# 1955 in art

Events from the year 1955 in art.

## Events

* January 21 – O. Winston Link starts a 5-year personal project to document steam operations on the Norfolk and Western Railway in the United States using flash photography.
* January 26 – A trial establishes that the recently "restored" "medieval" frescoes in St. Mary's Church, Lübeck, are in fact newly painted by Lothar Malskat and an associate.
* March – A Photographer's Gallery is established in New York City by Roy DeCarava.
* May 17 – The Clark Art Institute opens to the public in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
* June 1 – Première of Billy Wilder's film of The Seven Year Itch featuring an iconic scene of Marilyn Monroe standing on a New York City Subway grating as her white dress (created by Travilla) is blown above her knees.
* June 27 – Sir Jacob Epstein marries Kathleen Garman.
* October–November – Nikolaus Pevsner delivers this year's series of Reith Lectures on The Englishness of English Art, originally broadcast on BBC radio in the UK.
* December – Iris Clert Gallery opens in the rue des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and its owner, Iris Clert, first meets Yves Klein.
* date unknown
** Marcel Duchamp becomes a citizen of the United States.
** Pablo Picasso finishes painting his Les Femmes d'Alger ("The Women of Algiers") series (inspired by Delacroix), concluding with "Version O" which in 2015 will sell at a world record price for a painting at auction.
** British studio potter Alan Caiger-Smith establishes Aldermaston Pottery in England.
** Enrique Tábara obtains an Ecuadorian government scholarship to study in Spain.

## Awards

* Archibald Prize: Ivor Hele – Robert Campbell Esq.

## Works

* Michael Andrews – Four People Sunbathing (Arts Council England)
* Pietro Annigoni – Portrait of Elizabeth II
* Balthus
** Girls on the Couch
** Nude Before a Mirror
* John Brack
** Collins St., 5 pm
** The Car
* Edward Burra – Izzy Orts
* Lucien Clergue – Trio des Saltimbanques (photograph)
* Carroll Cloar – My Father Was Big as a Tree
* Pompeo Coppini – Statue of George Washington (bronze, University of Texas at Austin)
* Salvador Dalí – The Sacrament of the Last Supper (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) (completed)
* Ben Enwonwu – Anyanwu (sculpture)
* Sir Jacob Epstein – Christ in Majesty (sculpture for Llandaff Cathedral)
* M. C. Escher – lithographs
** Compass Rose (Order and Chaos II)
** Convex and Concave
** Three Worlds
* Alberto Giacometti
** Diego (approximate date)
** Grande tête mince
* Oswaldo Guayasamín – El ataúd blanco
* Edward Hopper – South Carolina Morning
* Jasper Johns
** Flag
** White Flag
* Willem de Kooning
** Composition
** Woman as Landscape
** Woman-Ochre
* Lee Krasner
** Bald Eagle
** Color Totem
* L. S. Lowry (Tate collection)
** Industrial Landscape
** A Young Man
* René Magritte – The Mysteries of the Horizon
* Georg Mayer-Marton — Crucifixion (mosaic and fresco in Roman Catholic Church of Holy Rosary in Fitton Hill, Oldham, England)
* Henry Moore
** Upright Motive No. 1: Glenkiln Cross
** Wall Relief no. 1 (carved brick, Bouwcentrum, Rotterdam)
* Sidney Nolan – Ned Kelly
* Pablo Picasso – Don Quixote (sketch for Les Lettres Françaises, August)
* Robert Rauschenberg – Bantam
* Norman Rockwell – Marriage License
* Mark Rothko – Violet Center
* Charles Sheeler – The Web
* Hedda Sterne – New York, N.Y., 1955

## Exhibitions

* January – The Family of Man, a photography exhibition curated by Edward Steichen, opens at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
* October – First public exhibition of Yves Klein's monochrome oil paintings, at Club des Solitaires, Paris.
* November 3–December 18 – Stanley Spencer: a Retrospective Exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London.
* Le Mouvement at Galerie Denise René, Paris, popularizing kinetic art.
* Exhibition by London members of Groupe Espace, organized by Paule Vézelay at the Royal Festival Hall.

## Births

* January 15 – Andreas Gursky, German large format photographer
* January 21 – Jeff Koons, American "kitsch" artist
* February 2 – Madi Phala, South African artist (d. 2007)
* March 10 – Mark Landis, American painter and art forger
* March 24 – Beverly K. Effinger, American painter
* April 5 – Akira Toriyama, Japanese manga and video game artist (d. 2024)
* May 20 – Anton Corbijn, Dutch photographer and videographer
* July 29 – Dave Stevens, American illustrator and comics artist (d. 2008)
* August 2 – PHASE 2 (Lonny Wood), American graffiti artist (d. 2019)
* November 15 – Sergey Voychenko, Belarusian artist and designer (d. 2004)
* undated
** Manasie Akpaliapik, Canadian Inuk sculptor
** Mariana Cook, American portrait photographer
** Miroslav Grčev, Macedonian architect and graphic designer
** Jaume Plensa, Catalan sculptor
** Rebecca Salter, English printmaker and multimedia abstract artist, President of the Royal Academy
** Alexander Sokolov, sculptor working in Spain

## Deaths

* January 1 – Maria Bal, Polish model (b. 1879)
* January 7 – Lamorna Birch, English painter (b. 1869)
* February 11 – Olga Khokhlova, Russian-born ballet dancer and estranged wife of Picasso (b. 1891)
* March 9 – Nels N. Alling, Danish-American sculptor (b. 1861)
* March 13 – Evie Hone, Irish painter and stained glass artist (b. 1894)
* March 16 – Nicolas de Staël, Russian-born French impasto painter (b. 1914)
* May 3 – Rudolf Schlichter, German painter (b. 1890)
* May 10 – John Radecki, Polish-born Australian stained glass artist (b. 1865)
* May 11 – Bradley Walker Tomlin, American painter (b. 1899)
* May 23 – Auguste Chabaud, French painter (b. 1882)
* June 1 – Antonio Dattilo Rubbo, Italian-born Australian painter and art teacher (b. 1870)
* June 29 – Max Pechstein, German Expressionist artist (b. 1881)
* August 17 – Fernand Léger, French artist (b. 1881)
* September 19 – Carl Milles, Swedish sculptor (b. 1875)
* September 27 – Leslie Garland Bolling, African American sculptor (b. 1898)
* November 5 – Maurice Utrillo, French painter (b. 1883)
* November 29 – Rene Paul Chambellan, American sculptor (b. 1893)
* December 17 – Dorothea Sharp, English painter (b. 1874)
* December 19 – Alexander Lubimov, Russian artist (b. 1879)
* December 28 – Olive Edis, English photographer (b. 1876)