1986 in art

Events from the year 1986 in art.

Events

21 May – Eighteen Old Master paintings from the Beit collection are stolen from Russborough House in Ireland by Martin "The General" Cahill, the second major art theft from this location.
19 August – Two weeks after it was stolen, the Picasso painting Weeping Woman is found in a locker at Spencer Street station in Melbourne, Australia.
Opening of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

23 November – The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890–1985 opens at Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Organized by Maurice Tuchman, this is the first public showing of the abstract art of Swedish painter and mystic Hilma af Klint.

6 March – Georgia O'Keeffe American artist.
26 April – Dechko Uzunov, Bulgarian painter.
11 May – Henry Plumer McIlhenny, American art collector, philanthropist and chairman of Philadelphia Museum of Art.
31 May – Jane Frank, American painter, sculptor, mixed media artist and textile artist.
9 June – Ilona Harima, Finnish painter.

7 April – Cecil King, Irish abstract-minimalist painter.
30 June – Guan Zilan, Chinese avant-garde painter
22 July – Floyd Gottfredson, American cartoonist.
31 August – Henry Moore, English artist and sculptor.
9 September – Albert Malet, French painter.
12 September
*Ernst Haas, Austrian photographer.
*Jacques Henri Lartigue, French photographer and painter.
18 September – Corita Kent, American nun and silkscreen printer.
11 October – Barker Fairley, English-born Canadian painter, writer, and educator.
23 October – Conrad O'Brien-ffrench, British intelligence officer, mountaineer and painter.