1973 in art

Events

• August 25 – Jesús Soto Museum of Modern Art in Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela, designed by Carlos Raúl Villanueva, is opened.
• Alexander Calder is hired by Braniff International Airways to paint a full-size DC-8-62 as a "flying canvas".
• David Hockney begins a 2-year spell living and working in Paris.
• Aristeidis Metallinos begins his career as a sculptor.
• Robert Scull's collection of American Pop and Minimal art is auctioned by Sotheby's in New York City.

Awards

• Archibald Prize: Janet Dawson – ''Michael Boddy''

Exhibitions

• Christopher Williams – centenary exhibition in Cardiff, Maesteg and Swansea.

Works

• Emma Amos – Sandy and Her Husband
• Michael Ayrton – Icarus
• Michael Craig-Martin – An Oak Tree
• Salvador Dalí – Dalí Seen from the Back Painting Gala from the Back Eternalised by Six Virtual Corneas Provisionally Reflected by Six Real Mirrors
• William Eggleston – The Red Ceiling
• Ben Enwonwu – Tutu
• Gluck – Credo
• Barbara Hepworth – Conversation with Magic Stones
• Hipgnosis – The Dark Side of the Moon
• David Hockney – '
• David Inshaw – The Badminton Game
• Nabil Kanso – Place des Martyres (paintings); Vietnam paintings series
• Frederic Littman – Farewell to Orpheus
• Joan Miró – completes series The navigator's hope
• Joan Mitchell - Iva
• Mike Parr - Wound By Measurement
• Ivor Roberts-Jones – Statue of Winston Churchill, Parliament Square
• Dorothea Tanning - Hôtel du Pavot, Chambre 202
• Euan Uglow – '
• Andy Warhol – Man
• David Wynne
• * Embracing Lovers
• * ''Girl with a Dolphin''

Births

• January 29 – Louise Hindsgavl, Danish artist
• February 1 – Yuri Landman, Dutch musician, comic book creator and singer
• May 8 – Hiromu Arakawa, Japanese manga artist
• July 7 – Natsuki Takaya, Japanese manga artist
• July 28 – Banksy, English graffiti artist
• August 18 – Jerome Lagarrigue, French painter and illustrator

Full date unknown

• Jean-Pierre Canlis, American glass artist.
• Oisín McGann, Irish author and illustrator.
• Rosalind Nashashibi, English Palestinian film artist.
• Charles Pétillon, French photographer and installation artist

Deaths

January to June

• January 17 – Tarsila do Amaral, Brazilian modernist artist.
• March 14 – Chic Young, American cartoonist.
• March 25
• *Gerda Höglund, Swedish religious painter.
• *Edward Steichen, American photographer, painter and curator.
• April 8 – Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter, draftsman and sculptor.
• April 13 – Henry Darger, American outsider artist
• April 28 – Siri Derkert, Swedish artist, sculptor and political campaigner.
• May 1 – Asger Jorn, Danish artist and essayist.
• May 12 – Edith Tudor Hart, née Suschitzky, Austrian-born photojournalist and communist agent in Britain.
• May 16 – Albert Paris Gütersloh, Austrian painter and writer.
• May 18 – Ronald Ossory Dunlop, Irish author and painter.
• May 21 – Montague Dawson, English maritime painter.

July to December

• July 20 – Robert Smithson, American artist.
• August 9 – Claude Buckle, English poster artist and watercolourist.
• September 30 – Peter Pitseolak, Inuit photographer, artist and historian.
• November 13 – Elsa Schiaparelli, Italian fashion designer.
• November 17 – Adolf Wissel, German painter, an official artist of Nazism.
• December 7 – Camilo Mori, Chilean painter.
• December 13 – Ralph Stackpole, American sculptor, painter, muralist, etcher and art educator.
• December 16 – Andrej Bicenko, Russian fresco painter and muralist.