26 April – Nineteen Old Master paintings from the Beit collection are stolen from Russborough House in Ireland by a Provisional Irish Republican Army gang including English heiress Rose Dugdale.
Roy Strong becomes Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Hallwalls, a non profit exhibition space and arts organization, is established in a converted ice packing warehouse in Buffalo, New York, by the artists Charles Clough, Robert Longo, Diane Bertolo, Nancy Dwyer, Larry Lundy, Cindy Sherman and Michael Zwack.
Awards
Archibald Prize: Sam Fullbrook – Jockey Norman Stephens
John Moores Painting Prize - Myles Murphy - "Figure with Yellow Foreground"
Exhibitions
Works
Bruce Beasley – Big Red (sculpture, Eugene, Oregon)
Salvador Dalí – Nieuw Amsterdam (object/sculpture)
Judy Dater – Imogen and Twinka at Yosemite (photograph)
Silvio Gazzaniga – FIFA World Cup Trophy
David Hockney – Contre-jour in the French style – Against the Day dans le style français
Nabil Kanso – Vietnam
Bernard Kirschenbaum – Twist for Max (sculpture)
Joan Miró
Hands flying off toward the constellations
The hope of a condemned Man (series)
Odd Nerdrum – Liberation
Enzo Plazzotta – Crucifixion
Tony Rosenthal – 5 in 1 (steel sculpture, New York City)
Ruskin Spear – Harold Wilson
Graham Sutherland – Lord Goodman
David Wynne – Boy With a Dolphin (bronze, Cheyne Walk, London)
Meet the Residents (album cover)
Films
A Bigger Splash
Births
15 May – Kadir Nelson, African American illustrator.
31 May – Adrian Tomine, American cartoonist.
16 June – Paul Lee, English artist.
1 September – Jhonen Vasquez, American comic book artist, cartoonist and writer.
8 November – Masashi Kishimoto, Japanese mangaka.
13 November – Kerim Seiler, Swiss artist and architect.
7 December – Kang Full, South Korean webcomic artist.
Full date unknown
Banksy, English graffiti artist.
Bogna Burska, Polish playwright and visual artist.
Amelie Chabannes, French painter and sculptor.
Luke Jerram, British installation artist.
Fabrice Lachant, French photographer.
OSGEMEOS (Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo), Brazilian twin graffiti artists.
Dulce Pinzon, Mexican-born visual artist.
Bojan Šarčević, Bosnian-French visual artist.
Bedwyr Williams, Welsh installation and performance artist.
Deaths
January to June
19 January – Edward Seago, English painter (b. 1910).
30 January – Robert Darwin, English painter and Rector of the Royal College of Art (b. 1910)
15 February – Petar Lubarda, Serbian painter (b. 1907).
4 March – Adolph Gottlieb, American abstract expressionist painter and sculptor (b. 1903).
9 March – Daniel O'Neill, Irish painter (b. 1920).
5 April – A. Y. Jackson, Canadian painter (b. 1882).
31 May – Juan Bautista Garcia, Puerto Rican painter (b. 1904).
7 June
Émilie Charmy, French artist (b. 1878)
Milton Menasco, American painter and art director (b. 1890).
22 June – Alain Saint-Ogan, French comics author and artist (b. 1895).
30 June – Frank McKelvey, Irish painter (b. 1895).
July to December
9 July – Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, French writer and artist (b. 1884).
8 August – Charles Wheeler, English sculptor (b. 1892).
11 August – Jan Tschichold, German typographer, book designer, teacher and writer (b. 1902).
August – André Edouard Marty, French artist (b. 1882).
8 September – James Swinnerton, American cartoonist and artist (b. 1875).
17 September – André Dunoyer de Segonzac, French painter and graphic artist (b. 1884).
28 October – David Jones, English poet and painter (b. 1895).
1 November – František Muzika, Czech avant-garde painter (b. 1900).
20 December – Risto Stijović, Serbian sculptor (b. 1894).
21 December – James Henry Govier, English painter (b. 1910).
25 December – Harry Kernoff, Irish painter (b. 1900).