1951 in art

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Events

• April – The Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice is first opened to the public.^[1]
• May 3 – September 30 – Festival of Britain, based on London's South Bank.^[2] Director Hugh Casson has assembled a team of young designers and architects to create it.
  • Festival Star emblem by Abram Games.
  • Royal Festival Hall by Leslie Martin, Peter Moro and Robert Matthew.
  • Dome of Discovery by Ralph Tubbs.
  • Skylon by Philip Powell, Hidalgo Moya and Felix Samuely.
  • Riverside Restaurant, New Schools building and Waterloo entrance tower by Jane Drew with Maxwell Fry.^[3]
  • Sculptures: Youth Advancing by Jacob Epstein; Reclining Figure: Festival by Henry Moore; Contrapuntal Forms and Turning Forms by Barbara Hepworth; The Islanders by Siegfried Charoux; Sunbathers by Peter Peri; The Industries, Heavy Light and Electricity by Karel Vogel; Four Seasons Group (reliefs) by F. E. McWilliam; and a fountain by Eduardo Paolozzi.^[4]
  • Murals by Mary Fedden, Josef Herman and John Tunnard.
  • The Arts Council of Great Britain has also commissioned work from Robert Adams, Reg Butler, Lynn Chadwick, Frank Dobson, Karin Jonzen, F. E. McWilliam, Bernard Meadows, Uli Nimptsch and Eduardo Paolozzi. Some is sited in the concurrent open-air exhibition of sculpture in Battersea Park and there is an associated exhibition Sixty Paintings for '51 at the RBA Galleries^[4] and a show of popular and traditional art, Black Eyes & Lemonade, organised by Barbara Jones at the Whitechapel Gallery.
• Henri Matisse completes interior decoration of Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence.

Exhibitions

• May 2–July 29 – Sculpture and Drawings by Henry Moore retrospective exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London.
• May 21–June 10 – 9th Street Art Exhibition (otherwise known as the Ninth Street Show), stepping-out of the post war New York avant-garde, collectively known as the New York School.

Awards

• Archibald Prize: Ivor Hele – Laurie Thomas
• Sculptor Henry Moore refuses the offer of a knighthood.

Works

• Salvador Dalí
  • Christ of Saint John of the Cross
  • A Logician Devil (woodcut)
• M. C. Escher – lithographs
  • Curl-up
  • House of Stairs
• James Earle Fraser – The Arts of Peace: "Music and Harvest" and "Aspiration and Literature"^[5][6]
• Lucian Freud
  • Girl With a White Dog
  • Interior in Paddington
• Leo Friedlander – The Arts of War: "Valor" and "Sacrifice"^[5][6]
• Alfred Janes – Portrait of William Grant Murray
• Louis le Brocquy – A Family
• Barnett Newman – Vir Heroicus Sublimis
• Pablo Picasso – Massacre in Korea
• Robert Rauschenberg – White Paintings
• James Buchanan "Buck" Winn – The History of Ranching (mural for Pearl Brewing Company, San Antonio, Texas)

Publications

• Memoirs of Thomas Jones, Penkerrig, Radnorshire, 1803 is published by the Walpole Society.^[7]

Births

• April 16 – Pierre Toutain-Dorbec, French graphic artist and sculptor
• May 12 – Rosalind Savill, English art historian and curator
• November 17 – Jack Vettriano, Scottish painter
• date unknown
  • John Kindness, Northern Irish multi-media artist
  • Deborah Luster, American photographer
  • Qu Leilei, Chinese painter

Deaths

• February 6 – Frank DuMond, American painter, illustrator and teacher (b. 1865)
• April 23 – Charles Keck, American sculptor (b. 1875)
• May 11 – Wilfrid de Glehn, English painter (b. 1871)
• June 21 – Mary Tannahill, American painter and artist in fabrics (b. 1863)
• August 10 – Tony Gaudio, Italian-born cinematographer (b. 1883)
• September 1 – Wols, German-born abstract painter and photographer (b. 1913)
• September 5 – Mário Eloy, Portuguese Expressionist painter (b. 1900)
• September 18 – Gelett Burgess, American art critic (b. 1866)
• September 26 – Lena Himmelstein, American dress designer (b. 1877)
• October 1 – Karel Teige, Czech graphic artist (b. 1900)
• November 2 – Ernest Ludvig Ipsen, American portrait painter (b. 1869)
• November 15 – Frank Weston Benson, American Impressionist painter (b. 1862)
• c. December 25 – Frank Newbould, English poster artist (b. 1887)
• Undated – Louis Legrand, French painter (b. 1863)

See also

• 1951 in fine arts of the Soviet Union

References

1. Vail, Karole (1998). Peggy Guggenheim: A Celebration. New York: Guggenheim Museum. p. 92. ISBN 0810969149.
2. "King George opens Festival of Britain". BBC News. 3 May 1951. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-03.
3. Drew, Jane (1976). "The Riverside Restaurant". In Banham, Mary; Hillier, Bevis (eds). A Tonic to the Nation: The Festival of Britain 1951. London: Thames & Hudson. p. 103.
4. Whiteley, Gillian. "Festival of Britain". Designing Britain 1945-1975 – Art for Social Spaces.
5. Folliard, Edward T. "Truman Accepts Italy's Gift of Memorial Bridge Statues." Washington Post. September 27, 1951.
6. "Four Italian Bronze Horses Here for Span." Washington Post. June 8, 1951.
7. Sumner, Ann (2003). "Who was Thomas Jones? The life, death and posthumous reputation of Thomas Jones of Pencerrig". In Sumner, Ann; Smith, Greg (ed). Thomas Jones (1742–1803): An Artist Rediscovered. New Haven; London: Yale University Press.