# 1944 in art

Events from the year 1944 in art.

## Events

* June 6 – Normandy landings: Robert Capa takes "The Magnificent Eleven" photographs.
* July – Dulwich Picture Gallery in London is substantially damaged by a V-1 flying bomb; half a dozen paintings are destroyed, but most have been evacuated to Aberystwyth.
* Autumn – Peggy Guggenheim's The Art of This Century gallery on Manhattan releases a 78 rpm 3-record album containing Paul Bowles' Sonata for Flute and Piano and Two Mexican Dances with a cover by Max Ernst.
* Clandestine publication of Vaincre, an album of 12 colour lithographs by 8 artists in support of the French Resistance.

## Awards

* Archibald Prize: Joshua Smith – Hon Sol Rosevear, MHR, Speaker of the House of Representatives

## Exhibitions

* Jean Dubuffet's first solo exhibition.

## Works

* David Aronson – The Last Supper
* Duffy Ayers – Portrait of Tirzah Garwood
* Francis Bacon – Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion
* David Bomberg – Evening in the City of London
* Stella Bowen – Bomber Crew
* Robert Capa – "The Magnificent Eleven" (photographs)
* William Coldstream – Casualty Reception Station, Capua
* Salvador Dalí –
** Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening
** Tristan and Isolde created for the ballet Mad Tristan by Leonide Massine and Dali which in turn was inspired by the opera Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner
* Paul Delvaux – Sleeping Venus
* Jacob Epstein – sculptures
** First Portrait of Esther (with long hair)
** Lucifer
* George Grosz – Cain, or Hitler in Hell
* Jean Hélion – The Stairway
* Bror Hjorth – Gås-Anders (sculpture)
* Frida Kahlo
** The Broken Column
** Diego and Frida 1929-1944
* Dame Laura Knight – Take Off
* Fernand Léger – Three Musicians (Museum of Modern Art, New York)
* Henri Matisse – Annelies, White Tulips and Anemones
* Joan Miró – Barcelona Series (lithographs)
* Piet Mondrian (died February 1) – Victory Boogie-Woogie (unfinished)
* Walter Thomas Monnington
** Southern England: Spitfires Attacking Flying-bombs
** Tempests Attacking Flying-bombs
* Felix Nussbaum – Triumph of Death
* Pablo Picasso – Man with Sheep (sculpture)
* William Roberts
** The Ballet
** The Ferry (at Marston near Oxford)
** Parson's Pleasure (On the Lawn)
* Robert F. Sargent – Into the Jaws of Death (photograph)
* Ben Shahn – The Red Stairway

## Births

* 9 January – Ian Hornak, American painter and draughtsman (d. 2002).
* 10 January – Jeff Jones, American illustrator.
* 12 February - Jane Livingston, American curator.
* 4 March – Glen Baxter, English cartoonist.
* 29 March – Abbas, Iranian-born documentary photographer (d. 2018).
* 4 April – Phyllida Barlow, English sculptor (d. 2023).
* 8 May – David Vaughan, English psychedelic artist and muralist (d. 2003).
* 24 July – Maya Wildevuur, Dutch painter (d. 2023).
* 4 August – Allan McCollum, American conceptual artist, all media.
* 15 August – Gianfranco Ferré, Italian fashion designer (d. 2007).
* 20 August – Brian Barnes, English mural artist.
* 27 August – Catherine Leroy, French-born photographer (d. 2006).
* 1 September – Louis Delsarte, American painter (d. 2020).
* 4 November
** Don Eddy, American painter.
** Michael Heizer, American sculptor, earth artist.
* 23 November – Peter Lindbergh, born Peter Brodbeck, Polish-born fashion photographer (d. 2019).

### Full date unknown

* Richard Mock, American painter, sculptor and cartoonist (d. 2006).
* Allen Ruppersberg, American conceptual artist, installation artist.

## Deaths

* January 23 – Edvard Munch, Norwegian expressionist painter (b. 1863)
* February 1 – Piet Mondrian, Dutch abstract painter (b. 1872)
* February 26 – Lucienne Heuvelmans, French sculptor (b. 1885?)
* April 25 – George Herriman, American cartoonist (Krazy Kat) (b. 1880)
* July 18 – Rex Whistler, English painter (killed in action) (b. 1905)
* August 2 – Felix Nussbaum, German Jewish surrealist painter (in Auschwitz concentration camp) (b. 1904)
* August 18 – Hans Mertens, German painter (b. 1906)
* September 3 – William Logsdail, English landscape, portrait and genre painter (b. 1859)
* September 27
** Aristide Maillol, French sculptor (b. 1861)
** Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, Russian-born color photographer (b. 1863)
** David Dougal Williams, British painter (b. 1888)
* October 14 – Marko Murat, Serbian painter (b. 1864)
* October 21 – Hilma af Klint, Swedish abstract painter and mystic (b. 1862)
* November 22 – Sir George Clausen, English artist (b. 1852)
* December 10 – Miklós Ligeti, Hungarian sculptor (b. 1871)
* December 13 – Wassily Kandinsky, Russian abstract painter (b. 1866)
* December 24 – Alfred Drury, English sculptor (b. 1856)
* Undated – Esther Kenworthy Waterhouse, English flower painter (b. 1857)