2003 in art
The year 2003 in art involved various significant events.
Events
- January 21 – The Spire of Dublin is completed.
- May 11 – Benvenuto Cellini's Saliera is stolen from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
- June 15–November 2 – A record number of seven co-curators is involved in the 50th edition of the Venice Biennale, directed by Francesco Bonami.
- August 27 – Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna of the Yarnwinder is stolen from the Duke of Buccleuch collection at Drumlanrig Castle in Scotland. It is recovered in 2007.
- November – Gustav Klimt's Landhaus am Attersee sells for $29,128,000.
- December 25 – Beagle 2 lands on the surface of Mars; its calibration target plate is painted by Damien Hirst.
- date unknown – Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London takes over the Byam Shaw School of Art.
Exhibitions
- Jim Sanborn, Critical Assembly, Corcoran School of Art
- Patti Smith, Strange Messenger, The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh
- November 11 until January 31, 2004 - "Assemblage" at the David Zwirner Gallery in New York City.
Awards
- Archibald Prize – Geoffrey Dyer, a portrait of Richard Flanagan
- Beck's Futures – Rosalind Nashashibi
- Schock Prize in Visual Arts – Susan Rothenberg
- Turner Prize – Grayson Perry
- The Venice Biennale -
- *The Lion d'Or Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement: Michelangelo Pistoletto and Carol Rama
- *The Lion d'or for best artwork in the main exhibition: Fischli and Weiss
- *The Lion d'Or for Best Pavilion: Sun-Mei Tse
- Wynne Prize – Tim Kyle, ''Seated Figure''
Works
- Eco-Earth Globe, Salem, Oregon
- Jake and Dinos Chapman – Insult to Injury
- Tony Cragg – Stainless Steel Pillar
- Olafur Eliasson – The weather project
- David Fairbairn – Self Portrait DF
- Cornelia Parker – The Distance : Subconscious of a Monument
- Michal Rovner – Data Zone
- Jørn Utzon – Homage to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
- Kehinde Wiley – ''Go''
Films
Girl with a Pearl EarringMona Lisa SmileSound of ColorsThe Floating LandscapeDeaths
January to March
- 9 January – Constantin Kluge, Russian and French painter.
- 20 January – Al Hirschfeld, American caricaturist.
- 21 January – Tony O'Malley, Irish painter.
- 27 January – Louis Archambault, Canadian sculptor.
- 2 February – Emerson Woelffer, American painter.
- 10 February – Edgar de Evia, Mexican-born American photographer.
- 15 February – Vincent Apap, Maltese sculptor
- 14 March – Jack Goldstein, Canadian-born American performance and conceptual artist turned painter.
April to June
- 9 April – Jorge Oteiza, Spanish sculptor, painter, designer and writer.
- 16 April – Graham Stuart Thomas, English horticultural artist, author and garden designer.
- 23 April – Fernand Fonssagrives, French photographer.
- 25 April – Lynn Chadwick, 88, English sculptor
- 29 May – Pierre Restany, French art critic and cultural philosopher.
- 7 June – Georges Pichard, French comics artist.
- 13 June – Lajos Tscheligi, Hungarian painter.
July to September
- 11 July - Dorothy Miller, 99, American curator.
- 15 August – Kirk Varnedoe, American art historian, writer and curator.
- 21 August – Wesley Willis, American artist and musician.
- 29 August – Vladimír Vašíček, Czech painter.
- 1 September – Terry Frost, English artist noted for his abstracts.
October to December
- 3 October – William Steig, American cartoonist, sculptor and author.
- 16 October – Avni Arbaş, Turkish artist.
- 9 November – Mario Merz, Italian artist.
- 4 December – David Vaughan, English psychedelic artist and muralist.
- 15 December – George Fisher, American political cartoonist.
- 17 December – Wally Hedrick, American artist.