January 16 – John Lennon's exhibition of Bag One at the London Arts Gallery is shut down by Scotland Yard for displaying "erotic lithographs".
October 26 – Garry Trudeau's comic strip Doonesbury debuts in approximately two dozen newspapers in the United States.
November 27 – Bolivian artist Benjamin Mendoza tries to assassinate Pope Paul VI during his visit to Manila.
Tom Keating admits that a number of watercolours in the style of Samuel Palmer were painted by him.
Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, the Federal collection of contemporary art, is established in Germany.
Conceptual Art and Conceptual Aspects, the first dedicated conceptual art exhibition, is mounted at the New York Cultural Center.
Theodor W. Adorno's book Aesthetic Theory (Asthetische Theorie) is published posthumously in Germany.
Archibald Prize: Eric Smith – Gruzman – Architect
Prix Puvis de Chavannes – Daniel du Janerand
Gilbert and George – The Singing Sculpture (performance)
Barbara Hepworth – Family of Man
Alvin D. Loving Jr. – Cube 27 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Henry Moore – Reclining Figure LH608
Kanda Nissho – Indoor Landscape
Isamu Noguchi – Night Wind
Victor Pasmore – Apollo Pavilion (Peterlee, England)
William Scott – Still Life With Orange Note (Arts Council of Northern Ireland)
Aaron Shikler – Official portrait of President John F. Kennedy
Robert Smithson – Spiral Jetty
January 17 – Genndy Tartakovsky, Russian-born American animator
January 22 – Alex Ross, American comic book painter and illustrator
January 24 – Maria Balshaw, English curator
February 10 – Peter Richards, British artist and curator
February 15 – Shepard Fairey, American artist, graphic designer and illustrator
February 27 – Matthias Lechner, German set designer and art director
March 12 – Marine Delterme, French actress, painter, sculptor and model
May 3 – Jeffrey Sebelia, American fashion designer
May 9 – Damian Loeb, American painter
May 26 – Nobuhiro Watsuki, Japanese manga artist
June 1 – Joshua Compston, British gallerist (d.1996)
July 6 – Grant Bond, American comic book artist and writer
July 9 – Benoit Pierre Emery, French art director and fashion designer
August 4 – Pete Abrams, American webcomic writer and illustrator
August 23 – Ben Eine, né Flynn, English street artist
November 22 – Aleksander Balos, Polish-born American artist and figurative painter
date unknown
Stéphane Ducret, Swiss contemporary artist
Emily Jacir, Palestinian artist
Tomoki Kyoda, Japanese animation director and animator
Vincent Paronnaud, French comics artist and filmmaker
David Quinn, Irish artist
Bosco Sodi, Mexican-born abstract painter
January 27
Rita Angus, New Zealand painter (born 1908)
Erich Heckel, German painter and printmaker (born 1883)
February 25 – Mark Rothko, Latvian-born American painter and printmaker (born 1903)
February 26 – Ángel María de Rosa, Argentine sculptor and philanthropist (born 1888)
March 2 – Marc-Aurèle Fortin, Canadian painter (born 1888)
March 8
Waldo Peirce, American painter (born 1884)
Anton Räderscheidt, German painter (born 1892)
March 22 – Georges Malkine, French Surrealist painter (born 1898)
April 20 – Robert Laurent, American sculptor (born 1890)
April 29 – Charles R. Chickering, American illustrator (born 1891)
May 13 – William Dobell, Australian sculptor and painter (born 1899)
May 29 – Eva Hesse, German-born American sculptor (born 1936)
June 6
Camille Bombois, French naïve painter (born 1883)
Signe Hammarsten-Jansson, Swedish-Finnish graphic artist (born 1882)
July 4 – Barnett Newman, American artist (born 1905)
July 7 – Dame Laura Knight, English Impressionist painter (born 1877)
July 13 – Lazar Drljača, Serbian painter (born 1883)
November 29 – Borislav Bogdanović, Serbian painter (born 1899)
November 29 – Walter Stuempfig, American painter (born 1914)
December 1 – Hermine David, French painter (born 1886)
December 19 – Stig Blomberg, Swedish sculptor (born 1901)
date unknown – Ze'ev Raban, Israeli painter (born 1890)
1970 in art Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA