1931 in art

Events from the year 1931 in art.

Events

 * February 15 – Abstraction-Création group formed in Paris by Theo van Doesburg to promote non-figurative, non-surrealist art. Other founder members include Auguste Herbin, Jean Hélion and Georges Vantongerloo.
 * October 4 – Debut appearance of the Dick Tracy comic strip, created by cartoonist Chester Gould.
 * The Whitney Museum of American Art is founded by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in its original building in Greenwich Village, New York City.
 * The Pierre Matisse Gallery opens in New York City.
 * Collector Kay Kimbell of Fort Worth, Texas, purchases his first painting, origin of the Kimbell Art Museum.
 * Henry Moore holds his first solo exhibition of sculptures, at The Leicester Galleries in London.

Works

 * Max Beckmann – Paris Society
 * Thomas Hart Benton – America Today
 * Heitor da Silva Costa and Paul Landowski – Christ the Redeemer (statue, Rio de Janeiro)
 * Salvador Dalí – The Persistence of Memory
 * Robert William Davidson – Eve (sculpture)
 * Charles Demuth – Chimney and Watertower
 * Antonio Donghi – Woman at the Café
 * Frida Kahlo – Frida and Diego Rivera
 * Helmut Kolle – Self-Portrait in White Tie
 * Tamara de Lempicka – Adam and Eve
 * René Magritte – The Voice of Space
 * Carl Milles – Flygarmonumentet (Stockholm)
 * Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen – The Herd Boy playing a Wooden Flute (monument to the sculptor's husband, the composer Carl Nielsen (d. 1931), at his birthplace, Nørre Lyndelse)
 * Georgia O'Keeffe – Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
 * Pablo Picasso – Figures by the Sea
 * Diego Rivera - The Rivals
 * Lorado Taft – The Crusader (sculpture)
 * Carel Willink – Late Visitors to Pompeii
 * Grant Wood
 * The Birthplace of Herbert Hoover
 * The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

Awards

 * Archibald Prize: John Longstaff – Sir John Sulman

Births

 * January 1 – Stephanie Scuris, artist and sculptor
 * January 10 – Massimo Vignelli, Italian designer (d. 2014)
 * January 18 – Jay Maisel, photographer
 * January 21 – Paul Deliège, Belgian comic strip artist and writer (d. 2005)
 * January 30 – Linda Nochlin, née Weinberg, American feminist art historian (d. 2017)
 * February 7 – Serge Danot, French animator (d. 1990)
 * February 9 – Robert Morris, American sculptor (d. 2018)
 * February 16 – Irina Dobrekova, Russian painter
 * February 17 – Fay Godwin, German-born English landscape photographer (d. 2005)
 * February 18 – Johnny Hart, American cartoonist (d. 2007)
 * February 21 – Derek Hyatt, English abstract landscape painter (d. 2015)
 * February 23 – Tom Wesselmann, American pop artist (d. 2004)
 * February 26
 * Radomir Stević Ras, Serbian painter and designer (d. 1982).
 * Jacques Rouxel, French animator (d. 2004)
 * March 4 – Gwilym Prichard, Welsh landscape painter (d. 2015)
 * March 13 – Michael Podro, English art historian (d. 2008)
 * March 25 – Jack Chambers, Canadian artist and filmmaker (d. 1978)
 * April 24 – Bridget Riley, English op art painter
 * April 25 – David Shepherd, English wildlife, railway and military painter and conservationist (d. 2017)
 * April 26 – Vera Nazina, Russian painter
 * April 29 – Frank Auerbach, German-born painter
 * May 10 – Olja Ivanjicki, Serbian painter (d. 2009)
 * June 7 – Malcolm Morley, English-American photographer and painter
 * July 8 – Leo Dee, American silverpoint artist (d. 2004)
 * July 15 – Brian Sewell, English art critic (d. 2015)
 * July 20 – Sheila Fell, English painter (d. 1979)
 * July 25 – Carlo Maria Mariani, Italian painter (d. 2021)
 * July 28 – Hans Schröder, German sculptor and painter (d. 2010)
 * August 15 – Rose Hilton, English painter (d. 2019)
 * August 20 – Bernd Becher, German photographer (d. 2007)
 * August 24 – Bartolomeu Cid dos Santos, Portuguese artist and professor (d. 2008)
 * September 24 – Elizabeth Blackadder, Scottish painter (d. 2021)
 * October 9 – Stuart Devlin, Australian-born gold/silversmith (d. 2018)
 * date unknown
 * Barrie Cooke, British-born abstract expressionist painter (d. 2014)
 * Enno Hallek, Estonian-born Swedish artist

Deaths

 * January 7
 * Giuseppe Barison, Italian painter (b. 1853)
 * Joseph Bernard, French sculptor (b. 1866)
 * February 3 – Jefferson David Chalfant, American painter (b. 1856)
 * February 11 – Bela Čikoš Sesija, Croatian Symbolist painter (b. 1864)
 * March 7
 * Theo van Doesburg, Dutch painter and architect, leader of De Stijl (b. 1883)
 * Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Finnish painter (b. 1865)
 * March 12 – Frida Hansen, Norwegian textile artist (b. 1855)
 * March 14 – Alfred Grenander, Swedish-born architect (b. 1863)
 * March 24 – Derwent Lees, Australian landscape painter (b. 1885)
 * May 1 – Thomas Cooper Gotch, English painter (b. 1854)
 * May 31 – Willy Stöwer, German marine painter and illustrator (b. 1864)
 * July 11
 * Giovanni Boldini, Italian painter (b. 1842)
 * Jean-Louis Forain, French Impressionist painter (b. 1852)
 * September 14 – Tom Roberts, Australian painter (b. 1856)
 * September 20 – Max Littmann, German architect (b. 1862)
 * September 29 – Sir William Orpen, Irish portrait painter (b. 1878)
 * October 7
 * Charles Ricketts, English designer (b. 1866)
 * Daniel Chester French, American sculptor (b. 1850)
 * October 10 – Sir Bertram Mackennal, Australian-born sculptor (b. 1863)
 * November 17
 * Helmut Kolle, exiled German painter, endocarditis (b. 1899)
 * Edward Simmons, American Impressionist painter (b. 1852)
 * December 7 – Leslie Hunter, Scottish painter (b. 1877)
 * December 31 – Lancelot Speed, British illustrator (b. 1860)
 * date unknown
 * Todor Švrakić, Serbian painter (b. 1882)
 * William John Wainwright, English painter (b. 1855)