1940 in art

Events from the year 1940 in art.

Events

* February – The series of ' Careless Talk Costs Lives' propaganda posters by ' Fougasse' is published by the Ministry of Information (United Kingdom).
* March – The Tartu Art Museum is officially established in Tartu, Estonia; its first exhibition is opened in November 1940.Estonia’s famous "leaning house" displays Georgian artists’ work
– Agenda.ge
* July – The Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce (''Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg'') of the Nazi Party begins its task of appropriating cultural property from occupied territories, initially in France.
* October – Grandma Moses' second solo exhibition, "What a Farm Wife Painted", opens at Otto Kallir's Galerie Saint-Etienne in New York City.
* November 3 – The War Artists' Advisory Committee of the U.K. Ministry of Information opens its first exhibition of ''War Pictures by British Artists'' to the public at the otherwise-evacuated National Gallery in London.
* November 13 – Release of Walt Disney's Traditional animation, animated movie ''Fantasia (1940 film), Fantasia'' in the United States.
* December 8 – Mexican painters Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera remarry in San Francisco (U.S.)
* Cecil Beaton is among the photographers commissioned by the U.K. Ministry of Information to undertake war photography.
* Xawery Dunikowski is deported to Auschwitz concentration camp, where he survives until 1945.
* Jacques Lipchitz flees France for the United States.
* Henry Moore is commissioned as a war artist and produces drawings of Londoners sleeping in the London Underground while sheltering from The Blitz.
* Anthony Blunt's ''Artistic Theory in Italy 1450–1600'' is published. This year he is recruited to work for MI5 while simultaneously spying for the NKVD.

Awards

* Archibald Prize: Max Meldrum – ''Dr J Forbes McKenzie''

Works

Paintings

* Vanessa Bell – ''Leonard Woolf''
* Clive Branson – ''Noreen and Rosa''
* Howard Chandler Christy – ''Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States''
* Charles Cundall – '':File:The Withdrawal from Dunkirk, June 1940 Art.IWMARTLD305.jpg, The Withdrawal from Dunkirk, June 1940''
* Salvador Dalí
** ''The Face of War''
** ''Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire''
* ' Fougasse' – ''Careless Talk Costs Lives'' (propaganda posters)
* Jared French – ''Glenway Wescott'', ''George Platt Lynes'', ''Monroe Wheeler'' (series of nude portraits)
* Jesús Guerrero Galván – ''Head of a Woman''
* Edward Hopper
** ''Gas (painting), Gas''
** ''Office at Night''
* Frida Kahlo
**
The Dream
'
**
Self-Portrait Dedicated to Dr. Eloesser
'
**
Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair
'
**
Self-Portrait with Monkey
'
** ''Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird''
** ''The Wounded Table''
* Raymond McGrath – '':File:Training - Aircraft Under Construction (1940) (Art.IWM ART LD65).jpg, Training Aircraft Under Construction''
* Conroy Maddox – '':File:Maddox, The Strange Country.jpg, The Strange Country''
* Henri Matisse
** ''La Blouse Roumaine''
** ''Le Rêve de 1940''
* Roberto Matta – ''Dark Light''
* John Piper (artist), John Piper
** ''Interior of Coventry Cathedral, November 15th, 1940''
**
The Passage to the Control-room at South West Regional Headquarters, Bristol
'
**
St Mary le Port, Bristol
'
* Candido Portinari – ''Seascape''
* Eric Ravilious – Watercolours
**
A Warship in Dock
'
**
Submarines in Dry Dock
'
** ''Ship's Screw on a Railway Truck''
**
Midnight Sun
'
* Charles Sheeler
** ''Bucks County Barn''
** ''Fugue''
** ''Interior''
* Situ Qiao – '':File:Put Down Your Whip by Situ Qiao.jpg, Put Down Your Whip''
* Graham Sutherland
**
Black Landscape
'
** '':File:Devastation, 1940 AHouse on the Welsh Border by Graham Sutherland (Tate N05734).jpg, Devastation, 1940: A House on the Welsh Border''
* H. J. Ward, Hugh J. Ward – Portrait of Superman (Lehman College)
* Grant Wood – ''Sentimental Ballad (painting), Sentimental Ballad''

Photographs

* Herbert Mason – ''St Paul's Survives''
* Nickolas Muray – ''Soldiers of the Sky''

Sculptures

* Eric Aumonier – '':File:East Finchley Stn statue.JPG, The Archer'' (East Finchley tube station, London Passenger Transport Board)
* Carl Milles – ''The Wedding of the Waters'' (fountain, St. Louis, Missouri)
* Isamu Noguchi – ''News'' (stainless steel bas-relief, Rockefeller Center, New York City, New York)
* Attilio Piccirilli – ''Guglielmo Marconi (Piccirilli), Guglielmo Marconi'' (bronze, Washington, D.C.)
* José Ângelo Cottinelli Telmo (architect) and Leopoldo de Almeida (sculptor) – ''Padrão dos Descobrimentos'' (temporary version)

Births

* January – Anthony d'Offay, British people, British art dealer
* January 2 – Peter Young (artist), Peter Young, Americans, American Painting, painter
* January 6 – John Byrne (Scottish playwright), John Byrne, Scottish people, Scottish painter and writer
* January 24
** Vito Acconci, American conceptual artist, installation artist, performance artist and filmmaker (d. 2017 in art, 2017)
** Mel Bochner, American conceptual artist
* February 22 – Billy Name, born William Linich, Jr., American photographer, collaborator with Andy Warhol
* March 7 – Hannah Wilke, American painter, sculptor and photographer (d. 1993 in art, 1993)
* March 20 – Mary Ellen Mark, American photographer (d. 2015 in art, 2015)
* April 11 – Marcia Tucker, American museum curator (d. 2006 in art, 2006)
* April 16 – Joan Snyder, American painter
* April 30 – Burt Young, born Gerald DeLouise, American actor, painter and author
* May 1 – Elsa Peretti, Italian jewelry designer (d. 2021 in art, 2021)
* May 11 – Juan Downey, Chilean-American video artist (d. 1993 in art, 1993)
* May 25 – Nobuyoshi Araki, Japanese photographer
* June 17 – Alton Kelley, American poster and album artist (d. 2008 in art, 2008)
* July 5 – Chuck Close, American "photorealistic" painter (d. 2021 in art, 2021)
* August 23 – Galen Rowell, American wilderness photographer (d. 2002 in art, 2002)
* September 6 – Elizabeth Murray (artist), Elizabeth Murray, American painter, printmaker and Drawing, draughtsman (d. 2007 in art, 2007)
* September 10 – David Mann (artist), David Mann, American painter
* September 26 – Arno Rink, German painter and professor
* September 27 – Rudolph Moshammer, Germans, German fashion designer (d. 2005 in art, 2005)
* October 22 – Ashley Jackson (artist), Ashley Jackson, Malaysian-born Yorkshire landscape watercolourist
* ''date unknown''
** Germano Celant, Italian art critic, curator and historian (d. 2020 in art, 2020)
** Stevan Knežević, Serbian people, Serbian painter, sculptor and professor of art (d. 1995 in art, 1995)
** Anthony McCall, British-born American avant-garde installation artist, projected film
** Dušan Otašević, Serbian painter and sculptor
** Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Native Americans in the United States, Native American painter and printmaker

Deaths

* January 18 – Jonas Lie (painter), Jonas Lie, Norwegian American landscape painter (b. 1880 in art, 1880)
* February 11 – Ellen Day Hale, American painter and printmaker (b. 1855 in art, 1855)
* February 27 – Nicolae Tonitza, Romanian painter and etcher (b. 1886 in art, 1886)
* March 16 – Iso Rae, Australian Impressionist painter (b. 1860 in art, 1860)
* April 15 – Alexandru Plămădeală, Moldovan sculptor (b. 1888 in art, 1888)
* May 13 - Henry Charles Fehr, British sculptor (b. 1867 in art, 1867)
* June 21 – Édouard Vuillard, French painter (b. 1868 in art, 1868)
* June 29 – Paul Klee, Swiss painter expressionism, cubism, and surrealism (b. 1879 in art, 1879)
* July 4 – Józef Pankiewicz, Polish painter, graphic artist and teacher (b. 1866 in art, 1866)
* July 28 – Gerda Wegener, Danish artist (b. 1886)
* July 31 – Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler, German avant-garde painter, by involuntary euthanasia (b. 1899 in art, 1899)
* August 22 – Paul Gösch, German artist and architect (b. 1885 in art, 1885)
* September 15 – Dick Ket, Dutch painter (b. 1902 in art, 1902)
* September 27 – Walter Benjamin, German philosopher, "Comparative literature, comparatist" and art critic (b. 1892 in art, 1892)
* October 15 – Karl Uchermann, Norwegian canine painter (b. 1855 in art, 1855)
* November 16 – Colin Gill, English people, English war artist, muralist and portrait painter (b. 1892 in art, 1892).
* November 17 – Eric Gill, English sculptor and engraver (b. 1882 in art, 1882)
* ''date unknown'' – Francesco Stella, Italian painter and set designer (b. 1862 in art, 1862)

See also

* 1940 in fine arts of the Soviet Union

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1940 In Art
1940 in art,
Years of the 20th century in art
1940s in art