1979 in art

Events

• 25 October – Frederic Edwin Church's 1861 painting The Icebergs sells for US$2.5 million at Sotheby's New York, the third-highest amount paid for any painting at auction at this date.
• 15 November – Art historian and former Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures Anthony Blunt's role as one of the 'Cambridge Five' double agents for the Soviet NKVD during World War II is revealed by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.
• The Xing xing of 20 avant-garde Chinese artists stage an illegal exhibition outside the National Art Museum of China in Beijing.
• The Bauhaus Archive, designed by Alexander Cvijanović with Hans Bandel after Walter Gropius, is completed in West Berlin, Germany.
• Edward Delaney's statue of Wolfe Tone in Dublin is destroyed by terrorists.

Awards

• Archibald Prize: Wes Walters – ''Portrait of Phillip Adams''

Works

• Michael Andrews –
• Judy Chicago – The Dinner Party
• Paul Delvaux – The Road to Rome
• Jenny Holzer – Truisms
• Lee Kelly – sculptures
• * Elkhorn
• * Nash
• Jack Mackie and Charles Greening – Dancer's Series: Steps
• Joan Mitchell
• * La Vie en Rose
• *Salut Tom
• Andrzej Pitynski – The Partisans
• Enzo Plazzotta – Attitude II
• John Rogers – 118 Modules
• Michael Snow – Flight Stop
• Don Wilson – ''Holon''

Exhibitions

• 22 April to 10 June – Special Projects at PS1 in Queens, New York.

Births

• 25 July – Ahmed Mater, Saudi artistdate unknown
• * Aideen Barry, Irish multimedia and performance artist
• * Éric Bourdon, French painter and writer
• * Elise Fouin, French designer

Deaths

• 11 January – Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, German-born French Art dealer
• 3 February – Aaron Douglas, American painter
• 7 February – Charles Tunnicliffe, British wildlife painter
• 20 March – Jean Charlot, French painter and illustrator
• 5 April – Eugène Gabritschevsky, Russian biologist and artist
• 23 June – Reynolds Stone, English wood engraver
• 25 June
• * Dave Fleischer, Austrian American animator, film director, and film producer
• * Philippe Halsman, Latvian American portrait photographer
• 13 July – Ludwig Merwart, Austrian painter and graphic artist
• 20 August – Christian Dotremont, Belgian painter and poet
• 29 August – Ivon Hitchens, English painter
• 17 September – Paul Maze, French-born English Post-Impressionist painter
• 8 November – Edward Ardizzone, British writer and illustrator
• 20 November – Tyra Lundgren, Swedish painter, ceramist, glass and textile designer and writer on art
• 5 December – Sonia Delaunay, Ukrainian-French artist
• 23 December – Peggy Guggenheim, American-born art collector
• 26 December – Karl Hubbuch, German painter, printmaker and draughtsman date unknown
• * Russell Brockbank, Canadian-born cartoonist
• * Sheila Fell, English painter