1981 in art

List of years in art (table)
... 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 ... 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 ... 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 ...
Art Archaeology Architecture Literature Music Philosophy Science +...

Events

• 10 September – Picasso's painting Guernica is returned from New York to Madrid.

Awards

• Archibald Prize: Eric Smith – Rudy Komon

Works

• Arch Falls, Houston, Texas
• Curve XXIV, Seattle
• Emergence (sculpture), Eugene, Oregon
• Tony Cragg – Britain as Seen from the North
• John Doubleday – Statue of Charlie Chaplin (Leicester Square, London)
• Nabil Kanso – Dreamvision series of paintings completed
• Helmut Newton – Sie kommen! ("They're coming!", photographic diptych; published in French Vogue, November)
• Richard Serra – Tilted Arc, Federal Plaza, New York City (dismantled 1989)
• Andy Warhol – Myths series
• Aubrey Williams – Shostakovich series of paintings completed

Births

• 15 April – Seth Wulsin, American artist.
• 4 November – Paul Tucker, Canadian visual artist and graphic novel and webcomic illustrator.

Deaths

• 19 June – Lotte Reiniger, German silhouette animator and film director (b.1899).
• 29 June – Russell Drysdale, Australian artist (b.1912).
• 8 July – Isaac Soyer, Russian-born American painter, (b.1902).
• 7 September – Christy Brown, Irish author, painter and poet (b.1932).
• 12 October – Enzo Plazzotta, Italian-born British sculptor (b.1921).
• 20 October – Annot, German painter (b.1894).
• 22 November – Corrado Parducci, Italian-American architectural sculptor (b.1900).

Full date unknown

• Hans Coper, German-born English studio potter (b.1920).
• Art Frahm, American pin-up and advertising artist (b.1907).
• Pinchus Kremegne, Belarusian sculptor, painter and lithographer (b.1890).
• Nano Reid, Irish painter (b.1905).

See also

• 1981 in fine arts of the Soviet Union