1972 in art

Events

• March–November – City Sculpture Project in England.
• May 21 – In St. Peter's Basilica, Laszlo Toth attacks Michelangelo's Pietà statue with a geologist's hammer, shouting that he is Jesus Christ.
• June 8 – KUNSTEN Museum of Modern Art Aalborg, Denmark, designed by Alvar and Elissa Aalto and Jean-Jacques Baruël, is completed.
• September 4 – 1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery.
• September 15 – Release in France of Luis Buñuel's surrealist film The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.
• September 16 – Opening of A.I.R. Gallery at 97 Wooster Street, SoHo, New York, the first artist-run, not-for-profit gallery for women artists in the United States.
• September – Release in the United Kingdom of Ken Russell's biographical film about Gaudier-Brzeska, Savage Messiah.
• October 4 – Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, designed by Louis Kahn, is opened.
• date unknown
• *BBC Television broadcasts Ways of Seeing, a four-part series by John Berger on art.
• *The Bridgeman Art Library is established as a commercial virtual archive of images by Harriet Bridgeman in London.
• *Costantino Nivola becomes the first non-American member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
• *Friedensreich Hundertwasser publishes his architectural manifesto, Your window right – your tree duty.
• *Portmeirion Pottery brings out its best-selling "Botanic Garden" design.
• *Oliver Millar becomes the first full-time Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures in the United Kingdom, succeeding Anthony Blunt.

Awards

• Archibald Prize: Clifton Pugh – The Hon E G Whitlam
• John Moores Painting Prize - Euan Uglow

Works

• Francis Bacon – Triptych–August 1972
• Enrico Baj - The Funeral of the Anarchist Pinelli
• Thomas Hart Benton – Joplin at the Turn of the Century
• Christo and Jeanne Claude – Valley Curtain
• Bronisław Chromy – Wawel Dragon
• Marcelle Ferron – Untitled stained glass panel at Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
• Helen Frankenthaler – Coral Wedge
• Barbara Hepworth – Minoan Head and Assembly of Sea Forms
• David Hockney – Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)
• Elek Imredy – Girl in a Wetsuit
• Joan Jonas – Vertical Roll
• Alexander Liberman – Contact II
• Natalia LL – Consumer Art
• Paul McCarthy – Black and White Tapes
• Clifton Pugh – Death of a Wombat
• John Raimondi – David
• Liberty Bell (Portland, Oregon)
• Mansu Hill Grand Monument

Music

• Don McLean - Vincent - a tribute to Vincent van Gogh

Births

• January 29 – Brian Wood, American author and illustrator.
• April 6 – Rinko Kawauchi, Japanese photographer.
• April 29 – Roman Dirge, American comic book artist and magician.
• July 2 – Coster Balakasi, Zimbabwean sculptor.
• July 19 – Zanele Muholi, South African visual activist.

Full date unknown

• Andrea Büttner, German-born artists.
• Duncan Campbell, Irish-born video artist.
• Jules de Balincourt, French painter.
• Gilles Tréhin, French artist and author.
• Hema Upadhyay, née Hirani, Indian installation artist and photographer.

Deaths

January to June

• January 19 – Suzanne Malherbe, French illustrator and designer.
• February 19 – Tedd Pierce, American animated cartoon writer, animator and artist.
• March 13 – Tony Ray-Jones, English photographer.
• March 23 – Cristóbal Balenciaga, Spanish fashion designer.
• March 27
• *M. C. Escher, Dutch graphic artist.
• *Ricco Wassmer, Swiss painter.
• April 26 - Fernando Amorsolo, Filipino painter

July to December

• July 31 – Dod Procter, English painter
• October 23 – Clarice Cliff, English ceramic artist
• October 31 – Beta Vukanović, Serbian painter.
• December 23 – Norman Clyde, American mountaineer, nature photographer and naturalist.
• December 24 – Gisela Richter, English archaeologist and art historian.
• December 29 – Joseph Cornell, American artist and sculptor.

Full date unknown

• Gerard Curtis Delano, American painter.
• Ilija Bašičević, Serbian painter