1954 in art

Events

• November 18 – Publication of Yves Peintures, the first public showing of Yves Klein's work.
• December – Pablo Picasso begins painting his Les Femmes d'Alger series in homage to Delacroix's 1834 painting of the same name and to the memory of Matisse.

Awards

• Archibald Prize: Ivor Hele – Rt Hon R G Menzies, PC, CH, QC, MP
• New Year Honours – Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire: Jacob Epstein

Exhibitions

• Augustus John at the Royal Academy

Works

• Francis Bacon
• * Figure with Meat
• * Two Figures in the Grass
• Thomas Hart Benton – The Kentuckian
• John Brack – The Bar
• Terence Cuneo
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• Salvador Dalí
• * The Colossus of Rhodes
• * Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus)
• * The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory
• * Young Virgin Auto-Sodomized by the Horns of Her Own Chastity
• Jared French - The Rope
• Franz Kline – Painting No 2
• Willem de Kooning – Marilyn Monroe
• Fernand Léger – Stained-glass window at University City of Caracas
• L. S. Lowry – Piccadilly Gardens
• Sergei Orlov and others – Statue of Yuriy Dolgorukiy, Moscow
• Abbott Pattison – Iron Horse
• Pablo Picasso – Sylvette
• Norman Rockwell – Breaking Home Ties
• Simon Rodia - Watts Towers
• Mark Rothko – Untitled
• Graham Sutherland – Portrait of Winston Churchill
• Victor Vasarely – ''Hommage á Malévitch''

Births

• January 19 – Cindy Sherman, American photographer and artist
• February 6 – George Sherwood, American kinetic and landscape sculptor
• September 12 – Robert Gober, American sculptor
• December 6 - Nicola De Maria, Italian painter
• Lubaina Himid, Zanzibar-born British graphic artist

Deaths

• January 26 – Carl Eldh, Swedish painter and sculptor
• February 21 – Augustin Lesage, French outsider artist
• March 13 – César Klein, German painter and designer
• May 5 – Henri Laurens, French sculptor
• May 16 – Werner Bischof, Swiss photojournalist
• May 25 – Robert Capa, Hungarian-born photojournalist
• June 9 – Alain LeRoy Locke, American patron of the arts
• July – Gaetano Orsolini, Italian sculptor, medallist and engraver
• July 3 – Reginald Marsh, American painter
• July 13 – Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter
• August 28 – Leonid Sherwood, Russian sculptor
• September 8
• * Sigvald Asbjørnsen, Norwegian American sculptor
• * André Derain, French painter and illustrator
• October 15 – Elwin Hawthorne, English painter
• October 18 – Einar Jónsson, Icelandic sculptor
• November 3 – Henri Matisse, French painter, sculptor and printmaker
• December 23 – René Iché, French sculptor