1968 in art
Events from the year 1968 in art.
Events
- March 5 – Musical chess match between Marcel Duchamp and John Cage takes place at Ryerson Polytechnic, Toronto.
- May 2 – Christ Church Picture Gallery in Oxford, England, designed by Powell and Moya, is opened.
- June 3 – Radical feminist Valerie Solanas shoots Andy Warhol at his New York City studio, The Factory; he survives after a 5-hour operation.
- July 17 – Release of the animated musical fantasy film Yellow Submarine in the United Kingdom, directed by George Dunning with art direction by Heinz Edelmann.
- August 20 – The National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, designed by Sir Roy Grounds, is opened.
- September 15 – The Neue Nationalgalerie in West Berlin, Germany, designed by Mies van der Rohe, is opened.
- November 7 – New building for the São Paulo Museum of Art in Brazil, designed by Lina Bo Bardi, is inaugurated.
- Rubens' The Adoration of the Magi is installed as an altarpiece at King's College Chapel, Cambridge.
Awards
- Archibald Prize: William Edwin Pidgeon – Lloyd Rees
- Elaine Hamilton wins first prize at the Biennale de Menton, France
Exhibitions
Cybernetic Serendipity - August 2 until October 20 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, United Kingdom then traveled to the United States- Eva Hesse – Chain Polymers, Fischbach Gallery, W. 57th Street, New York City
- Ralph Hotere – Black Paintings, Auckland, New Zealand
Works
- William Anders – Earthrise
- Edward Bawden – Tottenham Hale and Highbury & Islington tile motifs on London Underground's Victoria line
- Julia Black – Walthamstow Central tile motif on London Underground's Victoria line
- Alexander Calder – Gwenfritz
- Donald De Lue – The Special Warfare Memorial Statue
- Paul Delvaux – The Sacrifice of Iphigenia
- Mark di Suvero – Snowplow
- Joseph Drapell – Life
- Tom Eckersley – Finsbury Park, King's Cross St Pancras and Euston tile motifs on London Underground's Victoria line
- M. C. Escher – Metamorphosis III
- Alan Fletcher – Warren Street tile motif on London Underground's Victoria line
- Ángela Gurría - Señal in Mexico City, Mexico created for the occasion of the 1968 Summer Olympics
- Barbara Hepworth – Two Figures, Three Obliques (Walk In)
- David Hockney - Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy
- * Marilyn Tapestry
- Dani Karavan – Monument to the Negev Brigade on hill overlooking Beersheba, Israel
- Eduardo Kingman – Fin de Mascarada
- Joan Miró – begins series The navigator's hope
- Henry Moore – Three-Piece No. 3: Vertebrae (Working Model)
- Robert Motherwell – Open #23
- Otto Muehl, Günter Brus and other followers of Viennese Actionism – Kunst und Revolution
- Isamu Noguchi – Octetra
- Gerhard Richter –
- Monica Sjöö – God Giving Birth
- Kenneth Snelson – Needle Tower
- Hans Unger – Blackhorse Road and Seven Sisters tile motifs on London Underground's Victoria line
- David Wynne – River God Tyne and Swans in Flight
- Pangborn-Herndon Memorial Site
Births
- May 21 – Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Swiss-born curator
- June 3 – Eric White, American visual artist
- July 6 – Gaspare Manos, Thai-Italian painter and sculptor
- July 11 – Patrik Andiné, Swedish painter
- July 23 – Paulo Henrique, Portuguese choreographer and multidisciplinary artist
- August 16 – Wolfgang Tillmans, German fine-art photographer
- September 17 – David Shrigley, British visual artist
- December 13 – Michael Triegel, German painter
- December 23 – Manuel Rivera-Ortiz, Puerto Rican documentary photographerdate unknown
- *Sika Foyer, Togolese American artist
- *Juan Carlos Pinto - Guatemalan-born U.S. mosaic artist
- *Nahem Shoa, British portrait painter
Deaths
- January 29 – Tsuguharu Foujita, Japanese-born French painter and printmaker
- February 11 – Jacob Steinhardt, German-born Jewish painter and woodcut artist
- April 26 – John Heartfield, German graphic designer
- May 9 – Harold Gray, American cartoonist, created Little Orphan Annie
- May 21 – Bror Hjorth, Swedish sculptor
- May 28 – Kees van Dongen, Dutch Fauvist painter
- June 17 – Cassandre, French graphic designer
- July 2 – Sir Hans Heysen, German-born Australian watercolour painter
- July 16 – William John Leech, Irish painter
- August 8 – Orovida Pissarro, English painter and etcher
- October 2 – Marcel Duchamp, influential French artist
- November – Lee Gatch, American painter and mixed-media artist
- November 2 – Estella Solomons, Irish painter
- November 4 – Michel Kikoine, Litvak-born French painter
- November 11 – Janet Sobel, Ukrainian American Abstract Expressionist pioneer of drip painting
- December 2 – Adamson-Eric, Estonian artist date unknown – William Conor, Irish painter