# 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.
* 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

* 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 – Frida 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
* Lorado Taft – The Crusader (sculpture)
* Carel Willink – Late Visitors to Pompeii
* Grant Wood
** The Birthplace of Herbert Hoover
** 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)
* 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)
* October 9 – Stuart Devlin, Australian-born gold/silversmith (d. 2018)
* date unknown
** Barrie Cooke, British-born abstract expressionist painter (d. 2014)
** Enno Hallek, Estonian-born Swedish artist

## 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)
* 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)