Alexander Calder is hired by Braniff International Airways to paint a full-size DC-8-62 as a "flying canvas".
Aristeidis Metallinos begins his career as a sculptor.
Robert Scull's collection of American Pop and Minimal art is auctioned by Sotheby's in New York City.
Archibald Prize: Janet Dawson – Michael Boddy
Christopher Williams – centenary exhibition in Cardiff, Maesteg and Swansea.
Michael Ayrton – Icarus (sculpture, London)
Michael Craig-Martin – An Oak Tree (conceptual work)
William Eggleston – The Red Ceiling (photograph)
Barbara Hepworth – Conversation with Magic Stones
Nabil Kanso – Place des Martyres (paintings); Vietnam paintings series (through 1974)
Frederic Littman – Farewell to Orpheus (bronze, Portland, Oregon)
Joan Miró – completes series The navigator's hope
Henry Moore – Large Four Piece Reclining Figure 1972–73 (bronze)
Ivor Roberts-Jones – Statue of Winston Churchill, Parliament Square (bronze, London)
David Wynne
Embracing Lovers (bronze, Guildhall, London)
Girl with a Dolphin (bronze, by Tower Bridge, London)
January 29 – Louise Hindsgavl, Danish artist
February 1 – Yuri Landman, Dutch musician, comic book creator and singer
May 8 – Hiromu Arakawa, Japanese manga artist
July 7 – Natsuki Takaya, Japanese manga artist
August 18 – Jerome Lagarrigue, French painter and illustrator
Jean-Pierre Canlis, American glass artist.
Oisín McGann, Irish author and illustrator.
January 17 – Tarsila do Amaral, Brazilian modernist artist (b. 1886).
March 14 – Chic Young, American cartoonist (b. 1901).
March 25 – Edward Steichen, American photographer, painter and curator (b. 1879).
April 8 – Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter, draftsman, and sculptor (b. 1881).
April 28 – Siri Derkert, Swedish artist, sculptor and political campaigner (b. 1888).
May 1 – Asger Jorn, Danish artist and essayist (b. 1914).
May 12 – Edith Tudor Hart, née Suschitzky, Austrian-born photojournalist and communist agent in Britain (b. 1908).
May 16 – Albert Paris Gütersloh, Austrian painter and writer (b. 1887).
July 20 – Robert Smithson, American artist (b. 1938)
September 30 – Peter Pitseolak, Inuit photographer, artist and historian (b. 1902)
November 13 – Elsa Schiaparelli, Italian fashion designer (b. 1890)
November 17 – Adolf Wissel, German painter, an official artist of Nazism (b. 1894)
December 7 – Camilo Mori Chilean painter (b. 1896)
December 13 – Ralph Stackpole, American sculptor, painter, muralist, etcher and art educator (b. 1885)
Claude Buckle, English poster artist and watercolourist (b. 1905).
Ronald Ossory Dunlop, Irish author and painter (b. 1894).
1973 in art Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
