1981 in art

Events from the year 1981 in art.

Events

 * 10 September – Picasso's painting Guernica is returned from New York to Madrid.
 * Blek le Rat begins his stencil graffiti art in Paris.

Awards

 * Archibald Prize: Eric Smith – Rudy Komon

Exhibitions

 * 9 June – Black Art an'done opens at Wolverhampton Art Gallery in England.

Works

 * Tony Cragg – Britain as Seen from the North
 * John Doubleday – Statue of Charlie Chaplin (Leicester Square, London)
 * Don Eckland – Emergence (bronze, Eugene, Oregon)
 * Bryan Hunt – Arch Falls (bronze, Houston, Texas)
 * Nabil Kanso – Dreamvision series of paintings completed
 * Ellsworth Kelly – Curve XXIV (sculpture, Seattle)
 * Carlo Maria Mariani – The Constellation of Leo
 * Ana Mendieta Maroya (Esculturas Rupestres) (executed in caves in Cuba)
 * Odd Nerdrum – Twilight
 * Helmut Newton – Sie kommen! ("They're coming!", photographic diptych; published in French Vogue, November)
 * Richard Serra – Tilted Arc, Federal Plaza, New York City (dismantled 1989)
 * Andy Warhol – Myths series
 * Aubrey Williams – Shostakovich series of paintings completed

Births

 * 15 April – Seth Wulsin, American artist.
 * 19 April – Saskia de Brauw, Dutch model and artist
 * 4 November – Paul Tucker, Canadian visual artist and graphic novel and webcomic illustrator.
 * 20 November – Scott Hutchison, Scottish singer, songwriter, guitarist, and visual artist (d. 2018)

Deaths

 * 19 January – Francesca Woodman, 22, American photographer
 * 4 April - Isaac Frenkel Frenel, Israeli French painter and sculptor (b. 1899)
 * 8 May – Grethe Jürgens, German painter (b. 1899)
 * 25 May – Armando de Armas Romero, Cuban painter (b. 1914)
 * 28 May – Jean Paul Slusser, painter, designer, art critic, professor, and director of the University of Michigan Museum of Art (b. 1886)
 * 16 June – Hans Coper, German-born English studio potter (b. 1920)
 * 19 June – Lotte Reiniger, German silhouette animator and film director (b.1899)
 * 29 June – Russell Drysdale, Australian artist (b. 1912)
 * 8 July – Isaac Soyer, Russian-born American painter, (b. 1902)
 * 16 July – John E. Berninger, American landscape painter (b. 1896)
 * 7 September – Christy Brown, Irish author, painter and poet (b. 1932)
 * 12 October – Enzo Plazzotta, Italian-born British sculptor (b. 1921)
 * 13 October – Antonio Berni, Argentine painter (b. 1905)
 * 20 October – Annot, German painter (b. 1894).
 * 23 October – Reg Butler, English sculptor (b. 1913)
 * 17 November – Nano Reid, Irish painter (b. 1905)
 * 22 November – Corrado Parducci, Italian-American architectural sculptor (b. 1900)
 * 5 December - Max Spivak - 74, American muralist (b. 1901)
 * 28 December – Bram van Velde, Dutch painter (b. 1895)

Full date unknown

 * Hubert Davis, American artist (b.1902).
 * Art Frahm, American pin-up and advertising artist (b.1907).
 * Pinchus Kremegne, Belarusian sculptor, painter and lithographer (b.1890).