The year 2016 in art involves various significant events.
March - The Met Breuer opens in the former home of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
July 28 - The re-discovery of Albrecht Dürer's engraving Mary with Infant Jesus previously considered lost since World War II is reported. The engraving was noticed in good condition at a flea market in Sarrebourg and returned to Staatsgalerie Stuttgart.
September 30 - The recovery of two paintings by Vincent van Gogh, Seascape at Scheveningen and Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen, stolen in 2002, is announced.
December 19 - The Russian Ambassador to Turkey; Andrei Karlov is shot dead at point-blank-range in an act of political assassination (by Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş who is believed to have been an off duty Turkish police officer) while giving a speech at an exhibition of Russian photographs at the Çankaya Contemporary Arts Center in Ankara.
January 20 until April 17 - "In the Lion's Den: Daniel MacDonald, Ireland and Empire" at Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum at Quinnipiac University.
February 5 until April 27 - Peter Fischli David Weiss: How to Work Better" at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
February 18 until May 15 - "O'Keefe, Stettheimer, Torr, Zorach: Women Modernists in New York" at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida.
February 18 until June 13 - "Munch and Expressionism" at the Neue Galerie in New York City.
March 18 until September 4 - "Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible" at the Met Breuer in New York City.
March 2 until June 5 - "Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture" at the Frick collection in New York City.
March 23 until July 10 - "Umberto Boccioni: Genio and Memoria (Genius and Memory)" at the Palazzo Reale in Milan, Italy.
March 26 until February 1, 2017 - "Alex Da Corte: Free Roses" at Mass MOCA in North Adams, Massachusetts.
April 27 until June 19 - "Andra Ursuta: Alps" at the New Museum in New York City.
May 27 until September 7 - "Moholy-Nagy: Future Present" at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
June 10 until September 25 - "Stuart Davis: In Full Swing" at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.
September 1 until October 23 - Bjork Digital at Somerset House in London.
September 2 until January 8, 2017 - "Hans Memling: Portraiture, Piety, and a Reunited Altarpiece at the Morgan Library in New York City.
September 16 until January 2, 2017 - "Carmen Herrera: Lines of Sight" at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
September 30 until January 29, 2017 - "Los Angeles to New York: Dwan Gallery, 1959-1971" at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C..
October 7 until January 16, 2017 - "Valentin de Boulogne: Beyond Caravaggio" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
October 7 until January 11, "Agnes Martin" at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
October 19 until February 20, 2017 - "Max Beckmann in New York" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
October 25 - January 29, 2017 - "Kerry James Marshall : Mastry" at the Met Breuer in New York City.
October 26 - January 15, 2017 - "Pipilotti Rist: Pixel Forest" at the New Museum in New York City.
November 21 until March 16, 2017 - "Francis Picabia: Our Heads Are Round so Our Thoughts Can Change Direction" at MOMA in New York City.
Alice Aycock - "Whirpools" at MGM National Harbor, Oxon Hill, Maryland.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude - The Floating Piers on Lake Iseo near Brescia, Italy.
Michael Dean - United Kingdom poverty line for two adults and two children: twenty thousand four hundred and thirty six pounds sterling as published on 1st September 2016 (installation).
Jeremy Deller - We’re Here Because We’re Here (event staged across U.K. July 1).
Bob Dylan - "Portal" at MGM National Harbor] Oxon Hill, Maryland.
Carsten Holler - Slide addition to Anish Kapoor's Arcelormittal Orbit at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, England.
Martin Jennings
Chul Hyun Ahn - "The Wells" at MGM National Harbor, Oxon Hill, Maryland.Mary Seacole (sculpture, St Thomas' Hospital, London).
Women of Steel (sculpture, Sheffield, England).
Carolyn Palmer - Lucille Ball (sculpture, second and permanent replacement version, Celoron, New York).
Pikachu (anonymous sculpture, New Orleans, Louisiana).
Martin Puryear - Big Bling.
The Hepworth Prize for Sculpture: Helen Marten
Turner Prize: Helen Marten
January 2 - Marcel Barbeau, 90, Canadian painter and sculptor
January 6 - Uche Okeke, 83, Nigerian artist
January 10
David Bowie, 69, British singer-songwriter, actor, visual artist and art collector
Bård Breivik, 67, Norwegian sculptor
Cornelis Zitman, 89, Dutch born Venezuelan sculptor.
January 13 - Lois Weisberg, 90, Cultural affairs commissioner of Chicago (1988-2011)
January 14 - Sergio Vacchi, 90, Italian painter
January 16 - Joannis Avramidis, 93, Georgian-born Austrian sculptor
January 17
Melvin Day, 92, New Zealand artist
Gottfried Honegger, 98, Swiss artist and graphic designer
January 25 - Thornton Dial, 87, American artist
February 11 - Charles Garabedian, 92, Armenian American painter
February 12 – Sossen Krohg, 92, Norwegian actor and theatre director
February 16 - Eugenio Carmi, 95. Italian painter and sculptor
February 18 - Karl Stirner, 92, German-born American sculptor
March 3 - Tome Serafimovski, 80, Macedonian sculptor
March 4 - Pirro Cuniberti, 92, Italian artist
March 5
Robert Redbird, 76, Native American artist
Panayiotis Tetsis, 91, Greek painter
March 10 - Anita Brookner, 87, British art historian and novelist
March 11 - Rómulo Macció, 84, Argentine painter
March 19 - Bob Adelman, 85, American photographer
March 23 - Arie Smit, 99, Dutch-born Indonesian painter
March 31 - Zaha Hadid, 65, Iraqi born British architect
April 1 - André Villers, 85, French photographer
April 2 - Rick Bartow, 69, Native American artist
April 3 - Leopoldo Flores, 82, Mexican artist
April 11 - Anne Gould Hauberg, 98, American arts patroness
April 15
A. A. Raiba, 94, Indian painter
Malick Sidibé, 80, Malian photographer (death announced on this date)
April 16 - Richard Smith, 84, British painter
April 24
Inge King, 100, German born Australian sculptor
George Alexis Weymouth, 79, American artist and conservationist
April 28 - Charles Gatewood, 73, American photographer
April 30 - Marisol Escobar, 85, French born American sculptor of Venezuelan descent
May 2
Basil Blackshaw, 83-84, Northern Irish artist
Karel Pečko, 95, Slovenian artist
May 4 - Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd, 81, Swedish artist "Non violence", (death announced on this date)
May 8 - Louisa Chase, 65, American painter
May 10 - François Morellet, 90, French painter, sculptor and light artist
May 19 - Hugh Honour, 88, British art historian
June 4 - Piero Leddi, 85, Italian painter
June 16
Bill Berkson, 76, American poet and art critic
Giuseppe Spagnulo, 79, Italian sculptor
June 19 - Nicolás García Uriburu, 78, Argentine artist and landscape architect
June 21 - Kenworth Moffett, 81, American art curator (first curator of contemporary art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts), museum director (Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale) and writer
June 24 - Tony Feher, 60. American sculptor
June 25 -
Bill Cunningham, 87, American photographer
Ben Patterson, 82, American Fluxus artist, musician
July 6 - Shaw McCutcheon, 94, American editorial cartoonist
July 15 - Janez Bernik, 82, Slovenian painter
July 18
Billy Name, 76, American photographer
Mladen Stilinović, 69, Croatian artist
July 22 -
Bernard Dufour, 93, French painter
Evin Nolan, 86, Irish painter
July 23 - S.H. Raza, 94, Indian artist
August 9 - Ernst Neizvestny, 91, Russian-American sculptor ((Mask of Sorrow), painter, graphic artist and art philosopher
August 31 - Nathan Lyons, 86, American photographer
September 13 - Gérard Rondeau, 63, French photographer
September 18 - Hassan Sharif, 65, Emerati artist
September 19 - Annie Pootoogook, 47, Canadian Inuit artist
September 29 - Shirley Jaffe, 93, American painter and sculptor
September 30 - Frederic C. Hamilton, 89, American oilman and arts philanthropist (Denver Museum of Art)
October 1 - Daphne Odjig, 97, Canadian First Nations artist
October 2
Walter Darby Bannard, 82, American painter
Andrew Vicari, 84, British painter
October 4
Yusuf Arakkal, 70, Indian painter
Elaine Lustig Cohen, 89, American graphic designer
October 8 - Klaus Kertess, 76, American curator and gallerist
October 12 - David Antin, 84, American poet, critic and performance artist
October 31 - Silvio Gazzaniga, 95, Italian sculptor (FIFA World Cup Trophy)
November 3 - Misha Brusilovsky, 85, Russian artist
November 10 - Leonard Cohen, 82, Canadian poet, songwriter and artist
November 14
Diana Balmori, 84, American landscape designer
Marti Friedlander, 88, New Zealand photographer
November 28 - William Christenberry. 80, American artist
December 1 - Ousmane Sow, 81, Senegalese Sulptor
December 20 - El Hortelano, Spanish painter
December 21 - Corno, 64, Canadian artist
December 22
Kenneth Snelson, 89, American sculptor (Needle Tower, Six Number Two)
Lella Vignelli, Italian designer and co-founder of Vignelli Associates
December 29 - Judith Mason, 78, South African painter
December 30 - Tyrus Wong, 106, Chinese born American and film production illustrator (Bambi)
2016 in art Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA