Events from the year 1952 in art.
Events
* August 29 – Composer
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...
's ''
4′33″
''4′33″'' is a Modernism (music), modernist composition by American experimental music, experimental composer John Cage. It was composed in 1952 for any instrument or combination of instruments; the score instructs performers not to play t ...
'', during which the performer does not play, premieres in
Maverick Concert Hall
Maverick Concert Hall was built in 1916 and was part of the Maverick Artist Colony in Hurley, New York, Hurley, New York.
The concert hall hosts the Maverick Concerts, a summer chamber music music festival, festival. Alexander Platt is the curre ...
,
Woodstock, New York
Woodstock is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Ulster County, New York, United States, in the northern part of the county, northwest of Kingston, New York, Kingston. It lies within the borders of the Catskill Park. The popula ...
.
* Eight younger British artists (
Robert Adams,
Kenneth Armitage,
Reg Butler,
Lynn Chadwick
Lynn Russell Chadwick, (24 November 1914 – 25 April 2003) was an English sculptor and artist. Much of his work is semi-abstract sculpture in bronze or steel. His work is in the collections of MoMA in New York, the Tate in London and th ...
,
Geoffrey Clarke,
Bernard Meadows
Bernard Meadows (19 February 1915 – 12 January 2005) was a British modernist sculptor. Meadows was Henry Moore's first assistant; then part of the Geometry of Fear school, a loose-knit group of British sculptors whose prominence was establis ...
,
Eduardo Paolozzi
Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi (, ; 7 March 1924 – 22 April 2005) was a Scottish artist, known for his sculpture and graphic works. He is widely considered to be one of the pioneers of pop art.
Early years
Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi was born on 7 M ...
and
William Turnbull) are represented in the "New Aspects of British Sculpture" exhibition at the
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...
which
Herbert Read
Sir Herbert Edward Read, (; 4 December 1893 – 12 June 1968) was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education. Read wa ...
describes as the "
Geometry of Fear". Britain also displays paintings by
Graham Sutherland
Graham Vivian Sutherland (24 August 1903 – 17 February 1980) was a prolific English artist. Notable for his paintings of abstract landscapes and for his portraits of public figures, Sutherland also worked in other media, including printmakin ...
and
Edward Wadsworth
Edward Alexander Wadsworth (19 October 1889 – 21 June 1949) was an English artist initially associated with the Vorticism movement. In the First World War he was part of a team involved in the transfer of dazzle camouflage designs to ships fo ...
.
*
Louis le Brocquy's
1951
Events
January
* January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950).
* January 9 – The Government of the Uni ...
painting ''
A Family'' sparks controversy in
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
when a group of art patrons offer to present it to the
Dublin Municipal Gallery and it is rejected by the Art Advisory Committee on the grounds of incompetence.
*
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson (; 22 August 1908 – 3 August 2004) was a French artist and Humanist photography, humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 135 film, 35mm film. He pioneered the genre of street ...
's photographic collection ''Images à la sauvette'' is published by
Tériade
Tériade is the pen name of Stratis (or Efstratios) Eleftheriades (; 2 May 1897 – 23 October 1983), a Greek writer and native of Mytilene who went to Paris in 1915 at the age of eighteen to study law. He instead became an art critic, patron, an ...
in Paris.
* Publication of ''Un Art Autre'', by
Michel Tapié
Michel Tapié de Céleyran (; 26 February 1909 – 30 July 1987) was a French art critic, curator, and collector. He was an early and influential theorist and practitioner of "tachisme", a French style of abstract painting popular in the 1940s a ...
.
Awards
*
Archibald Prize
The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, J. F. Archib ...
:
William Dargie – ''Mr Essington Lewis, CH''
* Prix
Puvis de Chavannes
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (; 14 December 1824 – 24 October 1898) was a French painter known for his mural painting, who came to be known as "the painter for France". He became the co-founder and president of the Société Nationale des Beaux-A ...
–
Tristan Klingsor
Works
*
Michael Andrews –
A Man who Suddenly Fell Over'
*
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of nat ...
** ''
Figure in a landscape''
** ''
Study for Crouching Nude''
*
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...
– ''
Galatea of the Spheres''
*
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...
–
Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery'
*
M. C. Escher
Maurits Cornelis Escher (; ; 17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972) was a Dutch graphic artist who made woodcuts, lithography, lithographs, and mezzotints, many of which were Mathematics and art, inspired by mathematics.
Despite wide popular int ...
** ''
Gravitation
In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...
''
** ''
Puddle
A puddle is a very small accumulation of liquid, usually water, on a surface. It can form either by pooling in a depression on the surface, or by surface tension upon a flat surface. Puddles are often characterized by murky water or mud due to t ...
''
*
Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler (December 12, 1928 – December 27, 2011) was an American abstract expressionist painter. She was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work for over six decades (early 1950s u ...
– ''
Mountains and Sea''
*
Lucian Freud
Lucian Michael Freud (; 8 December 1922 – 20 July 2011) was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists.
His early career as a painter was inf ...
– ''
Girl In Bed''
*
Elisabeth Frink
Dame Elisabeth Jean Frink (14 November 1930 – 18 April 1993) was an English sculptor and printmaker. Her ''Times'' obituary noted the three essential themes in her work as "the nature of Man; the 'horseness' of horses; and the divine in ...
– ''Bird''
*
Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning ( , ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. Born in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, he moved to the United States in 1926, becoming a US citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married pa ...
– ''Woman I''
*
Henri Laurens – ''
L'Amphion'' (sculpture,
University City of Caracas
The University City of Caracas (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas''), also known by the acronym CUC, is the main campus of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), located in central Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. ...
)
*
René Magritte
René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgium, Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature ...
– ''
The Listening Room''
*
Henri Matisse
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...
– cutouts
** series of ''
Blue Nudes'', e.g., ', ''
Blue Nude II
The ''Blue Nudes'' is a series of collages, and related color lithographs, by Henri Matisse, made from paper cut-outs depicting nude figures in various positions. Restricted by his physical condition after his surgery for stomach cancer, Matisse ...
''
** ''
Black Leaf on Green Background''
** ''
La Négresse''
** ''
The Sorrows of the King''
*
John Minton –
The Death of Nelson'
*
Henry Moore
Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract art, abstract monumental Bronze sculpture, bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. Moore ...
– ''
King and Queen'' (bronze)
*
Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter. A major figure in the abstract expressionist movement, Pollock was widely noticed for his "Drip painting, drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household ...
– ''
Blue Poles''
*
Germaine Richier - ''The Devil with Claws''
*
Kay Sage – ''
On the Contrary''
*
David Smith – ''
Agricola I'' (sculpture)
*
Dorothea Tanning
Dorothea Margaret Tanning (25 August 1910 – 31 January 2012) was an American painter, printmaker, sculptor, writer, and poet. Her early work was influenced by Surrealism.
Biography
Dorothea Tanning was born and raised in Galesburg, Illinois. ...
– ''The Friend's Room''
* ''
Lovejoy Columns'', Portland, Oregon, painted by Tom Stefopoulos
Exhibitions
*
September 25
Events Pre-1600
* 275 – For the last time, the Roman Senate chooses an emperor; they elect 75-year-old Marcus Claudius Tacitus.
* 762 – Led by Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya, the Hasanid branch of the Alids begins the Alid Revolt ...
–
November 9
Events Pre-1600
* 694 – At the Seventeenth Council of Toledo, Egica, a king of the Visigoths of Hispania, accuses Jews of aiding Muslims, sentencing all Jews to slavery.
* 1180 – The Battle of Fujigawa: Minamoto forces (30,000 ...
–
Jacob Epstein
Sir Jacob Epstein (10 November 1880 – 21 August 1959) was an American and British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British subject in 1910.
Early in his ...
retrospective,
Tate Gallery, London
* Exhibition of
forgeries,
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Births
*
March 18
Events Pre-1600
* 37 – Roman Senate annuls Tiberius' will and proclaims Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ''(aka Caligula = Little Boots)'' emperor.Tacitus, ''Annals'' V.10.
* 1068 – An earthquake in the Levant and the Ar ...
–
Sally Robinson
Sally Robinson (born 1952) is an English-born Australian artist. She has had a long career as a portrait artist and designer, painter and printmaker, teacher and lecturer. Her work is represented in private and public collections around Austral ...
, English-born Australian painter
*
March 22
Events Pre-1600
* 106 – Start of the Bostran era, the calendar of the province of Arabia Petraea.
* 235 – Roman emperor Severus Alexander is murdered, marking the start of the Crisis of the Third Century.
* 871 – Æthel ...
–
Bernard Pras,
French plastics technician
*
May 23
Events Pre-1600
* 1430 – Joan of Arc is captured at the Siege of Compiègne by troops from the Burgundian faction.
* 1498 – Girolamo Savonarola is burned at the stake in Florence, Italy.
*1533 – The marriage of King Henry ...
–
Martin Parr
Martin Parr (born 23 May 1952) is a British documentary photographer, photojournalist and photobook collector. He is known for his photographic projects that take an intimate, satirical and anthropological look at aspects of modern life, in p ...
,
English documentary colour photographer
*
August 13
Events Pre-1600
* 29 BC – Octavian holds the first of three consecutive triumphs in Rome to celebrate the victory over the Dalmatian tribes.
* 523 – John I becomes the new Pope after the death of Pope Hormisdas.
* 554 &ndash ...
–
Herb Ritts
Herbert Ritts Jr. (August 13, 1952 – December 26, 2002) was an American fashion photographer and director known for his photographs of celebrities, models, and other cultural figures throughout the 1980s and 1990s. His work concentrated on b ...
,
American photographer (d.
2002
The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...
)
*
October 20
Events Pre-1600
*1568 – The Spanish Duke of Alba defeats a Dutch rebel force under William the Silent.
* 1572 – Eighty Years' War: Three thousand Spanish soldiers wade through fifteen miles of water in one night to effect the r ...
–
Derek Ridgers
Derek Ridgers (born 20 October 1950) is a British photographer known for his photography of music, film and club/street culture. He has photographed people including James Brown, the Spice Girls, Clint Eastwood and Johnny Depp, as well as polit ...
, English portrait and street culture photographer
*
November 15
Events Pre-1600
* 655 – Battle of the Winwaed: Penda of Mercia is defeated by Oswiu of Northumbria.
* 1315 – Growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy: The Schweizer Eidgenossenschaft ambushes the army of Leopold I in the Battle ...
–
Blek le Rat
Blek le Rat (; born Xavier Prou, 1952) is a French graffiti artist. He was one of the first graffiti artists in Paris, and has been described as the "Father of stencil graffiti".
Early life
Xavier Prou was born on 15 November 1951 in Boulogne- ...
(Xavier Prou), French
stencil graffiti
Stencil graffiti is a form of graffiti that makes use of stencils made out of paper, cardboard, or other media to create an image or text that is easily reproducible. The desired design is cut out of the selected medium and then the image is tran ...
artist
*
November 22
Events Pre-1600
* 498 – After the death of Anastasius II, Symmachus is elected Pope in the Lateran Palace, while Laurentius is elected Pope in Santa Maria Maggiore.
* 845 – The first duke of Brittany, Nominoe, defeats the Fran ...
–
Corno (Joanne Corneau), Canadian post-pop painter (d.
2016
2016 was designated as:
* International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly.
* International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...
)
* ''date unknown''
**
Graham Forsythe, Northern Irish/Canadian painter
**
Duncan Hannah, American painter (d.
2022
The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...
)
**
Mona Hatoum
Mona Hatoum (; born 1952) is a Palestinians, British-Palestinian multimedia and installation artist who lives in London.
Biography
Mona Hatoum was born in 1952 in Beirut, Lebanon, to State of Palestine, Palestinian parents. Although born in Leba ...
, Lebanese-born Palestinian multimedia artist
**
James Little, American painter
**
Daniel Meadows
Daniel Meadows (born 1952) is an English photographer turned maker of digital stories, and a teacher of photography turned teacher of participatory media.
Life and career as photographer
Meadows was born in Great Washbourne, Gloucestershire, " ...
, English photographer
**
Ian Rank-Broadley
Ian Rank-Broadley Royal British Society of Sculptors, FRBS (born 1952) is a British sculpture, sculptor who has produced many acclaimed works, among which are several designs for British coinage and the Statue of Diana, Princess of Wales, memor ...
, English sculptor
Deaths
*
March 3
Events Pre-1600
* 473 – Gundobad (nephew of Ricimer) nominates Glycerius as emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
* 724 – Empress Genshō abdicates the throne in favor of her nephew Shōmu who becomes emperor of Japan.
* 1575 ...
–
Howard Chandler Christy
Howard Chandler Christy (January 10, 1872 – March 3, 1952) was an American artist and illustrator. Famous for the "Christy Girl" – a colorful and illustrious successor to the "Gibson Girl" – Christy is also widely known for his ico ...
, American painter and illustrator (b.
1873
Events January
* January 1
** Japan adopts the Gregorian calendar.
** The California Penal Code goes into effect.
* January 17 – American Indian Wars: Modoc War: First Battle of the Stronghold – Modoc Indians defeat the Unit ...
)
*
April 9
Events Pre-1600
* 193 – The distinguished soldier Septimius Severus is proclaimed emperor by the army in Illyricum.
* 475 – Byzantine Emperor Basiliscus issues a circular letter (''Enkyklikon'') to the bishops of his empire, ...
–
Caroline Risque, American sculptor and painter (b.
1883
Events
January
* January 4 – ''Life'' magazine is founded in Los Angeles, California, United States.
* January 10 – A fire at the Newhall Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, kills 73 people.
* January 16 – ...
)
*
May 5
Events Pre-1600
* 553 – The Second Council of Constantinople begins.
* 1215 – Rebel barons renounce their allegiance to King John of England — part of a chain of events leading to the signing of the Magna Carta.
* 1260 – ...
–
Alberto Savinio, Italian writer and painter (b.
1891
Events January
* January 1
** A strike of 500 Hungarian steel workers occurs; 3,000 men are out of work as a consequence.
**Germany takes formal possession of its new African territories.
* January 4 – The Earl of Zetland issues a ...
)
*
May 6
Events Pre-1600
* 1527 – Spanish and German troops sack Rome; many scholars consider this the end of the Renaissance.
* 1536 – The Siege of Cuzco commences, in which Incan forces attempt to retake the city of Cuzco from the Sp ...
–
Oswald Birley
Sir Oswald Hornby Joseph Birley (31 March 1880 – 6 May 1952) was an English portrait painter and royal portraitist in the early part of the 20th century.
Early life and family
Birley was born in New Zealand to Hugh Francis Birley (1855–19 ...
(b.
1880
Events
January
*January 27 – Thomas Edison is granted a patent for the incandescent light bulb. Edison filed for a US patent for an electric lamp using "a carbon filament or strip coiled and connected ... to platina contact wires." gr ...
)
*
June 9
Events Pre-1600
* 411 BC – The Athenian coup succeeds, forming a short-lived oligarchy.
* 53 – The Roman emperor Nero marries Claudia Octavia.
* 68 – Nero dies by suicide after quoting Vergil's ''Aeneid'', thus ending the J ...
–
Alice Austen
Elizabeth Alice Austen (March 17, 1866 – June 9, 1952) was an American photographer working in Staten Island. She is best known for her street photography and her intimate depictions of women's lives and relationships in the Victorian era ...
, American photographer (b.
1866
Events January
* January 1
** Fisk University, a historically black university, is established in Nashville, Tennessee.
** The last issue of the abolitionist magazine '' The Liberator'' is published.
* January 6 – Ottoman troops clash ...
)
*
August 16
Events Pre-1600
* 1 BC – Wang Mang consolidates his power in China and is declared marshal of state. Emperor Ai of Han, who died the previous day, had no heirs.
* 942 – Start of the four-day Battle of al-Mada'in, between the H ...
–
Lydia Field Emmet
Lydia Field Emmet (January 23, 1866 – August 16, 1952) was an American artist best known for her work as a portraitist. She studied with, among others, prominent artists such as William Merritt Chase, Harry Siddons Mowbray, Kenyon Cox and Tony ...
, American painter (b.
1866
Events January
* January 1
** Fisk University, a historically black university, is established in Nashville, Tennessee.
** The last issue of the abolitionist magazine '' The Liberator'' is published.
* January 6 – Ottoman troops clash ...
)
*
October 15
Events Pre-1600
*1066 – Following the death of Harold II at the Battle of Hastings, Edgar the Ætheling is proclaimed King of England by the Witan; he is never crowned, and concedes power to William the Conqueror two months later.
* 121 ...
–
Katharine Adams
Katharine Adams (25 November 1862 – 15 October 1952) was a British bookbinder famous for her detailed leather bindings.
Biography
Adams was born in Bracknell, a town in Berkshire, England, to Catherine Mary Horton (d. 1912) and Reverend Willi ...
, English bookbinder (b.
1862
Events
January
* January 1 – The United Kingdom annexes Lagos Island, in modern-day Nigeria.
* January 6 – Second French intervention in Mexico, French intervention in Mexico: Second French Empire, French, Spanish and British ...
)
*
December 15
Events Pre-1600
* 533 – Vandalic War: Byzantine Empire, Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of Tricamarum.
* 687 – Pope Sergius I is elected as a compromise between antipopes P ...
-
Goscombe John
Sir William Goscombe John (21 February 1860 – 15 December 1952) was a prolific Welsh sculptor known for his many public memorials. As a sculptor, John developed a distinctive style of his own while respecting classical traditions and forms o ...
, Welsh sculptor (b.
1860
Events
January
* January 2 – The astronomer Urbain Le Verrier announces the discovery of a hypothetical planet Vulcan (hypothetical planet), Vulcan at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris, France.
* January 10 &ndas ...
)
* ''date unknown'':
**
Arthur Beecher Carles, American Modernist painter (b.
1882
Events January
* January 2
** The Standard Oil Trust is secretly created in the United States to control multiple corporations set up by John D. Rockefeller and his associates.
** Irish-born author Oscar Wilde arrives in New York at the ...
)
**
William Lee Hankey, English painter and illustrator (b.
1869
Events January
* January 3 – Abdur Rahman Khan is defeated at Tinah Khan, and exiled from Afghanistan.
* January 5 – Scotland's second oldest professional football team, Kilmarnock F.C., is founded.
* January 20 – Elizabe ...
)
**
Nicolas Sursock, Lebanese art collector (b.
1875
Events
January
* January 1 – The Midland Railway of England abolishes the Second Class passenger category, leaving First Class and Third Class. Other British railway companies follow Midland's lead during the rest of the year (Third C ...
)
See also
*
1952 in fine arts of the Soviet Union
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:1952 In Art
Years of the 20th century in art
1950s in art