2003 in art

The year 2003 in art involves various significant events.

Events

 * January 21 – The Spire of Dublin is completed.
 * May 11 – Benvenuto Cellini's Saliera is stolen from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
 * June 15–November 2 – A record number of seven co-curators is involved in the 50th edition of the Venice Biennale, directed by Francesco Bonami.
 * August 27 – Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna of the Yarnwinder is stolen from the Duke of Buccleuch collection at Drumlanrig Castle in Scotland. It is recovered in 2007.
 * November – Gustav Klimt's Landhaus am Attersee sells for $29,128,000.
 * December 25 – Beagle 2 lands on the surface of Mars; its calibration target plate is painted by Damien Hirst.
 * date unknown – Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London takes over the Byam Shaw School of Art.

Exhibitions

 * Jim Sanborn, Critical Assembly, Corcoran School of Art
 * Patti Smith, Strange Messenger, The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh

Awards

 * Archibald Prize – Geoffrey Dyer, a portrait of Richard Flanagan
 * Beck's Futures – Rosalind Nashashibi
 * Schock Prize in Visual Arts – Susan Rothenberg
 * Turner Prize – Grayson Perry
 * The Venice Biennale (June 15 - November 2) -
 * The Lion d'Or Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement: Michelangelo Pistoletto (Italy) and Carol Rama (Italy)
 * The Lion d'or for best artwork in the main exhibition: Fischli and Weiss (Switzerland)
 * The Lion d'Or for Best Pavilion: Sun-Mei Tse (Luxemburg)
 * Wynne Prize – Tim Kyle, Seated Figure

Works

 * Eco-Earth Globe, Salem, Oregon
 * Jake and Dinos Chapman – Insult to Injury
 * Tony Cragg – Stainless Steel Pillar
 * Olafur Eliasson – The weather project (installation in Turbine Hall of Tate Modern, London)
 * David Fairbairn – Self Portrait DF
 * Cornelia Parker – The Distance (A Kiss With String Attached): Subconscious of a Monument (interventionist sculpture)
 * Michal Rovner – Data Zone
 * Jørn Utzon – Homage to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (tapestry in the Sydney Opera House)
 * Kehinde Wiley – Go

Films

 * Girl with a Pearl Earring
 * Mona Lisa Smile
 * Sound of Colors
 * The Floating Landscape
 * Turn Left, Turn Right

January to March

 * 9 January – Constantin Kluge, Russian and French painter (b.1912).
 * 20 January – Al Hirschfeld, American caricaturist (b.1903).
 * 21 January – Tony O'Malley, Irish painter (b.1913).
 * 27 January – Louis Archambault, Canadian sculptor (b.1915).
 * 2 February – Emerson Woelffer, American painter (b.1914).
 * 10 February – Edgar de Evia, Mexican-born American photographer (b.1910).
 * 14 March – Jack Goldstein, Canadian-born American performance and conceptual artist turned painter (b.1945).

April to June

 * 9 April – Jorge Oteiza, Spanish sculptor, painter, designer and writer (b.1908).
 * 16 April – Graham Stuart Thomas, English horticultural artist, author and garden designer (b.1909).
 * 23 April – Fernand Fonssagrives, French photographer (b.1910).
 * 25 April – Lynn Chadwick, 88, English sculptor
 * 29 May – Pierre Restany, French art critic and cultural philosopher (b.1930).
 * 7 June – Georges Pichard, French comics artist (b.1920).

July to September

 * 11 July - Dorothy Miller, 99, American curator (b.1904).
 * 15 August – Kirk Varnedoe, American art historian, writer and curator (b.1946).
 * 21 August – Wesley Willis, American artist and musician (b.1963).
 * 29 August – Vladimír Vašíček, Czech painter (b.1919).
 * 1 September – Terry Frost, English artist noted for his abstracts (b.1915).

October to December

 * 3 October – William Steig, American cartoonist, sculptor and author (b.1907).
 * 16 October – Avni Arbaş, Turkish artist (b.1919).
 * 9 November – Mario Merz, Italian artist (b.1925).
 * 4 December – David Vaughan, English psychedelic artist and muralist (b. 1944).
 * 15 December – George Fisher, American political cartoonist (b.1923).
 * 17 December – Wally Hedrick, American artist (b.1928).