2024 in art
The year 2024 in art involved various significant events.
Events
- January 23 – An illegally smuggled Hellenistic statuette of a Greek goddess is repatriated to Greece from the United States after sixteen years of negotiations.
- January 24 – South Korea's Ministry of Unification confirms that the Arch of Reunification, a sculptural arch near Pyongyang, North Korea, has been demolished.
- March 20 – Opening of the 81st Whitney Biennial in New York City, United States, lasting until August 11, 2024.
- April 20 – Opening of the 60th Venice Biennale, lasting until November 24, 2024.
- April 21 – A statue of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, by Hywel Pratley, is unveiled in Oakham, Rutland, UK.
- May 16 – A statue of Billy Graham, by Chas Fagan, is erected at the United States Capitol, in Washington, D.C.
- May 25 – Opening of an exhibition of portraits of "Windrush generation", commissioned by King Charles III of the United Kingdom.
- June 4 – David Voss, alleged ringleader of Canada's biggest art fraud, pleads guilty to his involvement in the forgery of works by Norval Morrisseau.
- July 26 – A performance staged as part of the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, causes controversy when it is seen by some parties as mocking the Last Supper of Jesus Christ and more specifically Leonardo da Vinci's famous fresco depiction of it.
- September 10 – Glenn Lowry, the longest serving director in the history of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City announces that he will step down from that position in 2025 after thirty years as the museum's operating chief.
- September 20 – In Bologna, Italy the prolific Czech art vandal, Vaclav Pisvejc smashes an Ai Weiwei porcelain sculpture titled Porcelain Cube at the opening of the artist's exhibition at the Palazzo Fava Museum. This was the second high-profile smashing of a work by Ai Wei Wei as in 2014 Dominican-born Miami-based artist Maximo Caminero walked into the then recently opened Pérez Art Museum Miami in Miami, Florida, and destroyed one of twelve vases employed in an installation by the Chinese dissident artist.
- November 19 – René Magritte's painting The Empire of Light sells for US$121.1 million at Christie's setting both a new record price for a Surrealist work of art at auction and for a work by the artist.
Exhibitions
- March 20 until August 11 – The 81st Whitney Biennial.
- March 23 until July 7 – Urban Art Evolution at the Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn, New York
- March 26 until July 14 – Paris 1874 Inventing Impressionism at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, France, then travels to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. from September 8 until January 19, 2024.
- March 27 until July 1 - Brancusi
- April 15 – August 20 – The Boyz from the Museum at the ilon Gallery in Harlem, New York City.
- April 20 until November 24 – The 60th Venice Biennale.
- April 26 until October 13 – Rebecca Horn at the Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany.
- May 7 until March 24, 2024 – Martha Jackson Jarvis: What the Trees Have Seen at the Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, Maryland.
- June 14 until October 14 – Guillaume Lethière at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. then named Guillaume Lethière: Born in Guadeloupe travels to the Musée du Louvre from November 13 until February 17. 2025,
- September- CJ Hendry: Flower Market at Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island in New York City, New York.
- September 6 until January 5, 2025 – The Dance of Life: Figure and Imagination in American Art, 1876–1917 at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut.
- September 13 until October 26 – Joel Shapiro: Out of the Blue at Pace Gallery in New York City.
- September 14 until October 18 – The Found Art of Thom Corn at Wall Works in the Bronx, New York.
- October 8 until February 9, 2025 - BAJ: Baj Chez Baj at the Palazzo Reale in Milan, Italy.
- October 9 until January 20, 2025 – Arte Povera. at the Bourse de Commerce in Paris, France.
- October 10 until January 3, 2025 - Ronnie Landfield, Recent Works, 2024 at Findlay Gallery, New York City.
- October 10 until February 2, 2025 - Jean Tinguely at the Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan, Italy.
- October 12 until February 9, 2025 - Tamara de Lempicka at the De Young Museum in San Francisco, California, then traveled to the Museum of Fine Arts Houston in Houston, Texas from March 9, 2025 to July 6, 2025.
- October 13 until January 26, 2025 – Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; will travel to London's National Gallery in 2025
- October 24 until December 7 – Cecily Brown: The Five Senses at the Paula Cooper Gallery in New York City.
- October 25 until December 21 - Laurent Grasso: Artificialis at the Sean Kelly Gallery in New York City.
- October 25 until February 9, 2025 - Magritte at the Art Gallery of New South Wales
- October 31 - Continuing - Hajime Sorayama: Desire Machines at the Museum of Sex in Miami, Florida.
- November 1 until February 15, 2025 - Adrian Berg: Phantasmagoria at Hunter Dunbar Projects in New York City.
- November 7 until December 21 – James Little: Affirmed/Actions at Petzel in New York City.
- November 8 until March 9, 2025 - Harmony and Dissonance: Orphism in Paris, 1910–1930 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
- November 13 until February 28, 2025 - Kenny Scharf at the Brant Foundation Study Center in New York City.
- December 5 until January 9, 2025 - Parmigianino: The Vision of Saint Jerome at the National Gallery in London.
- December 14 until March 29, 2025 - Jean Michel Basquiat: ENGADIN at Hauser & Wirth in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
- December 17 until March 15, 2025 - Reflections: Koons/Picasso at The Alhambra at the Museum of Fine Arts, Palace Charles V, in Granada, Spain.
Awards
Works
- Omri Amrany and Oscar León – Statue of Dwyane Wade at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida.
- Iván Argote – Dinosaur commissioned for and displayed on the High Line in Manhattan, New York City
- Daniel Arsham – Statue of Priscilla Chan
- Alex Chinneck – Loop-de-Loop Canal Boat permanently installed on the Sheffield & Tinsley Canal in Sheffield, England
- Xenia Hausner – Atemluft
- Sabin Howard – A Soldier's Journey part of The National World War I Memorial in Pershing Park in Washington, D.C.
- Andrew Lacey – Statue of Thomas Stamford Raffles permanently installed in downtown Singapore.
- Louis – Bust of Elon Musk
- Ruth Patir - otherland commissioned for the Israel pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale.
- Alison Saar – "The Salon", Olympic sculpture commissioned for the Champs-Élysées in Paris, France.
- Joel Shapiro - ''ARK''
Deaths
January
- January 1 – Hartmut Ritzerfeld, German neo-Expressive painter
- January 2 – Alexis Smith, American collage artist
- January 4 – Kishin Shinoyama, Japanese photographer
- January 15 – Brent Sikkema, American art dealer
- January 19 – Robert Whitman, American performance artist
- January 19 – Carl Andre, American minimalist artist
- January 26 – Ricardo Pascale, Uruguayan sculptor
- January 27 – Brian Griffin, British photographer
February
- February 4
- *Antonio Paolucci, Italian art historian and curator
- *Melvin Way, American folk artist
- February 5 – Helga Paris, German photographer
- February 8 – Andrew Crispo, American gallerist
- February 10
- *Günter Brus, Austrian painter, performance artist, graphic artist and filmmaker
- *A. Ramachandran, Indian painter
- February 16 – Aleš Lamr, Czech visual artist
- February 17 – Marc Pachter, American art curator
- February 28 – Félix Aráuz, Ecuadorian painter
March
- March 1
- *Iris Apfel, American designer
- *Chance Browne, American cartoonist
- *Ennio Calabria, Italian painter and illustrator
- *Akira Toriyama, Japanese manga artist
- March 6 – Pigcasso, painting pig
- March 7 – Lucas Samaras, Greek-born American photographer, sculptor and painter
- March 12 – Yong Soon Min, South Korean-born American artist, curator, and educator
- March 24
- *Robert Moskowitz, American painter
- *Imogen Stuart, German-Irish sculptor
- March 26 – Richard Serra, American sculptor
- March 28 – Marian Zazeela, American light artist, designer, calligrapher, and painter
- March 29 – Katsura Funakoshi, Japanese sculptor
- March 30 – Quisqueya Henríquez, Cuban-born Dominican multidisciplinary contemporary artist
April
- April 3 – Gaetano Pesce, Italian architect and designer
- April 6
- *Italo Rota, Italian architect and curator
- *Ziraldo, Brazilian author, cartoonist and painter
- April 9 – Patti Astor, underground actress and gallerist
- April 13 – Trina Robbins, American cartoonist
- April 13 – Faith Ringgold, American painter, author, mixed media sculptor, performance artist
- April 16 – Jean-Marie Haessle, French painter
- April 25 – Au Ho-nien, Chinese painter
- April 28 – Zack Norman, actor and art collector
May
- May 4 – Frank Stella, American painter, sculptor, and printmaker
- May 17 – Roberta Marrero, Spanish artist
- May 23
- *Sir John Boardman – 96, English archeologist and art historian
- * Marc Camille Chaimowicz, French multi-disciplinary artist
June
- June 5 – Ben Vautier, French visual artist
- June 29 – Jacqueline de Jong, Dutch painter, sculptor, and graphic artist
- June 30 – Manuel Cargaleiro, Portuguese ceramicist and painter
July
- July 1 – June Leaf, American visual artist
- July 4 – Dorothy Lichtenstein, President of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation
- July 10 – Thomas Hoepker, German photographer
- July 12 – Bill Viola, American video artist
- July 17 – Farhad Moshiri, Iranian artist
- July 22 – Germaine Hoffmann, Luxembourgish painter and collage artist
- July 23 – Mark Mallia, Maltese painter and sculptor
August
- August 9 – Keiichi Tanaami, 88, Japanese pop artist
- August 10 – Kasper König, 80, German museum director and curator
- August 11 – Simon Verity, 79, British sculptor and stone carver
- August 14 – Godawari Dutta, 93, Indian Madhubani painter
- August 15 – Jaime Botín, 88, Spanish art collector and convicted smuggler
- August 17 - Bill Beckley, 78, American narrative and conceptual artist
- August 21 – David Anfam, 69, British art writer
- August 27 – Leonard Riggio, 83, American art collector
- August 29 – Ēvī Upeniece, 99, Latvian sculptor
- August 30 – Hans Danuser, 71, Swiss visual artist and photographer
September
- September 3 – Jacqueline Winsor, 82, Canadian-born American sculptor
- September 5 – Derek Boshier, 87, English Pop artist
- September 6 – Rebecca Horn, 80, German visual artist and film director
- September 11 – Peter Klashorst, 67, Dutch painter, sculptor, and photographer
- September 14
- *Fred Nall Hollis, 76, American visual artist
- *James Magee, 79, American visual artist
- September 16 – Norman Ackroyd, 86, English visual artist
- September 16 – Eikoh Hosoe, 91, Japanese photographer
- September 20 – Valentinas Antanavičius, 88, Lithuanian painter
- September 22 – Ivan Vukadinov, 92, Bulgarian painter
- September 26 – Richard Mayhew, 100, American painter, illustrator, and arts educator
October
- October 12 – Lillian Schwartz, 97, American artist
- October 15 – Andrew Stahl, 69 or 70, British painter
- October 16 – Patricia Johanson, 84, American environmental artist.
- October 18 – Isabelle de Borchgrave, 78, Belgian sculptor and painter
- October 23 – Robert C. Morgan, 81, American art critic and visual artist
- October 24 – Gary Indiana, 74, American art critic
- October 28 – Paul Morrissey, 86, American film director
- October 30 – Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin, 63, Swedish photographer and artist, stomach cancer
November
- November 6 – Daniel Spoerri, 94, Swiss visual artist and writer
- November 11
- *Frank Auerbach, 93, German-British painter
- *Walter Dahn, 70, German painter, photographer, and sound artist
- November 15 – Tom Forrestall, 88, Canadian painter
- November 16 – Eunice Parsons, 108, American artist
- November 19 – Vojo Stanić, 100, Montenegrin painter and sculptor
- November 23 – Cynthia Zukas, 93, South African-born Zambian painter
- November 24 – Breyten Breytenbach, 85, South African painter
- November 29 – Rafig Nasirov, 77, Azerbaijani sculptor
December
- December 10 - Raghnall Ó Floinn, Irish art historian, director of the National Museum of Ireland.
- December 13 - Lorraine O'Grady, 90, American artist
- December 15
- *Juan Cárdenas Arroyo, 85, Colombian painter
- *Jodhaiya Bai Baiga, 86, Indian visual artist
- *Rezki Zerarti, 86, Algerian painter
- December 16 - Yoshio Taniguchi, 87, Japanese architect
- December 17 - Roberto Esteban Chavez, 92, American artist
- December 18 - Zilia Sánchez Domínguez, 96, Cuban-born Puerto Rican visual artist
- December 20 - Kurt Laurenz Metzler, 83, Swiss sculptor
- December 24 - Alfredo Prior, 72, Argentine painter
- December 29 - Marie-Claude Beaud, 78, French art exhibition curator