1 January – A black monolith measuring approximately 9 feet tall appears in Seattle, Washington's Magnuson Park, placed by an anonymous artist in reference to the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
4 June – Unveiling of Rachel Whiteread's Untitled Monument on the Fourth plinth, Trafalgar Square, London.
17 July – Inauguration of the Altamira cave replica created by Manuel Franquelo and Sven Nebel.
11 September – An estimated $100 million worth of art is destroyed in the 11 September attacks on New York City. Public artwork accounts for around $10 million of this figure, which includes works by Alexander Calder, Joan Miró and Roy Lichtenstein. Fritz Koenig's Great Spherical Caryatid ("The Sphere") survives though damaged.
Undated – A new wing in the Genia Schreiber University Art Gallery of the University of Tel Aviv, Israel, is dedicated to the memory of Michel Kikoine.
Max Beckmann retrospective at the Pompidou Centre, Paris
Archibald Prize – Nicholas Harding for John Bell as King Lear
Beck's Futures – Tim Stoner
Schock Prize in Visual Arts – Giuseppe Penone
Turner Prize – Martin Creed for Work No. 227: The lights going on and off (Tate)
Venice Biennial
Lion d'Or Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement: Richard Serra (USA), Cy Twombly (USA)
Lion d'Or for Best Pavilion: Gregor Schneider (Germany)
Alluvial Wall, Portland, Oregon
Echo Gate, Portland, Oregon
Facing the Crowd, Portland, Oregon
Ghost Ship (sculpture), Portland, Oregon
Living Room (sculpture), Gresham, Oregon
Michael Landy - Breakdown
Jeremy Deller – Battle of Orgreave
Lucian Freud – Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II
Tracy Harris – Funnel
Zeng Fanzhi – The Last Supper
30 January – O. Winston Link, American photographer. (b. 1914)
12 February – Kristina Söderbaum, Swedish-German film actress, producer and photographer (b. 1912)
17 February – Barry Burman, English painter and educator (b. 1943)
18 February – Balthus, French modern artist (b. 1908)
4 March
Jean René Bazaine, French painter, stained glass window designer and writer (b. 1904)
Fred Lasswell, American cartoonist (b. 1916)
1 June – Hank Ketcham, American cartoonist (b. 1920)
19 June – David Sylvester, English art critic and curator (b. 1924)
27 June – Tove Jansson, Swedish-Finnish novelist, painter, illustrator and comic strip author (b. 1914)
4 July – Anne Yeats, Irish painter and stage designer (b. 1919)
11 July – Herman Brood, Dutch musician, painter and media personality (b. 1946)
July – Hélène de Beauvoir, French painter (b. 1910)
23 October
Josh Kirby, English commercial artist (b. 1928)
Daniel Wildenstein, French international art dealer and scholar (b. 1917)
3 November – Sir Ernst Gombrich, Austrian-born art historian (b. 1909)
19 November – Marcelle Ferron, Canadian painter and stained glass artist (b. 1924)
December – Mercedes Matter, American painter (b. 1913)
29 December – György Kepes, Hungarian-born painter, designer, educator and art theorist (b. 1906)
2001 in art Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
