1974 in art

Events from the year 1974 in art.

Events

 * 26 April – Nineteen Old Master paintings from the Beit collection are stolen from Russborough House in Ireland by a Provisional Irish Republican Army gang including English heiress Rose Dugdale.
 * Roy Strong becomes Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
 * Hallwalls, a non profit exhibition space and arts organization, is established in a converted ice packing warehouse in Buffalo, New York, by the artists Charles Clough, Robert Longo, Diane Bertolo, Nancy Dwyer, Larry Lundy, Cindy Sherman and Michael Zwack.

Awards

 * Archibald Prize: Sam Fullbrook – Jockey Norman Stephens
 * John Moores Painting Prize - Myles Murphy - "Figure with Yellow Foreground"

Works

 * Bruce Beasley – Big Red (sculpture, Eugene, Oregon)
 * Salvador Dalí – Nieuw Amsterdam (object/sculpture)
 * Judy Dater – Imogen and Twinka at Yosemite (photograph)
 * Audrey Flack - Leonardo's Lady (photorealist painting)
 * Silvio Gazzaniga – FIFA World Cup Trophy
 * David Hockney – Contre-jour in the French style – Against the Day dans le style français
 * Nabil Kanso – Vietnam
 * Bernard Kirschenbaum – Twist for Max (sculpture)
 * Joan Miró
 * Hands flying off toward the constellations
 * The hope of a condemned Man (series)
 * Odd Nerdrum – Liberation
 * Enzo Plazzotta – Crucifixion
 * Tony Rosenthal – 5 in 1 (steel sculpture, New York City)
 * Ruskin Spear – Harold Wilson
 * Graham Sutherland – Lord Goodman
 * David Wynne – Boy With a Dolphin (bronze, Cheyne Walk, London)
 * Meet the Residents (album cover)

Films

 * A Bigger Splash

Births

 * 15 May – Kadir Nelson, African American illustrator.
 * 31 May – Adrian Tomine, American cartoonist.
 * 16 June – Paul Lee, English artist.
 * 1 September – Jhonen Vasquez, American comic book artist, cartoonist and writer.
 * 8 November – Masashi Kishimoto, Japanese mangaka.
 * 13 November – Kerim Seiler, Swiss artist and architect.
 * 7 December – Kang Full, South Korean webcomic artist.

Full date unknown

 * Banksy, English graffiti artist.
 * Bogna Burska, Polish playwright and visual artist.
 * Amelie Chabannes, French painter and sculptor.
 * Luke Jerram, British installation artist.
 * Fabrice Lachant, French photographer.
 * OSGEMEOS (Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo), Brazilian twin graffiti artists.
 * Dulce Pinzon, Mexican-born visual artist.
 * Bojan Šarčević, Bosnian-French visual artist.
 * Bedwyr Williams, Welsh installation and performance artist.

January to June

 * 19 January – Edward Seago, English painter (b. 1910).
 * 30 January – Robert Darwin, English painter and Rector of the Royal College of Art (b. 1910)
 * 15 February – Petar Lubarda, Serbian painter (b. 1907).
 * 4 March – Adolph Gottlieb, American abstract expressionist painter and sculptor (b. 1903).
 * 9 March – Daniel O'Neill, Irish painter (b. 1920).
 * 5 April – A. Y. Jackson, Canadian painter (b. 1882).
 * 31 May – Juan Bautista Garcia, Puerto Rican painter (b. 1904).
 * 7 June
 * Émilie Charmy, French artist (b. 1878)
 * Milton Menasco, American painter and art director (b. 1890).
 * 22 June – Alain Saint-Ogan, French comics author and artist (b. 1895).
 * 30 June – Frank McKelvey, Irish painter (b. 1895).

July to December

 * 9 July – Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, French writer and artist (b. 1884).
 * 8 August – Charles Wheeler, English sculptor (b. 1892).
 * 11 August – Jan Tschichold, German typographer, book designer, teacher and writer (b. 1902).
 * August – André Edouard Marty, French artist (b. 1882).
 * 8 September – James Swinnerton, American cartoonist and artist (b. 1875).
 * 17 September – André Dunoyer de Segonzac, French painter and graphic artist (b. 1884).
 * 28 October – David Jones, English poet and painter (b. 1895).
 * 1 November – František Muzika, Czech avant-garde painter (b. 1900).
 * 20 December – Risto Stijović, Serbian sculptor (b. 1894).
 * 21 December – James Henry Govier, English painter (b. 1910).
 * 25 December – Harry Kernoff, Irish painter (b. 1900).