1973 in art

• August 25 – Jesús Soto Museum of Modern Art in Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela, designed by Carlos Raúl Villanueva, is opened.
• Alexander Calder is hired by Braniff International Airways to paint a full-size DC-8-62 as a "flying canvas".
• David Hockney begins a 2-year spell living and working in Paris.{{cite book|first=Martin|last=Gayford|title=Spring Cannot be Cancelled: David Hockney in Normandy|location=London|publisher=Thames & Hudson|year=2021|isbn=978-0-500-09436-5}}
• Aristeidis Metallinos begins his career as a sculptor.Giannis M. Maris (1978) "Βιογραφικό - Αριστείδης Ζαχ. Μεταλληνός", in Απάνθισμα Γραμμάτων και Τεχνών, Athens, pp. 611–617.
• Robert Scull's collection of American Pop and Minimal art is auctioned by Sotheby's in New York City.

• Archibald Prize: Janet Dawson – Michael Boddy

• Christopher Williams – centenary exhibition in Cardiff, Maesteg and Swansea.

File:Girl with a dolphin in London, spring 2013 (1).JPG – Girl with a Dolphin]]

{{see also|Category:1973 paintings|Category:1973 sculptures}}

• Emma Amos – Sandy and Her Husband{{Cite web|url=https://www.culturetype.com/2018/06/20/cleveland-museum-of-art-has-acquired-a-significant-painting-by-emma-amos/|title = Cleveland Museum of Art Has Acquired a Significant Painting by Emma Amos| date=20 June 2018 }}
• Michael Ayrton – Icarus (sculpture, London)
• Michael Craig-Martin – An Oak Tree (conceptual work)
• Salvador Dalí – Dalí Seen from the Back Painting Gala from the Back Eternalised by Six Virtual Corneas Provisionally Reflected by Six Real Mirrors (stereoscopic painted in duplicate but for a small variation - completed)
• William Eggleston – The Red Ceiling (photograph)
• Ben Enwonwu – Tutu
• Gluck – Credo (Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light) (completed)
• Barbara Hepworth – Conversation with Magic Stones
• Hipgnosis – The Dark Side of the Moon (album cover)
• David Hockney – [https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw03171/David-Hockney-The-Student---Homage-to-Picasso The Student: Homage to Picasso] (print)
• David Inshaw – The Badminton Game
• Nabil Kanso – Place des Martyres (paintings); Vietnam paintings series (through 1974)
• Frederic Littman – Farewell to Orpheus (bronze, Portland, Oregon)
• Joan Miró – completes series The navigator's hope
• Joan Mitchell - Iva (monumental triptych, Tate Modern{{cite news|last=Addley|first=Esther|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2025/apr/03/tate-modern-given-joan-mitchell-works-in-biggest-donation-since-1969-jorge-m-perez|archive-url=|title=Tate Modern given Joan Mitchell work in biggest donation since 1969|date=3 April 2025|work=The Guardian|accessdate=3 April 2025|archivedate=}}
• Henry Moore – Large Four Piece Reclining Figure 1972–73 (bronze)
• Mike Parr - Wound By Measurement (performed at Galerie Impact in Lausanne, Switzerland){{Cite web |last=McKenzie |first=Janet |title=Mike Parr – interview: 'I was a performance artist with one arm. The problem of visibility, the visual, was loaded completely differently' |url=https://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/mike-parr-interview-drawing-performance-art-joseph-beuys |access-date=2024-08-20 |website=www.studiointernational.com |language=en}}
• Ivor Roberts-Jones – Statue of Winston Churchill, Parliament Square (bronze, London)
• Dorothea Tanning - Hôtel du Pavot, Chambre 202 (work completed){{cite web | url=https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/dorothea-tanning/exhibition-guide | title=Dorothea Tanning }}
• Euan Uglow – [https://www.artuk.org/discover/artworks/georgia-176961 Georgia]
• Andy Warhol – Man
• David Wynne
• Embracing Lovers (bronze, Guildhall, London)
• Girl with a Dolphin (bronze, by Tower Bridge, London)

• January 29 – Louise Hindsgavl, Danish artist Trine Ross. [http://politiken.dk/kultur/kunst/ECE2325106/porcelaensfigurer-viser-de-mindre-paene-sider-af-os-selv/ "Porcelænsfigurer viser de mindre pæne sider af os selv"]. Politiken: Kultur
• February 1 – Yuri Landman, Dutch musician, comic book creator and singer
• May 8 – Hiromu Arakawa, Japanese manga artist
• July 7 – Natsuki Takaya, Japanese manga artist
• July 28 (possible date) – Banksy, English graffiti artist
• August 18 – Jerome Lagarrigue, French painter and illustrator

• Jean-Pierre Canlis, American glass artist.
• Oisín McGann, Irish author and illustrator.
• Rosalind Nashashibi, English Palestinian film artist.
• Charles Pétillon, French photographer and instillation artist

• January 17 – Tarsila do Amaral, Brazilian modernist artist (b. 1886).{{cite journal|last=Damian|first=Carol|year=1999|title=Tarsila Do Amaral: Art and Environmental Concerns of a Brazilian Modernist|journal=Woman's Art Journal|volume=20|issue=1|pages=3–7|doi=10.2307/1358838|jstor=1358838}}
• March 14 – Chic Young, American cartoonist (b. 1901).
• March 25
• Gerda Höglund, Swedish religious painter (b. 1878).
• Edward Steichen, American photographer, painter and curator (b. 1879).
• April 8 – Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter, draftsman and sculptor (b. 1881).
• April 13 – Henry Darger, American outsider artist (b. 1892){{cite book|author=Michael Bonesteel|title=Henry Darger: Art and Selected Writings|publisher=Random House Incorporated|year=2000|isbn=9780847822843|page=13}}
• April 28 – Siri Derkert, Swedish artist, sculptor and political campaigner (b. 1888).
• May 1 – Asger Jorn, Danish artist and essayist (b. 1914).
• May 12 – Edith Tudor Hart, née Suschitzky, Austrian-born photojournalist and communist agent in Britain (b. 1908).
• May 16 – Albert Paris Gütersloh, Austrian painter and writer (b. 1887).
• May 18 – Ronald Ossory Dunlop, Irish author and painter (b. 1894).
• May 21 – Montague Dawson, English maritime painter (b. 1890).

• July 20 – Robert Smithson, American artist (b. 1938).
• August 9 – Claude Buckle, English poster artist and watercolourist (b. 1905).
• September 30 – Peter Pitseolak, Inuit photographer, artist and historian (b. 1902).
• November 13 – Elsa Schiaparelli, Italian fashion designer (b. 1890).
• November 17 – Adolf Wissel, German painter, an official artist of Nazism (b. 1894).
• December 7 – Camilo Mori, Chilean painter (b. 1896).
• December 13 – Ralph Stackpole, American sculptor, painter, muralist, etcher and art educator (b. 1885).{{cite web|url=http://www.askart.com/AskART/artist.aspx?artist=2126 |publisher=AskART |title=Ralph Ward Stackpole (1885–1973)|year=2000–2010 |accessdate=April 23, 2010}}
• December 16 – Andrej Bicenko, Russian fresco painter and muralist (b. 1886).

• 1973 in Fine Arts of the Soviet Union

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Category:Years of the 20th century in art

Category:1970s in art