1991 in art

Events from the year 1991 in art.

Events

 * 14 April – In the Netherlands, thieves steal 20 paintings worth $500 million from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Less than an hour later they are found in an abandoned car near the museum.
 * 25 May – Opening of the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin.
 * 9 July – The Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London, designed by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott, is opened.
 * September – Opening of the Weserburg modern art museum in Bremen (Germany) as the Neues Museum Weserburg Bremen.

Publications

 * The Prince of Wales (now Charles III) - Watercolours.
 * Eric Hebborn, Drawn to Trouble

Exhibitions

 * February 6 until May 6 - Albert Bierstadt, Art & Enterprise at the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York.
 * December 13 until February 2, 1992 - Damien Hirst solo exhibition at Institute of Contemporary Arts.

Dance

 * May – First performance of Candoco Dance Company

Awards

 * John Moores Painting Prize - Andrzej Jackowski for "The Beekeeper's son"
 * Turner Prize – Anish Kapoor

Works

 * Las niñas en la alborada – Félix Aráuz
 * "The Umbrellas" (simultaneous sculptural instillations in California, U.S.A and Japan) - Christo and Jeanne Claude
 * Chain Reaction (sculpture, Santa Monica, California) – Paul Conrad
 * Field (multiple figure sculptures in terracotta - first version) – Antony Gormley
 * Isolated Elements Swimming in the Same Direction for the Purposes of Understanding – Damien Hirst
 * The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living – Damien Hirst
 * Capitalism (sculpture in Portland, Oregon) – Larry Kirkland
 * Guardians of the Gate (bronze, San Francisco) – Miles Metzger
 * Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (installation) – Cornelia Parker
 * Tompkins Square Crawl (performance) - William Pope.L
 * Self (sculpted self-portrait head in artist's blood - first version) – Marc Quinn
 * Host Analog (sculpture, Portland, Oregon) – Buster Simpson
 * Cascade Charley (fountain, Eugene, Oregon) – Alice Wingwall

Births

 * Hannah Levy, American sculptor
 * Probable date – Cartяain, English graffiti urban artist.

January to June

 * 3 January – Doris Zinkeisen, British theatrical designer and commercial artist (b. 1898).
 * 11 January – Charles Mozley, British artist and art teacher (b. 1914)
 * 7 February – Jean-Paul Mousseau, Canadian artist (b. 1927).
 * 13 February – Arno Breker, German sculptor (b. 1900).
 * 15 March – Vladimir Seleznev, Russian painter (b. 1928).
 * 29 March – Guy Bourdin, French photographer (b. 1928).
 * 10 June – Jean Bruller, French writer and illustrator (b. 1902).

July to December

 * 16 July – Robert Motherwell, American abstract expressionist painter and printmaker (b. 1915).
 * 3 August – Boris Ugarov, Russian painter, a last President of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (b. 1922).
 * 30 August – Jean Tinguely, Swiss painter and sculptor (b. 1925).
 * 5 September
 * Alexander Pushnin, Russian painter and art educator (b. 1921).
 * Princess Fahrelnissa Zeid, Turkish abstract artist (b. 1901).
 * 14 September – Russell Lynes, American art historian, photographer and author (b. 1910).
 * 18 September - Leland Bell, American painter (b. 1922).
 * 24 September – Dr. Seuss, American illustrator (b. 1904).
 * 8 October – David Budd, American abstract painter (b. 1927)
 * 27 October – Pyke Koch, Dutch painter (b. 1901).
 * 7 November – Tom of Finland, Finnish fetish artist (b. 1920).
 * 11 November – Nadezhda Shteinmiller, Russian painter and theater artist (b. 1915).
 * 18 November – Reg Parlett, English comics artist (b. 1904).
 * 21 November – Joseph Delaney, American painter (b. 1904).
 * 8 December - Bernice Abbott, American photographer (b. 1898).
 * 9 December – Gisèle Lestrange, French graphic artist (b. 1927).
 * 10 December – Greta Kempton, Austrian-American artist (b. 1901).
 * 12 December - Moshe Castel, Israeli painter (b. 1909).