1968 in art

Events from the year 1968 in art.

Events

 * March 5 – Musical chess match between Marcel Duchamp and John Cage takes place at Ryerson Polytechnic, Toronto.
 * May 2 – Christ Church Picture Gallery in Oxford, England, designed by Powell and Moya, is opened.
 * June 3 – Radical feminist Valerie Solanas shoots Andy Warhol at his New York City studio, The Factory; he survives after a 5-hour operation.
 * July 17 – Release of the animated musical fantasy film Yellow Submarine in the United Kingdom, directed by George Dunning with art direction by Heinz Edelmann.
 * August 20 – The National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, designed by Sir Roy Grounds, is opened.
 * September 15 – The Neue Nationalgalerie in West Berlin, Germany, designed by Mies van der Rohe, is opened.
 * November 7 – New building for the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) in Brazil, designed by Lina Bo Bardi, is inaugurated.
 * Rubens' The Adoration of the Magi (1634) is installed as an altarpiece at King's College Chapel, Cambridge.

Awards

 * Archibald Prize: William Edwin Pidgeon – Lloyd Rees
 * Elaine Hamilton wins first prize at the Biennale de Menton, France

Exhibitions

 * Eva Hesse – Chain Polymers, Fischbach Gallery, W. 57th Street, New York City
 * Ralph Hotere – Black Paintings, Auckland, New Zealand

Works

 * William Anders – Earthrise (photograph)
 * Edward Bawden – Tottenham Hale and Highbury & Islington tile motifs on London Underground's Victoria line
 * Julia Black – Walthamstow Central tile motif on London Underground's Victoria line
 * Alexander Calder – Gwenfritz (stabile)
 * Donald De Lue – The Special Warfare Memorial Statue
 * Paul Delvaux – The Sacrifice of Iphigenia
 * Mark di Suvero – Snowplow (sculpture)
 * Joseph Drapell – Life (sculpture, Halifax, Nova Scotia)
 * Tom Eckersley – Finsbury Park, King's Cross St Pancras and Euston tile motifs on London Underground's Victoria line
 * M. C. Escher – Metamorphosis III (colored woodcut print)
 * Alan Fletcher – Warren Street tile motif on London Underground's Victoria line
 * Ángela Gurría - Señal in Mexico City, Mexico created for the occasion of the 1968 Summer Olympics
 * Barbara Hepworth – Two Figures (sculpture), Three Obliques (Walk In) (sculpture)
 * David Hockney
 * Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy 
 * Marilyn Tapestry
 * Dani Karavan – Monument to the Negev Brigade on hill overlooking Beersheba, Israel (completed)
 * Eduardo Kingman – Fin de Mascarada
 * Joan Miró – begins series The navigator's hope
 * Henry Moore – Three-Piece No. 3: Vertebrae (Working Model)
 * Robert Motherwell – Open #23 (loaned by Graham Gund to Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
 * Otto Muehl, Günter Brus and other followers of Viennese Actionism – Kunst und Revolution (performance art)
 * Isamu Noguchi – Octetra (concrete sculpture)
 * Gerhard Richter – Domplatz, Mailand ("Cathedral Square, Milan")
 * Monica Sjöö – God Giving Birth
 * Kenneth Snelson – Needle Tower
 * Hans Unger – Blackhorse Road and Seven Sisters tile motifs on London Underground's Victoria line
 * David Wynne – River God Tyne and Swans in Flight (sculptures, Newcastle Civic Centre)
 * Pangborn-Herndon Memorial Site (memorial column)

Births

 * May 21 – Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Swiss-born curator
 * June 3 – Eric White, American visual artist
 * July 6 – Gaspare Manos, Thai-Italian painter and sculptor
 * July 11 – Patrik Andiné, Swedish painter
 * July 23 – Paulo Henrique, Portuguese choreographer and multidisciplinary artist
 * August 16 – Wolfgang Tillmans, German fine-art photographer
 * September 17 – David Shrigley, British visual artist
 * December 13 – Michael Triegel, German painter
 * December 23 – Manuel Rivera-Ortiz, Puerto Rican documentary photographer
 * date unknown
 * Sika Foyer, Togolese American artist
 * Nahem Shoa, British portrait painter

Deaths

 * February 11 – Jacob Steinhardt, German-born Jewish painter and woodcut artist (born 1887)
 * April 26 – John Heartfield, German graphic designer (born 1891)
 * May 9 – Harold Gray, American cartoonist, created Little Orphan Annie (born 1894)
 * May 21 – Bror Hjorth, Swedish sculptor (born 1894)
 * May 28 – Kees van Dongen, Dutch Fauvist painter (born 1877)
 * June 17 – Cassandre, French graphic designer (born 1901)
 * July 2 – Sir Hans Heysen, German-born Australian watercolour painter (born 1877)
 * July 16 – William John Leech, Irish painter (born 1881)
 * August 8 – Orovida Pissarro, English painter and etcher (born 1893)
 * October 2 – Marcel Duchamp, influential French artist (born 1887)
 * November – Lee Gatch, American painter and mixed-media artist (born 1902)
 * November 2 – Estella Solomons, Irish painter (born 1882)
 * November 4 – Michel Kikoine, Litvak-born French painter (born 1892)
 * November 11 – Janet Sobel, Ukrainian American Abstract Expressionist pioneer of drip painting (born 1893)
 * date unknown – William Conor, Irish painter (born 1881)