1955 in art

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Events

• January 21 - O. Winston Link starts a 5-year personal project to document steam operations on the Norfolk and Western Railway in the United States using flash photography.
• March - A Photographer's Gallery established in New York City by Roy DeCarava.

• May 17 - Clark Art Institute opens to the public in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
• June 1 - Première of Billy Wilder's film of The Seven Year Itch featuring an iconic scene of Marilyn Monroe standing on a New York City Subway grating as her white dress (created by Travilla) is blown above her knees.^[1]
• June 27 - Sir Jacob Epstein marries Kathleen Garman.
• Iris Clert Gallery opens in the rue des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and its owner, Iris Clert, first meets Yves Klein (December).
• Enrique Tabara obtains an Ecuadorian government scholarship to study in Spain.

Awards

• Archibald Prize: Ivor Hele - Robert Campbell Esq.

Works

Dalí - The Sacrament of the Last Supper

• Michael Andrews - Four People Sunbathing (Arts Council England)
• Balthus
  • Girls on the Couch
  • Nude Before a Mirror
• John Brack - Collins St., 5 pm
• Edward Burra - Izzy Orts
• Carroll Cloar - My Father Was Big as a Tree
• Salvador Dalí - The Sacrament of the Last Supper (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.)
• Sir Jacob Epstein - Christ in Majesty (sculpture for Llandaff Cathedral)
• M. C. Escher - lithographs: Compass Rose (Order and Chaos II); Convex and Concave; Three Worlds

Johns - Flag

• Alberto Giacometti
  • Diego (approximate date)
  • Grande tête mince
• Oswaldo Guayasamín - El ataúd blanco
• Edward Hopper - South Carolina Morning
• Jasper Johns - Flag
• Willem de Kooning - Composition
• Lee Krasner - Color Totem
• L. S. Lowry - Industrial Landscape; A Young Man (both Tate)
• René Magritte - The Mysteries of the Horizon
• Henry Moore
  • Upright Motive No. 1: Glenkiln Cross
  • Wall Relief no. 1 (carved brick, Bouwcentrum, Rotterdam)
• Sidney Nolan - Ned Kelly
• Pablo Picasso - Don Quixote (sketch for Les Lettres Françaises, August)

Exhibitions

• January - The Family of Man, a photography exhibition curated by Edward Steichen, opens at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
• October - First public exhibition of Yves Klein's monochrome oil paintings, at Club des Solitaires, Paris.
• November 3–December 18 - Stanley Spencer: a Retrospective Exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London.^[2]
• Le Mouvement at Galerie Denise René, Paris, popularizing kinetic art.
• Exhibition by London members of Groupe Espace, organized by Paule Vézelay at the Royal Festival Hall.

Births

• January 21 - Jeff Koons, American "kitsch" artist
• February 2 - Madi Phala, South African artist (d. 2007)
• March 24 - Beverly K. Effinger, American painter
• July 29 - Dave Stevens, American illustrator and comics artist (d. 2008)
• November 15 - Sergey Voychenko, Belarusian artist and designer (d. 2004)
• undated
  • Jaume Plensa, Catalan sculptor
  • Alexander Sokolov, sculptor

Deaths

• January 7 - Alexander Sokolov, English painter (b. 1869)
• March 16 - Nicolas de Staël, Russian-born French impasto painter (b. 1914)
• May 3 - Rudolf Schlichter, German painter (b. 1890)
• May 11 - Bradley Walker Tomlin, American painter (b. 1899)
• June 1 - Antonio Dattilo Rubbo, Italian-born Australian painter and art teacher (b. 1870)
• June 29 - Max Pechstein, German Expressionist artist (b. 1881)
• August 17 - Fernand Léger, French artist (b. 1881)
• September 19 - Carl Milles, Swedish sculptor (b. 1875)
• November 5 - Maurice Utrillo, French painter (b. 1883)
• November 29 - Rene Paul Chambellan, American sculptor (b. 1893)
• December 19 - Alexander Lubimov, Russian artist (b. 1879)

See also

• 1955 in fine arts of the Soviet Union

References