1931 in art

Events

• February 15 – Abstraction-Création group formed in Paris by Theo van Doesburg to promote non-figurative, non-surrealist art. Other founder members include Auguste Herbin, Jean Hélion and Georges Vantongerloo.
• October 4 – Debut appearance of the Dick Tracy comic strip, created by cartoonist Chester Gould.
• The American Art">Americans">American Art is founded by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in its original building in Greenwich Village, New York City.
• The Pierre Matisse Gallery opens in New York City.
• Collector Kay Kimbell of Fort Worth, Texas, purchases his first painting, origin of the Kimbell Art Museum.
• Henry Moore holds his first solo exhibition of sculptures, at The Leicester Galleries in London.

Works

• Max Beckmann – Paris Society
• Thomas Hart Benton – America Today
• Heitor da Silva Costa and Paul Landowski – Christ the Redeemer
• Salvador Dalí – The Persistence of Memory
• Robert William Davidson – Eve
• Charles Demuth – Chimney and Watertower
• Antonio Donghi – Woman at the Café
• Frida Kahlo – Frieda and Diego Rivera
• Helmut Kolle – Self-Portrait in White Tie
• Tamara de Lempicka – Adam and Eve
• René Magritte – The Voice of Space
• Carl Milles – Flygarmonumentet
• Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen – The Herd Boy playing a Wooden Flute
• Georgia O'Keeffe – Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue
• Pablo Picasso – Figures by the Sea
• Diego Rivera - The Rivals
• Lorado Taft – The Crusader
• Carel Willink – Late Visitors to Pompeii
• Grant Wood
• * The Birthplace of Herbert Hoover
• * Fall Plowing
• * ''The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere''

Awards

• Archibald Prize: John Longstaff – ''Sir John Sulman''

Births

• January 1 – Stephanie Scuris, Greek-born American artist and sculptor
• January 10 – Massimo Vignelli, Italian designer
• January 18 – Jay Maisel, photographer
• January 21 – Paul Deliège, Belgian comic strip artist and writer
• January 30 – Linda Nochlin, née Weinberg, American feminist art historian
• February 7 – Serge Danot, French animator
• February 9 – Robert Morris, American sculptor
• February 16 – Irina Dobrekova, Russian painter
• February 17 – Fay Godwin, German-born English landscape photographer
• February 18 – Johnny Hart, American cartoonist
• February 21 – Derek Hyatt, English abstract landscape painter
• February 23 – Tom Wesselmann, American pop artist
• February 26
• * Radomir Stević Ras, Serbian painter and designer.
• * Jacques Rouxel, French animator
• March 4 – Gwilym Prichard, Welsh landscape painter
• March 13 – Michael Podro, English art historian
• March 25 – Jack Chambers, Canadian artist and filmmaker
• April 24 – Bridget Riley, English op art painter
• April 25 – David Shepherd, English wildlife, railway and military painter and conservationist
• April 26 – Vera Nazina, Russian painter
• April 29 – Frank Auerbach, German-born British painter
• May 10 – Olja Ivanjicki, Serbian painter
• June 7 – Malcolm Morley, English-American photographer and painter
• July 8 – Leo Dee, American silverpoint artist
• July 15 – Brian Sewell, English art critic
• July 20 – Sheila Fell, English painter
• July 25 – Carlo Maria Mariani, Italian painter
• July 28 – Hans Schröder, German sculptor and painter
• August 15 – Rose Hilton, English painter
• August 20 – Bernd Becher, German photographer
• August 24 – Bartolomeu Cid dos Santos, Portuguese artist and professor
• September 24 – Elizabeth Blackadder, Scottish painter
• October 9 – Stuart Devlin, Australian-born gold/silversmith
• November 7 – Enno Hallek, Estonian-born Swedish artist
• November 28 – Tomi Ungerer, French artist and writer date unknown
• * Barrie Cooke, British-born abstract expressionist painter

Deaths

• January 7
• * Giuseppe Barison, Italian painter
• * Joseph Bernard, French sculptor
• February 3 – Jefferson David Chalfant, American painter
• February 11 – Bela Čikoš Sesija, Croatian Symbolist painter
• March 7
• * Theo van Doesburg, Dutch painter and architect, leader of De Stijl
• * Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Finnish painter
• March 12 – Frida Hansen, Norwegian textile artist
• March 14 – Alfred Grenander, Swedish-born architect
• March 24 – Derwent Lees, Australian figure and landscape painter
• April 6 – William Lionel Wyllie, English marine painter
• May 1 – Thomas Cooper Gotch, English painter
• May 31 – Willy Stöwer, German marine painter and illustrator
• July 11
• * Giovanni Boldini, Italian painter
• * Jean-Louis Forain, French Impressionist painter
• September 14 – Tom Roberts, Australian painter
• September 20 – Max Littmann, German architect
• September 29 – Sir William Orpen, Irish portrait painter
• October 7
• * Charles Ricketts, English designer
• * Daniel Chester French, American sculptor
• October 10 – Sir Bertram Mackennal, Australian-born sculptor
• November 17
• * Helmut Kolle, exiled German painter, endocarditis
• * Edward Simmons, American Impressionist painter
• December 7 – Leslie Hunter, Scottish painter
• December 31 – Lancelot Speed, British illustrator date unknown
• * Todor Švrakić, Serbian painter
• * William John Wainwright, English painter