1959 in art

Events

• June 10 – National Museum of Western Art established in Tokyo.
• André Breton asks Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Enrique Tábara and Eugenio Granell to represent Spain by exhibiting some of their works in the Homage to Surrealism Exhibition celebrating the fortieth anniversary of Surrealism.

Awards

• Archibald Prize: William Dobell – Dr Edward MacMahon
• John Moores Painting Prize - Patrick Heron for "Black Painting - Red, Brown and Olive : July 1959"
• Knighthood : Stanley Spencer

Works

• Milton Avery – Tangerine Moon and Wine Dark Sea
• José de Creeft – Alice in Wonderland
• Salvador Dalí – The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus
• Ivan Generalić – The Deer Wedding
• Allan Gwynne-Jones – '
• Barbara Hepworth – Figure
• Asger Jorn – Solvejg
• Alex Katz - Double Portrait of Robert Rauschenberg
• Franz Kline – Orange and Black Wall
• Lee Krasner – Cool White
• Peter Lanyon – '
• Georg J. Lober – Statue of George M. Cohan
• Elmer Petersen – "World's Largest Buffalo" in Jamestown, North Dakota
• Pablo Picasso – Le déjeuner sur l'herbe
• Nikolai Pozdneev – Spring Day
• Ad Reinhardt – Abstract Painting Diptych
• Stanley Spencer – Self-portrait
• Frank Stella - ''Die Fahne Hoch!''

Publications

• John Golding – ''Cubism: a history and an analysis, 1907-1914''

Births

• January 17 – Herbert Brandl, Austrian painter
• June 2 – Rineke Dijkstra, Dutch photographer
• August 27 – Juan Fernando Cobo, Colombian artist
• November 11 – Celia Paul, British painter known for self-portraits
• Willie Doherty, Northern Irish visual artist
• Caio Fonseca, American painter
• Peter Lik, Australian-born landscape photographer

Deaths

• January – Eva Frankfurther, German-born British portrait painter, suicide
• January 29 – Winifred Brunton, South African painter and illustrator
• February 26 – Gabrielle Renard, French artist's model
• February 28 – Beatrix Farrand, American landscape architect
• April 9 – Frank Lloyd Wright, American architectural pioneer
• May 3 – Renato Birolli, Italian painter
• June 8 – Pietro Canonica, Italian sculptor
• July 6 – George Grosz, German painter, draftsman and caricaturist
• July 17 – Sir Alfred Munnings, English equine painter
• August 5 – Frank Godwin, American illustrator
• August 19 – Sir Jacob Epstein, American-born British sculptor
• August 20 – Alfred Kubin, Austrian illustrator
• August 27 – Tom Purvis, English poster artist.
• September 9
• * Merric Boyd, Australian painter, sculptor and ceramic artist
• * Cathleen Mann, English portrait painter and costume designer
• September 13 – Adrian, Hollywood costume designer
• September 18
• * Benjamin Péret, French poet, Dadaist and editor of La Révolution surréaliste
• * Adolf Ziegler, German painter and politician
• September 29 – Matthew Smith, English painter
• October 6 – Bernard Berenson, Lithuanian American art historian
• November 15 – Charles Jones, English gardener and photographer
• November 18 – Arkady Shaikhet, Soviet documentary photographer
• November 24 – Stepan Erzia, Mordvin sculptor
• December 9 – Gene Carr, American cartoonist
• December 14
• * Lizzy Ansingh, Dutch painter
• * Sir Stanley Spencer, English painter