1954 in art explained

Events from the year 1954 in art.

Events

• November 18 – Publication of Yves Peintures (in Madrid), the first public showing of Yves Klein's work.
• December – Pablo Picasso begins painting his Les Femmes d'Alger ("The Women of Algiers") series in homage to Delacroix's 1834 painting of the same name and to the memory of Matisse.

Awards

• Archibald Prize: Ivor Hele – Rt Hon R G Menzies, PC, CH, QC, MP
• New Year Honours – Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire: Jacob Epstein

Exhibitions

• Augustus John at the Royal Academy

Works

• Francis Bacon
  • Figure with Meat (Art Institute of Chicago)
  • Two Figures in the Grass
• Thomas Hart Benton – The Kentuckian
• John Brack – The Bar (National Gallery of Victoria)
• Terence Cuneo
  • The Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Westminster Abbey, 2nd June 1953
  • The Coronation Luncheon for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth in Guildhall, 12th June 1953
• Salvador Dalí
  • The Colossus of Rhodes
  • Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus)
  • The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory
  • Young Virgin Auto-Sodomized by the Horns of Her Own Chastity
• Jared French - The Rope^[1]
• Franz Kline – Painting No 2 (Museum of Modern Art, New York)
• Willem de Kooning – Marilyn Monroe
• Fernand Léger – Stained-glass window at University City of Caracas
• L. S. Lowry – Piccadilly Gardens^[2]
• Sergei Orlov and others – Statue of Yuriy Dolgorukiy, Moscow
• Abbott Pattison – Iron Horse (sculpture)
• Pablo Picasso – Sylvette
• Norman Rockwell – Breaking Home Ties
• Mark Rothko – Untitled (Yellow and Blue)^[3]
• Graham Sutherland – Portrait of Winston Churchill (later destroyed on orders issued by the Prime Minister's wife, Lady Clementine Churchill)
• Victor Vasarely – Hommage á Malévitch (ceramic wall at University City of Caracas)

Births

• January 19 – Cindy Sherman, American photographer and artist
• February 6 – George Sherwood, American kinetic and landscape sculptor
• September 12 – Robert Gober, American sculptor
• December 6 - Nicola De Maria, Italian painter
• Lubaina Himid, Zanzibar-born British graphic artist

Deaths

• January 26 – Carl Eldh, Swedish painter and sculptor (b. 1873)
• February 21 – Augustin Lesage, French outsider artist (b. 1876)
• March 13 – César Klein, German painter and designer (b. 1876)
• May 5 – Henri Laurens, French sculptor (b. 1885)
• May 16 – Werner Bischof, Swiss photojournalist (b. 1916)
• May 25 – Robert Capa, Hungarian-born photojournalist (b. 1913)
• June 9 – Alain LeRoy Locke, American patron of the arts (b. 1886)
• July – Gaetano Orsolini, Italian sculptor, medallist and engraver (b. 1884)
• July 3 – Reginald Marsh, American painter (b. 1898)
• July 13 – Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter (b. 1907)
• August 28 – Leonid Sherwood, Russian sculptor (b. 1871)
• September 8
  • Sigvald Asbjørnsen, Norwegian American sculptor (b. 1867)
  • André Derain, French painter and illustrator (b. 1880)
• October 15 – Elwin Hawthorne, English painter (b. 1905)
• October 18 – Einar Jónsson, Icelandic sculptor (b. 1874)
• November 3 – Henri Matisse, French painter, sculptor and printmaker (b. 1869)
• December 23 – René Iché, French sculptor (b. 1897)

See also

• 1954 in fine arts of the Soviet Union

Notes and References

1. https://whitney.org/collection/works/577
2. Web site: Piccadilly Gardens . Art UK . 1 January 2023 . en.
3. Web site: Mark Rothko. 'Untitled (Yellow and Blue)', 1954. Sotheby's . 8 November 2022. New York. May 2015.