1954 in art

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
 * 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
 * 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)
 * 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)