1955 in art

Events from the year 1955 in art.

Events

 * January 21 – O. Winston Link starts a 5-year personal project to document steam operations on the Norfolk and Western Railway in the United States using flash photography.
 * January 26 – A trial establishes that the recently "restored" "medieval" frescoes in St. Mary's Church, Lübeck, are in fact newly painted by Lothar Malskat and an associate.
 * March – A Photographer's Gallery is established in New York City by Roy DeCarava.
 * May 17 – The Clark Art Institute opens to the public in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
 * June 1 – Première of Billy Wilder's film of The Seven Year Itch featuring an iconic scene of Marilyn Monroe standing on a New York City Subway grating as her white dress (created by Travilla) is blown above her knees.
 * June 27 – Sir Jacob Epstein marries Kathleen Garman.
 * October–November – Nikolaus Pevsner delivers this year's series of Reith Lectures on The Englishness of English Art, originally broadcast on BBC radio in the UK.
 * December – Iris Clert Gallery opens in the rue des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and its owner, Iris Clert, first meets Yves Klein.
 * date unknown
 * Marcel Duchamp becomes a citizen of the United States.
 * Pablo Picasso finishes painting his Les Femmes d'Alger ("The Women of Algiers") series (inspired by Delacroix), concluding with "Version O" which in 2015 will sell at a world record price for a painting at auction.
 * British studio potter Alan Caiger-Smith establishes Aldermaston Pottery in England.
 * Enrique Tábara obtains an Ecuadorian government scholarship to study in Spain.

Awards

 * Archibald Prize: Ivor Hele – Robert Campbell Esq.

Works

 * Michael Andrews – Four People Sunbathing (Arts Council England)
 * Pietro Annigoni – Portrait of Elizabeth II
 * Balthus
 * Girls on the Couch
 * Nude Before a Mirror
 * John Brack
 * Collins St., 5 pm
 * The Car
 * Edward Burra – Izzy Orts
 * Lucien Clergue – Trio des Saltimbanques (photograph)
 * Carroll Cloar – My Father Was Big as a Tree
 * Pompeo Coppini – Statue of George Washington (bronze, University of Texas at Austin)
 * Salvador Dalí – The Sacrament of the Last Supper (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) (completed)
 * Ben Enwonwu – Anyanwu (sculpture)
 * Sir Jacob Epstein – Christ in Majesty (sculpture for Llandaff Cathedral)
 * M. C. Escher – lithographs
 * Compass Rose (Order and Chaos II)
 * Convex and Concave
 * Three Worlds
 * Alberto Giacometti
 * Diego (approximate date)
 * Grande tête mince
 * Oswaldo Guayasamín – El ataúd blanco
 * Edward Hopper – South Carolina Morning
 * Jasper Johns
 * Flag
 * White Flag
 * Willem de Kooning
 * Composition
 * Woman as Landscape
 * Woman-Ochre
 * Lee Krasner
 * Bald Eagle
 * Color Totem
 * L. S. Lowry (Tate collection)
 * Industrial Landscape
 * A Young Man
 * René Magritte – The Mysteries of the Horizon
 * Georg Mayer-Marton — Crucifixion (mosaic and fresco in Roman Catholic Church of Holy Rosary in Fitton Hill, Oldham, England)
 * Henry Moore
 * Upright Motive No. 1: Glenkiln Cross
 * Wall Relief no. 1 (carved brick, Bouwcentrum, Rotterdam)
 * Sidney Nolan – Ned Kelly
 * Pablo Picasso – Don Quixote (sketch for Les Lettres Françaises, August)
 * Robert Rauschenberg – Bantam
 * Norman Rockwell – Marriage License
 * Mark Rothko – Violet Center
 * Charles Sheeler – The Web
 * Hedda Sterne – New York, N.Y., 1955

Exhibitions

 * January – The Family of Man, a photography exhibition curated by Edward Steichen, opens at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
 * October – First public exhibition of Yves Klein's monochrome oil paintings, at Club des Solitaires, Paris.
 * November 3–December 18 – Stanley Spencer: a Retrospective Exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London.
 * Le Mouvement at Galerie Denise René, Paris, popularizing kinetic art.
 * Exhibition by London members of Groupe Espace, organized by Paule Vézelay at the Royal Festival Hall.

Births

 * January 15 – Andreas Gursky, German large format photographer
 * January 21 – Jeff Koons, American "kitsch" artist
 * February 2 – Madi Phala, South African artist (d. 2007)
 * March 10 – Mark Landis, American painter and art forger
 * March 24 – Beverly K. Effinger, American painter
 * April 5 – Akira Toriyama, Japanese manga and video game artist (d. 2024)
 * May 20 – Anton Corbijn, Dutch photographer and videographer
 * July 29 – Dave Stevens, American illustrator and comics artist (d. 2008)
 * August 2 – PHASE 2 (Lonny Wood), American graffiti artist (d. 2019)
 * November 15 – Sergey Voychenko, Belarusian artist and designer (d. 2004)
 * undated
 * Manasie Akpaliapik, Canadian Inuit sculptor
 * Mariana Cook, American portrait photographer
 * Miroslav Grčev, Macedonian architect and graphic designer
 * Jaume Plensa, Catalan sculptor
 * Rebecca Salter, English printmaker and multimedia abstract artist, President of the Royal Academy
 * Alexander Sokolov, sculptor working in Spain

Deaths

 * January 1 – Maria Bal, Polish model (b. 1879)
 * January 7 – Lamorna Birch, English painter (b. 1869)
 * February 11 – Olga Khokhlova, Russian-born ballet dancer and estranged wife of Picasso (b. 1891)
 * March 9 – Nels N. Alling, Danish-American sculptor (b. 1861)
 * March 13 – Evie Hone, Irish painter and stained glass artist (b. 1894)
 * March 16 – Nicolas de Staël, Russian-born French impasto painter (b. 1914)
 * May 3 – Rudolf Schlichter, German painter (b. 1890)
 * May 10 – John Radecki, Polish-born Australian stained glass artist (b. 1865)
 * May 11 – Bradley Walker Tomlin, American painter (b. 1899)
 * May 23 – Auguste Chabaud, French painter (b. 1882)
 * June 1 – Antonio Dattilo Rubbo, Italian-born Australian painter and art teacher (b. 1870)
 * June 29 – Max Pechstein, German Expressionist artist (b. 1881)
 * August 17 – Fernand Léger, French artist (b. 1881)
 * September 19 – Carl Milles, Swedish sculptor (b. 1875)
 * September 27 – Leslie Garland Bolling, African American sculptor (b. 1898)
 * November 5 – Maurice Utrillo, French painter (b. 1883)
 * November 29 – Rene Paul Chambellan, American sculptor (b. 1893)
 * December 17 – Dorothea Sharp, English painter (b. 1874)
 * December 19 – Alexander Lubimov, Russian artist (b. 1879)
 * December 28 – Olive Edis, English photographer (b. 1876)