1944 in art
Events from the year 1944 in art.
Events
- June 6 – Normandy landings: Robert Capa takes "The Magnificent Eleven" photographs.
- July – Dulwich Picture Gallery in London is substantially damaged by a V-1 flying bomb; half a dozen paintings are destroyed, but most have been evacuated to Aberystwyth.
- Autumn – Peggy Guggenheim's The Art of This Century gallery on Manhattan releases a 78 rpm 3-record album containing Paul Bowles' Sonata for Flute and Piano and Two Mexican Dances with a cover by Max Ernst.
- Clandestine publication of Vaincre, an album of 12 colour lithographs by 8 artists in support of the French Resistance.
Awards
- Archibald Prize: Joshua Smith – ''Hon Sol Rosevear, MHR, Speaker of the House of Representatives''
Exhibitions
- Jean Dubuffet's first solo exhibition.
Works
- David Aronson – The Last Supper
- Duffy Ayers – Portrait of Tirzah Garwood
- Francis Bacon – Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion
- David Bomberg – '
- Stella Bowen – '
- Robert Capa – "The Magnificent Eleven"
- William Coldstream – Casualty Reception Station, Capua
- Salvador Dalí –
- * Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening
- * Tristan and Isolde created for the ballet Mad Tristan by Leonide Massine and Dali which in turn was inspired by the opera Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner
- Paul Delvaux – Sleeping Venus
- Jacob Epstein – sculptures
- * First Portrait of Esther
- * Lucifer
- George Grosz – Cain, or Hitler in Hell
- Ivor Hele – '
- Jean Hélion – The Stairway
- Bror Hjorth – Gås-Anders
- Frida Kahlo
- * The Broken Column
- * '
- Dame Laura Knight – Take Off
- Fernand Léger – Three Musicians
- Henri Matisse – Annelies, White Tulips and Anemones
- Joan Miró – Barcelona Series
- Piet Mondrian – Victory Boogie-Woogie
- Walter Thomas Monnington
- * '
- * Tempests Attacking Flying-bombs
- Felix Nussbaum – Triumph of Death
- Pablo Picasso – Man with Sheep
- William Roberts
- * '
- * '
- * '
- Robert F. Sargent – Into the Jaws of Death
- Ben Shahn – ''The Red Stairway''
Births
- 9 January – Ian Hornak, American painter and draughtsman.
- 10 January – Jeff Jones, American illustrator.
- 12 February - Jane Livingston, American curator.
- 4 March – Glen Baxter, English cartoonist.
- 29 March – Abbas, Iranian-born documentary photographer.
- 4 April – Phyllida Barlow, English sculptor.
- 8 May – David Vaughan, English psychedelic artist and muralist.
- 24 July – Maya Wildevuur, Dutch painter.
- 4 August – Allan McCollum, American conceptual artist, all media.
- 15 August – Gianfranco Ferré, Italian fashion designer.
- 20 August – Brian Barnes, English mural artist.
- 27 August – Catherine Leroy, French-born photographer.
- 1 September – Louis Delsarte, American painter.
- 4 November
- * Don Eddy, American painter.
- * Michael Heizer, American sculptor, earth artist.
- 23 November – Peter Lindbergh, born Peter Brodbeck, Polish-born fashion photographer.
Full date unknown
- Richard Mock, American painter, sculptor and cartoonist.
- Allen Ruppersberg, American conceptual artist, installation artist.
Deaths
- January 23 – Edvard Munch, Norwegian expressionist painter
- February 1 – Piet Mondrian, Dutch abstract painter
- February 26 – Lucienne Heuvelmans, French sculptor
- April 25 – George Herriman, American cartoonist
- July 18 – Rex Whistler, English painter
- August 2 – Felix Nussbaum, German Jewish surrealist painter
- August 18 – Hans Mertens, German painter
- September 3 – William Logsdail, English landscape, portrait and genre painter
- September 27
- * Aristide Maillol, French sculptor
- * Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, Russian-born color photographer
- * David Dougal Williams, British painter
- October 14 – Marko Murat, Serbian painter
- October 21 – Hilma af Klint, Swedish abstract painter and mystic
- November 22 – Sir George Clausen, English artist
- December 10 – Miklós Ligeti, Hungarian sculptor
- December 13 – Wassily Kandinsky, Russian abstract painter
- December 24 – Alfred Drury, English sculptor
- Undated – Esther Kenworthy Waterhouse, English flower painter