1931 in art

Events from the year 1931 in art.

Events

• February 15 – Abstraction-Création group formed in Paris by Theo van Doesburg to promote non-figurative, non-surrealist art. Other founder members include Auguste Herbin, Jean Hélion and Georges Vantongerloo. ^[1]
• October 4 – Debut appearance of the Dick Tracy comic strip, created by cartoonist Chester Gould.
• The Whitney Museum of American Art is founded by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in its original building in Greenwich Village, New York City.
• The Pierre Matisse Gallery opens in New York City.
• Collector Kay Kimbell of Fort Worth, Texas, purchases his first painting, origin of the Kimbell Art Museum.
• Henry Moore holds his first solo exhibition of sculptures, at The Leicester Galleries in London.

Works

See also: Category:1931 sculptures and Category:1931 paintings

• Max Beckmann – Paris Society
• Thomas Hart Benton – America Today
• Heitor da Silva Costa and Paul Landowski – Christ the Redeemer (statue, Rio de Janeiro)
• Salvador Dalí – The Persistence of Memory
• Robert William Davidson – Eve (sculpture)
• Charles Demuth – Chimney and Watertower
• Antonio Donghi – Woman at the Café
• Frida Kahlo – Frieda and Diego Rivera
• Helmut Kolle – Self-Portrait in White Tie
• Tamara de Lempicka – Adam and Eve
• René Magritte – The Voice of Space
• Carl Milles – Flygarmonumentet (Stockholm)
• Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen – The Herd Boy playing a Wooden Flute (monument to the sculptor's husband, the composer Carl Nielsen (d. 1931), at his birthplace, Nørre Lyndelse)
• Georgia O'Keeffe – Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
• Pablo Picasso – Figures by the Sea
• Diego Rivera - The Rivals ^[2]
• Lorado Taft – The Crusader (sculpture)
• Carel Willink – Late Visitors to Pompeii
• Grant Wood
  • The Birthplace of Herbert Hoover
  • Fall Plowing
  • The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

Awards

• Archibald Prize: John Longstaff – Sir John Sulman

Births

• January 1 – Stephanie Scuris, Greek-born American artist and sculptor
• January 10 – Massimo Vignelli, Italian designer (d. 2014)
• January 18 – Jay Maisel, photographer
• January 21 – Paul Deliège, Belgian comic strip artist and writer (d. 2005)
• January 30 – Linda Nochlin, née Weinberg, American feminist art historian (d. 2017)
• February 7 – Serge Danot, French animator (d. 1990)
• February 9 – Robert Morris, American sculptor (d. 2018)
• February 16 – Irina Dobrekova, Russian painter
• February 17 – Fay Godwin, German-born English landscape photographer (d. 2005)
• February 18 – Johnny Hart, American cartoonist (d. 2007)
• February 21 – Derek Hyatt, English abstract landscape painter (d. 2015)
• February 23 – Tom Wesselmann, American pop artist (d. 2004)
• February 26
  • Radomir Stević Ras, Serbian painter and designer (d. 1982).
  • Jacques Rouxel, French animator (d. 2004)
• March 4 – Gwilym Prichard, Welsh landscape painter (d. 2015)
• March 13 – Michael Podro, English art historian (d. 2008)
• March 25 – Jack Chambers, Canadian artist and filmmaker (d. 1978)
• April 24 – Bridget Riley, English op art painter
• April 25 – David Shepherd, English wildlife, railway and military painter and conservationist (d. 2017)
• April 26 – Vera Nazina, Russian painter
• April 29 – Frank Auerbach, German-born British painter (d. 2024)
• May 10 – Olja Ivanjicki, Serbian painter (d. 2009)
• June 7 – Malcolm Morley, English-American photographer and painter
• July 8 – Leo Dee, American silverpoint artist (d. 2004)
• July 15 – Brian Sewell, English art critic (d. 2015)
• July 20 – Sheila Fell, English painter (d. 1979)
• July 25 – Carlo Maria Mariani, Italian painter (d. 2021)
• July 28 – Hans Schröder, German sculptor and painter (d. 2010)
• August 15 – Rose Hilton, English painter (d. 2019) ^[3]
• August 20 – Bernd Becher, German photographer (d. 2007)
• August 24 – Bartolomeu Cid dos Santos, Portuguese artist and professor (d. 2008)
• September 24 – Elizabeth Blackadder, Scottish painter (d. 2021) ^[4]
• October 9 – Stuart Devlin, Australian-born gold/silversmith (d. 2018)
• November 7 – Enno Hallek, Estonian-born Swedish artist (d. 2025)
• November 28 – Tomi Ungerer, French artist and writer (d. 2019) ^[5]
• date unknown
  • Barrie Cooke, British-born abstract expressionist painter (d. 2014)

Deaths

• January 7
  • Giuseppe Barison, Italian painter (b. 1853)
  • Joseph Bernard, French sculptor (b. 1866)
• February 3 – Jefferson David Chalfant, American painter (b. 1856)
• February 11 – Bela Čikoš Sesija, Croatian Symbolist painter (b. 1864)
• March 7
  • Theo van Doesburg, Dutch painter and architect, leader of De Stijl (b. 1883)
  • Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Finnish painter (b. 1865)
• March 12 – Frida Hansen, Norwegian textile artist (b. 1855)
• March 14 – Alfred Grenander, Swedish-born architect (b. 1863)
• March 24 – Derwent Lees, Australian figure and landscape painter (b. 1884)
• April 6 – William Lionel Wyllie, English marine painter (b. 1851)
• May 1 – Thomas Cooper Gotch, English painter (b. 1854)
• May 31 – Willy Stöwer, German marine painter and illustrator (b. 1864)
• July 11
  • Giovanni Boldini, Italian painter (b. 1842)
  • Jean-Louis Forain, French Impressionist painter (b. 1852)
• September 14 – Tom Roberts, Australian painter (b. 1856)
• September 20 – Max Littmann, German architect (b. 1862)
• September 29 – Sir William Orpen, Irish portrait painter (b. 1878)
• October 7
  • Charles Ricketts, English designer (b. 1866)
  • Daniel Chester French, American sculptor (b. 1850)
• October 10 – Sir Bertram Mackennal, Australian-born sculptor (b. 1863)
• November 17
  • Helmut Kolle, exiled German painter, endocarditis (b. 1899)
  • Edward Simmons, American Impressionist painter (b. 1852)
• December 7 – Leslie Hunter, Scottish painter (b. 1877)
• December 31 – Lancelot Speed, British illustrator (b. 1860)
• date unknown
  • Todor Švrakić, Serbian painter (b. 1882)
  • William John Wainwright, English painter (b. 1855)

See also

• 1931 in fine arts of the Soviet Union

References

1. "Gruppe Abstraction-Création". Ketterer Kunst. Archived from the original on 2012-05-15. Retrieved 2012-04-10.
2. "Diego Rivera. The Rivals. 1931 | MoMA".
3. Guilding, Ruth (28 March 2019). "Rose Hilton obituary | Ruth Guilding". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
4. "Dame Elizabeth Blackadder obituary". the Guardian. 25 August 2021. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
5. Joanna Carey (28 February 2019). "Tomi Ungerer obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 July 2024.