1940 in art

• 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.{{Cite web|url=https://tartmus.ee/en/tickets/ajalugu/|title = History}}[https://agenda.ge/en/news/2016/689 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 animated movie 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.

• Archibald Prize: Max Meldrum – Dr J Forbes McKenzie

• Vanessa Bell – Leonard Woolf
• Pierre Bonnard – Oranges et Kakis (c.){{cite web | url=https://www.sothebys.com/buy/dcb89d4a-5ee3-473c-82fe-c9f834ec8ec6/lots/1dab5a92-1857-4cbc-a429-3bb6d2956227 | title=Oranges et kakis | Modern Evening Auction | 2023 }}
• Clive Branson – Noreen and Rosa
• Howard Chandler Christy – Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States
• Charles Cundall – 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
• Office at Night
• Frida Kahlo
• [http://www.fridakahlo.org/the-dream-the-bed.jsp The Dream]
• [http://www.fridakahlo.org/self-portrait-dedicated-to-dr-eloesser.jsp Self-Portrait Dedicated to Dr. Eloesser]
• [http://www.fridakahlo.org/self-portrait-with-cropped-hair.jsp Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair]
• [http://www.fridakahlo.org/self-portrait-with-a-monkey.jsp Self-Portrait with Monkey]
• Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird
• The Wounded Table
• Raymond McGrath – Training Aircraft Under Construction
• Conroy Maddox – The Strange Country
• Henri Matisse
• La Blouse Roumaine
• Le Rêve de 1940
• Roberto Matta – Dark Light
• John Piper
• Interior of Coventry Cathedral, November 15th, 1940
• [http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/21807 The Passage to the Control-room at South West Regional Headquarters, Bristol]
• [https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/piper-st-mary-le-port-bristol-n05718/text-catalogue-entry St Mary le Port, Bristol]
• Candido Portinari – Seascape
• Eric Ravilious – Watercolours
• [http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/22457 A Warship in Dock]
• [http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ravilious-submarines-in-dry-dock-n05722 Submarines in Dry Dock]
• Ship's Screw on a Railway Truck
• [http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ravilious-midnight-sun-n05723 Midnight Sun]
• Charles Sheeler
• Bucks County Barn
• Fugue
• Interior
• Situ Qiao – Put Down Your Whip
• Graham Sutherland
• [http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/sutherland-black-landscape-t03085 Black Landscape]
• Devastation, 1940: A House on the Welsh Border
• Hugh J. Ward – Portrait of Superman (Lehman College)
• Carel Willink – Wilma with Cat
• Grant Wood – Sentimental Ballad

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

{{See also|Category:1940 sculptures}}

• Eric Aumonier – 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)
• Attilio Piccirilli – Guglielmo Marconi (bronze, Washington, D.C.)
• José Ângelo Cottinelli Telmo (architect) and Leopoldo de Almeida (sculptor) – Padrão dos Descobrimentos (temporary version)

• Saved from Europe at Galerie St. Etienne in New York City{{Cite web |title=not found |url=https://www.artdependence.com/articles/centerpiece-of-gustav-klimts-first-exhibition-in-america-insel-im-attersee-to-make-auction-debut-at-sothebys-this-may/ |access-date=August 26, 2024 |website=www.artdependence.com}}

• January – Anthony d'Offay, British art dealer
• January 2 – Peter Young, American painter
• January 6 – John Byrne, Scottish painter and writer
• January 24
• Vito Acconci, American conceptual artist, installation artist, performance artist and filmmaker (d. 2017)
• Mel Bochner, American conceptual artist (d. 2025)
• 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)
• March 9 - Giancarlo Impiglia, Italian born Italian-American painter
• March 20 – Mary Ellen Mark, American photographer (d. 2015)
• April 11 – Marcia Tucker, American museum curator (d. 2006)
• April 16 – Joan Snyder, American painter
• April 30 – Burt Young, born Gerald DeLouise, American actor, painter, and author (d. 2023)
• May 1 – Elsa Peretti, Italian jewelry designer (d. 2021)
• May 11 – Juan Downey, Chilean-American video artist (d. 1993)
• May 25 – Nobuyoshi Araki, Japanese photographer
• June 17 – Alton Kelley, American poster and album artist (d. 2008)
• July 5 – Chuck Close, American "photorealistic" painter (d. 2021)
• July 27 – Pina Bausch, German neo-expressionist choreographer and dancer (d. 2009)
• August 23 – Galen Rowell, American wilderness photographer (d. 2002)
• September 6 – Elizabeth Murray, American painter, printmaker and draughtsman (d. 2007)
• September 10 – David Mann, American painter
• September 26 – Arno Rink, German painter and professor (d. 2017)
• September 27 – Rudolph Moshammer, German fashion designer (d. 2005)
• October 22 – Ashley Jackson, Malaysian-born Yorkshire landscape watercolourist
• date unknown
• Germano Celant, Italian art critic, curator and historian (d. 2020)
• Stevan Knežević, Serbian painter, sculptor and professor of art (d. 1995)
• Anthony McCall, British-born American avant-garde installation artist, projected film
• Dušan Otašević, Serbian painter and sculptor
• Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Native American painter and printmaker ** Mel Bochner, American conceptual artist (d. 2025)

• January 18 – Jonas Lie, Norwegian American landscape painter (b. 1880)
• February 11 – Ellen Day Hale, American painter and printmaker (b. 1855)
• February 27 – Nicolae Tonitza, Romanian painter and etcher (b. 1886)
• March 16 – Iso Rae, Australian Impressionist painter (b. 1860)
• April 15 – Alexandru Plămădeală, Moldovan sculptor (b. 1888)
• May 13 - Henry Charles Fehr, British sculptor (b. 1867)
• June 21 – Édouard Vuillard, French painter (b. 1868)
• June 29 – Paul Klee, Swiss painter expressionism, cubism, and surrealism (b. 1879)
• July 4 – Józef Pankiewicz, Polish painter, graphic artist and teacher (b. 1866)
• July 28 – Gerda Wegener, Danish artist (b. 1886)
• July 31 – Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler, German avant-garde painter, by involuntary euthanasia (b. 1899)
• August 22 – Paul Gösch, German artist and architect (b. 1885)
• September 5 – Frances Darlington, English relief sculpture (b. 1880)
• September 15 – Dick Ket, Dutch painter (b. 1902)
• September 27 – Walter Benjamin, German philosopher, "comparatist" and art critic (b. 1892)
• October 15 – Karl Uchermann, Norwegian canine painter (b. 1855)
• November 16 – Colin Gill, English war artist, muralist and portrait painter (b. 1892).
• November 17 – Eric Gill, English sculptor and engraver (b. 1882)
• date unknown – Francesco Stella, Italian painter and set designer (b. 1862)

• 1940 in fine arts of the Soviet Union

{{reflist}}

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Category:Years of the 20th century in art

Category:1940s in art