2015 in art

Events

February - Paul Gauguin's painting When Will You Marry? sells for $300m (£197m), reportedly to Qatar Museums, the highest known price ever paid for any work of art

April - The accused rapist in the Emma Sulkowicz case which inspired the art piece "Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight)" files suit in United States Federal Court in Manhattan against Columbia University, its art department chairman Jon Kessler, and the University president Lee C. Bollinger, saying through his attorneys, that he is the victim of Gender Discrimination and a "witch hunt".

April 2 - Sir Peter Blake's temporary artwork Everybody Razzle Dazzle, Mersey Ferry MV Snowdrop painted in a variation of dazzle camouflage, enters service on the River Mersey in England.

April 13 - A South African man is charged with vandalising a Johannesburg statue of Mahatma Gandhi by attempting to paint it white.

May 1 - The new Whitney Museum of American Art facility in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, designed by Renzo Piano, opens.

May 11 - One canvas, "Version O", the final painting from a series of fifteen paintings and numerous drawings entitled Les Femmes d'Alger by Pablo Picasso created after the death of his friend and contemporary Henri Matisse sells for $179.4 million U.S (with fees) at Christie's in New York City thus establishing a new record for the highest price ever paid at auction for a work of art. At the same sale "Pointing Man", a work by the Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti sells for $141.3 million U.S., making it the highest price ever paid for a sculpture at auction.

August 21 - Street artist Banksy opens Dismaland, a temporary art project in the seaside resort town of Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, England.

September - Rembrandt's early painting Unconscious Patient (Allegory of Smell) (from The Senses series, 1624-5) emerges at an auction in New Jersey and is purchased for the Leiden Collection in New York City.

October 8 - Newport Street Gallery in South London, a conversion of 1913 theatrical workshops into a free public art gallery for Damien Hirst by Caruso St John architects opens.

December 6 - A woman at the Art Basel Miami Beach art fair stabs another in plain sight of art goers and the incident is at first ignored as people think that it is a work of performance art.

Exhibitions

January 31 until May 31 - Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861–2008 at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut.

February 6 until May 10 - Treasures from Chopin's Country. Polish Art from the 15th to 20th Century at the National Museum of China in Beijing.

February 6 until May 3 - Tapies: From Within at the Pérez Art Museum Miami.

February 20 until May 24 - Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic at the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York.

February 25 until May 24 - The "2015 Triennial: Surround Audience" at the New Museum in New York City.

February 1 until May 3 - Once in a Lifetime: Piero di Cosimo at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, then travels to Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence (June 23–September 27, 2015).

March 10 until September 20- Richard Estes: Painting New York City at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City.

March 26 until September 13 - Water to Paper, Paint to Sky: The Art of Tyrus Wong at the Museum of Chinese in America" in New York City.

May 1 until September 27 - America is Hard to See at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.

June 5 until August 30 - Polish Art: Enduring Spirit at the National Museum of Korea in Seoul.

June 28 until October 4 - Gustave Caillebotte: The Painter's Eye at the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

June 30 until October 4 - "Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York CIty,

July 10 until January 24, 2016 - No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960–1990 at the Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London,

July 18 until September 27 - Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes annual exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

July 31 until November 8 - Masterpieces from the Hermitage: The Legacy of Catherine the Great at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia.

August 14 until October 25 - Julia Margaret Cameron from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

September 14 until February 7, 2016 - Picasso Sculpture at MOMA in New York City.

October 2 until January 17, 2016 - Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.

October 7 until January 10, 2016 - Andrea del Sarto: The Renaissance Workshop in Action at the Frick Collection in New York City.

October 9 until January 6, 2016 - Alberto Burri: The Trauma of Painting at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

October 24 until February 14, 2016 - The Greats masterpieces from the National Galleries of Scotland at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

October 30 until February 7, 2016 - Frank Stella: A Retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.

November 5 until March 13, 2016 - Martin Wong: Human Instamatic at the Bronx Museum of Art.

November 19 until February 21, 2016 - Nari Ward: Sun Splashed at the Pérez Art Museum Miami.

Works

Banksy – Portrait of Steve Jobs at Calais jungle.

Alberto Burri - Il Grande Cretto, Gibellina, Sicily, Italy (work begun in 1984 completed)

Dante Ferretti – Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life for Expo 2015 in Milan, Italy.

Anthea Hamilton – Project for Door (After Gaetano Pesce)

Cornelia Parker and collaborators – Magna Carta (An Embroidery).

Thomas Sayre - Kerf sculptures, Portland, Oregon

Anne Storrs - Along These Lines, Portland, Oregon

Emma Sulkowicz – Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight) continued from 2014 at Columbia University in New York City.

Awards

Käthe Kollwitz Prize - Bernard Frize—The Venice Biennial (May 9- November 22) --

Leone d'Oro for Lifetime Achievement: El Anatsui, Ghana

Leone d'Oro for the Best Artist of the international exhibition: Adrian Piper, United States

Leone d'Oro for the Best Young Artist: Im Heung-soon, South Korea

Leone d'Oro for Best Pavilion: Armenia; Haig Aivazian, Nigol Bezjian, Anna Boghiguian, Hera Büyüktaş, Silvina Der Meguerditchian, Ayreen Anastas and Rene Gabri, Mekhitar Garabedian, Aikaterini Gegisian, Yervant Gianikian and Ricci Lucchi, Aram Jibilian, Nina Katchadourian, Melik Ohanian, Mikayel Ohanjanyan, Rosana Palazyan, Sarkis, Hrair Sarkissian, curated by Adelina Cüberyan von Fürstenberg

Deaths

January 4 - Elisabetta Catalano, 70, Italian fine-art photographer

January 5 - Milton Hebald, 97, American sculptor

January 13 - Jane Wilson, 90, American painter

January 15 - Walter Westbrook, 93, South African artist

January 16

Ted Harrison, 88, British-born Canadian painter

Walter Peregoy, 89, American visual and animation background artist

January 22 - Margaret Bloy Graham, 94, Canadian author and illustrator

January 24 - Frances Lennon, 102, English painter and illustrator

January 26 - Cleven "Goodie" Goudeau, 83, American greeting card artist

January 27 - Arturo Carmassi, 89, Italian sculptor and painter

January 29 - Will McBride, 84, American photographer

January 31 - Vasco Bendini, 93, Italian painter

February 3 - Walter Liedtke, 69, American art curator of European paintings (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

February 7 - John C. Whitehead, 92, American baker, civil servant and art collector

February 12 - Tomie Ohtake, 101, Japanese-Brazilian artist

February 15.- Mikhail Koulakov, 82, Russian painter

February 21 - John Knapp-Fisher, 83, British painter

February 24 - Roger Cecil, 72, Welsh painter

March 1 - Carel Visser, 86, Dutch sculptor

March 4 - William King, 90, American sculptor

March 7 - Osi Rhys Osmond, Welsh painter and television presenter

March 11 - Inger Sitter, 85, Norwegian painter and graphic designer

March 12 - Michael Graves, 80, American architect

March 13 - Ismaïla Manga, 67, Senegalese painter

March 17 - Kuniyoshi Kaneko, 78, Japanese painter, illustrator and photographer

March 21 - Hans Erni, 106, Swiss painter, designer and sculptor

March 24 - Otto Frello, 90, Danish artist and illustrator

March 26 - Albert Irvin, 92, British artist

March 27 - Michael Rush, American museum director (the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum)

March 31 - Betty Churcher, 84, Australian arts administrator and curator, director of the National Gallery of Australia (1990–1997)

April 2 - Paule Anglim, 90+, American gallerist

April 5 - Sargy Mann, 77, British painter

April 8 - Lars Tunbjörk, 59, Swedish photographer

April 9 - Rafael Soriano, 94, Cuban painter

April 12 - Jože Ciuha, 90, Slovenian painter

April 15 - Judith Malina, 88, American actress, Co-founder of The Living Theater

April 16 - Giuseppe Zigaina. 91, Italian neorealist painter and author

May 4 - Eva Aeppli, 90, Swiss artist

May 7 - John Dixon, 86, Australian cartoonist (Air Hawk and the Flying Doctors)

May 8 - Menashe Kadishman, 82, Israeli painter and sculptor

May 10

Jack Body, 70, New Zealand composer and photographer

Chris Burden, 69, American artist

William T. Cooper, 81, Australian ornithologist and illustrator

Rachel Rosenthal, 88, French-born American performance artist

May 17 - Gerald Steadman Smith, 85, Canadian artist

May 23 - Carl Nesjar, 94, Norwegian painter and sculptor

May 25 - Mary Ellen Mark, 75, American photographer

June 2 - Miguel-Ángel Cárdenas, 80, Colombian-Dutch painter and illustrator

June 12

Antoni Pitxot, 81, Spanish painter

Nek Chand Saini, 90, Indian sculptor

June 19 - Earl Norem, 92, American painter and illustrator

June 20 - Miriam Schapiro, 91, Canadian-born American painter, sculptor and printmaker

June 22 - Don Featherstone, 79, American artist and inventor of the plastic pink flamingo

July 2 - David Aronson, 91, American painter

July 20 - Sally Gross, 81, American avant-garde choreographer, dancer

July 24 - Ingrid Sischy, 63, South African born art critic

August 4 - Calle Örnemark, 81, Swedish sculptor

August 10 - Sunil Das, 76, Indian artist

August 16 - Melva Bucksbaum, 82, American art collector, curator, patron of the arts and vice chairwoman of the Whitney Museum board of trustees

August 28

David Michie, 87, French-born British painter. (death announced on this date)

Nelson Shanks, 77, American painter, cancer.

September 3 - Yevgeny Ukhnalyov, 83, Russian artist, co-author of the current coat of arms of Russia

September 6 - John Perreault, 78, American art critic

September 12 - Salvo, 68, Italian artist

September 15 - Cor Melchers, 61, Dutch painter

September 17 - Stojan Batič, 90, Slovene sculptor

September 19 - Brian Sewell, 84, British art critic

September 25 - Carol Rama, 97, Italian painter

September 26 - Paul Reed, 96, American painter

October 10 - Hilla Becher, 81, German photographer

October 15 - Bruce Mozert, 98, American photographer

October 25 - Wojciech Fangor, 92, Polish artist

November 3 - Judy Cassab, 95, Austrian-born Australian portrait painter

November 4 - Laila Pullinen, 82, Finnish sculptor.

November 7 - Pancho Guedes, 90, Portuguese architect and artist

November 12 - Peter McLeavey, 79, New Zealand art dealer

November 25 - Eva Fuka, 88, Czech-born American photographer

November 26 - Eldzier Cortor, 99, American artist

December 6 - Holly Woodlawn, 69, Puerto Rican transgender actress and Warhol Superstar

December 13 - Hema Upadhyay, 43, Indian artist

December 16 - George Earl Ortman, 89, American artist

December 27 - Ellsworth Kelly, 92, American artist