1970 in art

Last updated August 17, 2025

Events

January 16 – John Lennon's exhibition of Bag One at the London Arts Gallery is shut down by Scotland Yard for displaying "erotic lithographs".
March 2–29 - Melvin Edwards: Works , a solo exhibition by American artist Melvin Edwards at New York's Whitney Museum, the first solo show by an African-American sculptor in the museum's history.
October - In celebration of her large gift of art works (including ones by Gauguin, Mary Cassatt, and Picasso, ) to the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco from the collection assembled by her late husband Thomas Edward Hanley, Tullah Hanley throws an epic party with rock bands, nude participants, exotic dancers (including herself), live animals and various other musical acts. ^[1]
October 26 – Garry Trudeau's comic strip Doonesbury debuts in approximately two dozen newspapers in the United States.
November 27 – Bolivian artist Benjamin Mendoza tries to assassinate Pope Paul VI during his visit to Manila.
Tom Keating admits that a number of watercolours in the style of Samuel Palmer were painted by him.
Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, the Federal collection of contemporary art, is established in Germany.
Contemporary Art Museum of Macedonia in Skopje, designed by the "Warsaw Tigers" (Wacław Kłyszewski, Jerzy Mokrzyński and Eugeniusz Wierzbicki), is built.
Conceptual Art and Conceptual Aspects, the first dedicated conceptual art exhibition, is mounted at the New York Cultural Center.^[2]
Theodor W. Adorno's book Aesthetic Theory (Asthetische Theorie) is published posthumously in Germany.

Exhibitions

February 10 until March 29 - 22 Realists (William Bailey, Jack Beal, Robert Bechtle, Howard Bruder, John Clem Clarke, Chuck Close, Arthur Elias, Richard Estes, Audrey Flack, Maxwell Hendler, Richard Joseph, Howard Kanovitz, Gabriel Laderman, Alfred Leslie, Richard McLean, Malcolm Morley, Philip Pearlstein, Donald Perlis, Paul Staiger, Sidney Tillim, Paul Wiesenfeld, and Donald James Wynn) at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.^[3]

Awards

Archibald Prize: Eric Smith – Gruzman – Architect
Prix Puvis de Chavannes – Daniel du Janerand

Works

Gilbert and George – The Singing Sculpture (performance)^[4]
Barbara Hepworth – Family of Man
Alvin D. Loving Jr. – Cube 27 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Brice Marden - For Pearl
Henry Moore – Reclining Figure LH608
Kanda Nissho – Indoor Landscape
Isamu Noguchi – Night Wind
Victor Pasmore – Apollo Pavilion (Peterlee, England)
William Scott – Still Life With Orange Note (Arts Council of Northern Ireland)
Aaron Shikler – Official portrait of President John F. Kennedy
Robert Smithson – Spiral Jetty
Wayne Thiebaud - Pop Bottles^[5]

Births

January 17 – Genndy Tartakovsky, Russian-born American animator
January 22 – Alex Ross, American comic book painter and illustrator
January 24 – Maria Balshaw, English curator
February 10 – Peter Richards, British artist and curator
February 15 – Shepard Fairey, American artist, graphic designer and illustrator
February 27 – Matthias Lechner, German set designer and art director
March 12 – Marine Delterme, French actress, painter, sculptor and model
May 3 – Jeffrey Sebelia, American fashion designer
May 9 – Damian Loeb, American painter
May 26 – Nobuhiro Watsuki, Japanese manga artist
June 1 – Joshua Compston, British gallerist (d.1996)
July 6 – Grant Bond, American comic book artist and writer
July 9 – Benoit Pierre Emery, French art director and fashion designer
August 4 – Pete Abrams, American webcomic writer and illustrator
August 23 – Ben Eine, né Flynn, English street artist
November 22 – Aleksander Balos, Polish-born American artist and figurative painter
date unknown
- Helen Cammock, English artist
- Stéphane Ducret, Swiss contemporary artist
- Emily Jacir, Palestinian artist
- Tomoki Kyoda, Japanese animation director and animator
- Vincent Paronnaud, French comics artist and filmmaker
- David Quinn, Irish artist
- Bosco Sodi, Mexican-born abstract painter

Deaths

January 27
- Rita Angus, New Zealand painter (born 1908)
- Erich Heckel, German painter and printmaker (born 1883)
February 25 – Mark Rothko, Latvian-born American painter and printmaker (born 1903)
February 26 – Ángel María de Rosa, Argentine sculptor and philanthropist (born 1888)
March 2 – Marc-Aurèle Fortin, Canadian painter (born 1888)
March 8
- Waldo Peirce, American painter (born 1884)
- Anton Räderscheidt, German painter (born 1892)
March 22 – Georges Malkine, French Surrealist painter (born 1898)
April 20 – Robert Laurent, American sculptor (born 1890)
April 29 – Charles R. Chickering, American illustrator (born 1891)
May 13 – William Dobell, Australian sculptor and painter (born 1899)
May 29 – Eva Hesse, German-born American sculptor (born 1936)
May 31 - Clare Sheridan, English sculptor and author (born 1885)
June 3 - Roberto Longhi, Italian art historian curator (born 1890)
June 6
- Camille Bombois, French naïve painter (born 1883)
- Signe Hammarsten-Jansson, Swedish-Finnish graphic artist (born 1882)
June 15 – Almada Negreiros, Portuguese artist (born 1893)
June 27 – Edwin La Dell, British artist (born 1914)
July 4 – Barnett Newman, American artist (born 1905)
July 7 – Dame Laura Knight, English Impressionist painter (born 1877)
July 13 – Lazar Drljača, Serbian painter (born 1883)
July 30 – Maud Lewis, Canadian folk artist (born 1903)
November 29 - Walter Stuempfig, American painter (born 1914)
December 1 – Hermine David, French painter (born 1886)
December 19 – Stig Blomberg, Swedish sculptor (born 1901)
date unknown – Ze'ev Raban, Israeli painter (born 1890)

References

↑ "The Art Donor Was Once a Belly Dancer, and Museum's Party Was in Keeping". The New York Times. 1970-10-25. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-01-31.
↑ "Conceptual art". Artlex. Archived from the original on 2013-05-16. Retrieved 2013-05-17.
↑ "Whitney Museum, 22 Realists, Curated by James K. Monte, Exhibition Catalogue, 1970". 21 September 2021.
↑ Serota, Nicholas (2004-04-21). "Nigel Greenwood". The Guardian . Retrieved 2011-07-21.
↑ "Pop Bottles | Contemporary Evening Auction | 2023". Sotheby's. Retrieved 2024-01-31.

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[1] "The Art Donor Was Once a Belly Dancer, and Museum's Party Was in Keeping". The New York Times. 1970-10-25. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-01-31.

[2] "Conceptual art". Artlex. Archived from the original on 2013-05-16. Retrieved 2013-05-17.

[3] "Whitney Museum, 22 Realists, Curated by James K. Monte, Exhibition Catalogue, 1970". 21 September 2021.

[4] Serota, Nicholas (2004-04-21). "Nigel Greenwood". The Guardian . Retrieved 2011-07-21.

[5] "Pop Bottles | Contemporary Evening Auction | 2023". Sotheby's. Retrieved 2024-01-31.

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