1985 in art

Events

• Charles Saatchi's collection opens to the public, arousing interest in Neo-expressionism.
• Germano Celant publishes Arte Povekira: Storie e protagonisti.
• Art gallerist Andrew Crispo and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum are involved in a dispute over Constantin Brâncuși's 1912 sculpture "The Muse" which ends in the museum paying $2 million US for the artwork, at the time believed to be the most ever paid for a 20th century sculpture.
• October 17 – A fire at the Huntington Library destroys Joshua Reynolds's 1777 portrait of Mrs. Edwin Lascelles.

Awards

• Archibald Prize: Guy Warren – Flugelman with Wingman
• John Moores Painting Prize - Bruce McLean for "Oriental Garden Kyoto
• Turner Prize – Howard Hodgkin

Works

• Mai Dantsig – And the Saved World Remembers
• Robyn Denny – Coloured lines at Embankment tube station in London, England
• Christo and Jeanne Claude - "The Pont Neuf Wrapped" at the Pont Neuf in Paris, France
• Thomas Morandi – Yankee Champion
• Odd Nerdrum – The Cloud
• George Rickey – Double L Excentric Gyratory
• Sally Robinson – Kakadu
• Wayne Thiebaud – Sunset Streets
• Andy Warhol – Reigning Queens series

Births

• September 24 - Eric Adjetey Anang, Ghanaian sculptor
• date unknown
• * Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Jordanian-born artist
• * Helen Marten, English sculptor and installation artist

Deaths

• 8 January – Grace Morley, American-born curator
• 18 January – Anwar Shemza, Pakistan-born British artist and writer
• 7 March – Jessie Oonark, Canadian Inuk artist
• 28 March – Marc Chagall, Russian-Belarusian-French painter.
• 21 April – Rudi Gernreich, Austrian American fashion designer.
• 11 May – Chester Gould, American cartoonist.
• 12 May – Jean Dubuffet, French painter and sculptor.
• 22 May – Wolfgang Reitherman, German-American animator.
• 26 July – Grace Albee, American printmaker.
• 21 August – David Olère, Polish-born Jewish French painter.
• 8 September – Ana Mendieta, Cuban American performance artist, sculptor, painter and video artist
• 28 September – André Kertész, Hungarian-born photographer.
• 17 November – Richard Amsel, American illustrator and graphic designer.
• 8 December – Paul Kelpe, German-born American painter.
• Ovartaci, Danish outsider artist
• Antonio Rodríguez Luna, Spanish painter.