1955 in art
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- 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.
- January 26 – A trial establishes that the recently "restored" "medieval" frescoes in St. Mary's Church, Lübeck, are in fact newly painted by Lothar Malskat and an associate.[1]
- March – A Photographer's Gallery is established in New York City by Roy DeCarava.
- May 17 – The 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.[2]
- June 27 – Sir Jacob Epstein marries Kathleen Garman.
- October–November – Nikolaus Pevsner delivers this year's series of Reith Lectures on The Englishness of English Art, originally broadcast on BBC radio in the UK.[3]
- December – Iris Clert Gallery opens in the rue des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and its owner, Iris Clert, first meets Yves Klein.
- date unknown
- Marcel Duchamp becomes a citizen of the United States.
- Pablo Picasso finishes painting his Les Femmes d'Alger ("The Women of Algiers") series (inspired by Delacroix), concluding with "Version O" which in 2015 will sell at a world record price for a painting at auction.[4]
- British studio potter Alan Caiger-Smith establishes Aldermaston Pottery in England.
- Enrique Tábara obtains an Ecuadorian government scholarship to study in Spain.
- Andy Warhol begins designing advertisements for New York shoe manufacturer Israel Miller.[5][6][7]
Awards
- Archibald Prize: Ivor Hele – Robert Campbell Esq.
Works
- Michael Andrews – Four People Sunbathing (Arts Council England)
- Pietro Annigoni – Portrait of Elizabeth II
- Balthus
- Girls on the Couch
- Nude Before a Mirror
- John Brack
- Edward Burra – Izzy Orts
- Lucien Clergue – Trio des Saltimbanques (photograph)
- Carroll Cloar – My Father Was Big as a Tree
- Pompeo Coppini – Statue of George Washington (bronze, University of Texas at Austin)
- Salvador Dalí – The Sacrament of the Last Supper (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) (completed)
- Ben Enwonwu – Anyanwu (sculpture)
- 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
- Alberto Giacometti
- Diego (approximate date)
- Grande tête mince
- Oswaldo Guayasamín – El ataúd blanco
- Edward Hopper – South Carolina Morning
- Jasper Johns
- Willem de Kooning
- Composition
- Woman as Landscape
- Woman-Ochre
- Lee Krasner
- Bald Eagle
- Color Totem
- Norman Lewis – Harlem Turns White[8]
- L. S. Lowry (Tate collection)
- René Magritte – The Mysteries of the Horizon
- Georg Mayer-Marton — Crucifixion (mosaic and fresco in Roman Catholic Church of Holy Rosary in Fitton Hill, Oldham, England)[9][10]
- 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)
- Robert Rauschenberg – Bantam
- Norman Rockwell – Marriage License
- Mark Rothko – Violet Center
- Charles Sheeler – The Web
- Hedda Sterne – New York, N.Y., 1955
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.[11]
- 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 15 – Andreas Gursky, German large format photographer
- January 21 – Jeff Koons, American "kitsch" artist
- February 2 – Madi Phala, South African artist (d. 2007)
- March 10 – Mark Landis, American painter and art forger
- March 24 – Beverly K. Effinger, American painter
- April 5 – Akira Toriyama, Japanese manga and video game artist (d. 2024)
- May 20 – Anton Corbijn, Dutch photographer and videographer
- July 29 – Dave Stevens, American illustrator and comics artist (d. 2008)
- August 2 – PHASE 2 (Lonny Wood), American graffiti artist (d. 2019)
- November 15 – Sergey Voychenko, Belarusian artist and designer (d. 2004)
- undated
- Manasie Akpaliapik, Canadian Inuk sculptor
- Mariana Cook, American portrait photographer
- Miroslav Grčev, Macedonian architect and graphic designer
- Jaume Plensa, Catalan sculptor
- Rebecca Salter, English printmaker and multimedia abstract artist, President of the Royal Academy
- Alexander Sokolov, sculptor working in Spain