2001 in art

The year 2001 in art involved various significant events.

Events

1 January – A black monolith measuring approximately 9 feet tall appears in Seattle, Washington's Magnuson Park, placed by an anonymous artist in reference to the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
4 June – Unveiling of Rachel Whiteread's Untitled Monument on the Fourth plinth, Trafalgar Square, London.
17 July – Inauguration of the Altamira cave replica created by Manuel Franquelo and Sven Nebel.
11 September
*An estimated $100 million worth of art is destroyed in the 11 September attacks on New York City. Public artwork accounts for around $10 million of this figure, which includes works by Alexander Calder, Joan Miró and Roy Lichtenstein.
*Fritz Koenig's Great Spherical Caryatid is the only surviving artwork following the September 11 attacks. It is repurposed as a memorial.
*Several works of photojournalism become iconic for their portrayal of the events surrounding the September 11 attacks, including The Falling Man and Raising the Flag at Ground Zero.
27 September – Resale Rights Directive in the European Union provides a Droit de suite for artists.
1 October – The Ghibli Museum opens in Mitaka, Tokyo.
16 November – The Neue Galerie New York opens in Manhattan.

14 January - Fred Hughes, American art executive
30 January – O. Winston Link, American photographer.
12 February – Kristina Söderbaum, Swedish-German film actress, producer and photographer
17 February – Barry Burman, English painter and educator
18 February – Balthus, French modern artist
4 March
*Jean René Bazaine, French painter, stained glass window designer and writer
*Fred Lasswell, American cartoonist
1 June – Hank Ketcham, American cartoonist
19 June – David Sylvester, English art critic and curator
27 June – Tove Jansson, Swedish-Finnish novelist, painter, illustrator and comic strip author

1 July – Hélène de Beauvoir, French painter
4 July – Anne Yeats, Irish painter and stage designer
11 July – Herman Brood, Dutch musician, painter and media personality
28 August – Juan Muñoz, Spanish sculptor
23 October
*Josh Kirby, English commercial artist
*Daniel Wildenstein, French international art dealer and scholar
3 November – Sir Ernst Gombrich, Austrian-born art historian
19 November – Marcelle Ferron, Canadian painter and stained glass artist
25 November – Harry Devlin, American painter and illustrator
December – Mercedes Matter, American painter
29 December – György Kepes, Hungarian-born painter, designer, educator and art theorist