1948 in art

Events from the year 1948 in art.

Events

 * Summer – The art exhibitions at the Venice Biennale are revived, introducing American abstract expressionism to Europe and part of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection to Venice.
 * November 8 – COBRA (avant-garde movement) is formed by Karel Appel, Constant, Corneille, Christian Dotremont, Asger Jorn and Joseph Noiret.
 * Georges Braque begins work on his Ateliers.
 * The Colony Room Club, a private members' drinking club at 41 Dean Street, Soho, London, is founded and presided over by Muriel Belcher; painter Francis Bacon becomes a member the day after it opens, establishing it as a centre for London's alcoholic artistic elite.
 * Cadillac introduce the car tailfin, to Frank Hershey's design authorized by Harley Earl.

Awards

 * Archibald Prize: William Dobell – Margaret Olley

Paintings

 * Victor Brauner – Meeting with Myself at the four Cats of the World
 * Otto Dix – Ecce homo with self-likeness behind barbed wire
 * Russell Drysdale – The cricketers
 * Rudolf Hausner – It's Me!
 * Isabel Lambert – Three Fish
 * Henri Matisse – The Plum Blossoms
 * Barnett Newman – Onement I
 * Sidney Nolan – The Abandoned Mine
 * Jackson Pollock – No. 5, 1948
 * Anne Redpath – Window in Menton
 * Constance Stokes – Girl in Red Tights (approx. date)
 * Rufino Tamayo – Cazadores de mariposas
 * Andrew Wyeth
 * Christina's World
 * McVey's Barn
 * Karl

Sculpture

 * Wäinö Aaltonen – Kun ystävyyssuhteet solmitaan
 * Joseph Cornell – Untitled (Cockatoo and Corks)
 * Jacob Epstein – Lazarus
 * Marino Marini – The Angel of the City
 * Gerda Sprinchorn – Linnéstaty (modeled 1907)
 * Iglica
 * Thomas W. Talbot Monument

Graphic works

 * M. C. Escher
 * Dewdrop (mezzotint)
 * Drawing Hands (lithograph)
 * Stars (wood engraving)

Births

 * January 24 – Machiko Satonaka, Japanese manga artist
 * March 9 – Eric Fischl, American painter
 * March 14 – James Nachtwey, American photojournalist
 * April 14 – Berry Berenson, American model and photographer (d. 2001)
 * June 30 – Wolf Erlbruch, German children's book illustrator and writer
 * July 7 – Alison Wilding, English sculptor and academic
 * September 20 – Adrian Piper, American conceptual artist
 * October 2 – Donna Karan, American fashion designer
 * October 8 – Gottfried Helnwein, Austrian fine artist, photographer, installation and performance artist
 * November 1 – Bill Woodrow, British sculptor
 * November 18 – Ana Mendieta, Cuban American performance artist (d. 1985)
 * December 18 – Mimmo Paladino, Italian sculptor, painter and printmaker
 * December 26 – Lin Onus, Scottish-Aboriginal Koori artist (d. 1996)
 * Full date unknown
 * Jonathan Lasker, American abstract painter
 * Christopher Makos, American photographer
 * Marilyn Minter, American painter and photographer
 * Roberta Smith, American art critic (The New York Times)
 * Andrew Stevovich, Austrian-born American painter

Deaths

 * January 8 – Kurt Schwitters, German painter, collagist and poet (b. 1887)
 * January 21 – Ambrosia Tønnesen, Norwegian sculptor (b. 1859)
 * February 23 – Fidus, German illustrator, painter and publisher (b. 1868)
 * March 23 – Yevgeniy Abalakov, Soviet sculptor and mountaineer (b. 1907)
 * March 24 – Sigrid Hjertén, Swedish modernist painter (b. 1885)
 * July 21 – Arshile Gorky, Armenian American painter (b. 1904)
 * August – Feliu Elias, Spanish caricaturist and painter (b. 1878)
 * September 9 – Ignacy Pieńkowski, Polish painter (b. 1877)
 * September 22 – Felicjan Kowarski, Polish painter and sculptor (b. 1885)
 * October 17 – Royal Cortissoz, American art critic (b. 1869)
 * November 4 – Shinzō Fukuhara, Japanese photographer (b. 1883)
 * December 28 – Hakob Gyurjian, Armenian sculptor (b. 1890)
 * December 30 – George Ault, American Precisionist painter (b. 1891)
 * Date unknown – Hector Hyppolite, Haitian painter (b. 1894)