1939 in art

Events

• May - Release of Detective Comics #27, the debut of Batman.
• December 14 - A 'Scheme for recording changing aspects of Britain' which will employ British watercolour painters during World War II is put forward by Sir Kenneth Clark for support by the Pilgrim Trust.^[1]
• Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth settle near St Ives, Cornwall, effectively establishing the St Ives School of abstract avant-garde artists. Henry Moore subsequently takes over Hepworth's London studio.
• Picasso retrospective curated by Alfred H. Barr, Jr. and staged jointly by the Museum of Modern Art (New York) and the Art Institute of Chicago opens.
• Exhibition "Contemporary Unknown American Painters" at the Museum of Modern Art (New York) introduces Grandma Moses to the public.
• First of the Madeline books, illustrated by Ludwig Bemelmans.
• Harvey Fite begins work on his environmental sculpture Opus 40 at Saugerties, New York.

Awards

• Archibald Prize: Max Meldrum - The Hon G J Bell, Speaker of the House of Representatives

Works

Dalí - Shirley Temple, The Youngest, Most Sacred Monster of the Cinema in Her Time

• Alexander Calder - Lobster Trap and Fish Tail (mobile)
• Salvador Dalí - Shirley Temple, The Youngest, Most Sacred Monster of the Cinema in Her Time
• Paul Delvaux - The Phases of the Moon I
• Aaron Douglas - Power Plant, Harlem
• James Earle Fraser - Equestrian Statue of Theodore Roosevelt
• Leo Friedlander - Pioneer Woman (sculpture)
• Julio González - Monsieur Cactus
• Frida Kahlo - The Suicide of Dorothy Hale
• Fernand Léger - Adam and Eve
• Marino Marini - The Pilgrim (bronze)
• Joan Miró - Constellations (series begun)
• Xu Beihong - Put Down Your Whip

Births

• February 16 - David Griffiths, portrait painter
• March 17 - Jim Gary, American sculptor (d.2006)
• March 24 - Gérard Coste, painter and diplomat
• April 1 - Spider Martin, photographer (d.2003)
• April 8 - Trina Schart Hyman, American illustrator of children's books (d.2004)
• April 25 - Patrick Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield, English photographer (d.2005).
• November 2 - Richard Serra, sculptor.
• December 23 - Nancy Graves, American sculptor, painter and printmaker (d.1996).

Deaths

• April 11 - S. S. Van Dine, art critic (b. 1888)
• June 3 - Sir Philip Sassoon, art collector (b. 1888)
• June 23 - Mark Gertler, painter (b. 1891)
• July 21 - Ambroise Vollard, art dealer (b. 1866)
• August 14 - Isaak Brodsky, socialist realist painter (b. 1884)
• August 24 - Frederick Carl Frieseke, American Impressionist painter (b. 1874)
• August 29 - Jessica Dismorr, Vorticist painter (b. 1885) (suicide)
• September 6 - Arthur Rackham, illustrator (b. 1867)
• September 18 - Gwen John (b. 1876), painter, sister of Augustus John
• December 1 - Jorma Gallen-Kallela, painter (b. 1898)
• December 3 - Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, member of the British Royal Family and sculptor (b. 1848)
• December 14 - Helene Kröller-Müller, art collector (b. 1869)
• December 18 - Ernest Lawson, Canadian-American painter, member of The Eight (b. 1873)
• December 25 - Margrethe Mather, photographer and painter (b. 1886)
• December 27 - Rinaldo Cuneo, American painter (b. 1877)
• date unknown - Jane Mary Dealy, painter and illustrator (1856)

See also

• 1939 in fine arts of the Soviet Union

References