđe Krstić and Uroš Predić) (b. 1859)
December 14 – Josef Lada, Czech illustrator and painter (b. 1887)
December 15 – Heinrich Hoffmann, German propaganda photographer (b. 1885)
date unknown
Adam Emory Albright, American painter of figures in landscapes (b. 1862)
Saishū Onoe, Japanese poet and calligrapher (b. 1876)
1957 in art Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
