1978 in art

Events from the year 1978 in art.

Events

27 June – Stitching the Standard by Edmund Leighton is sold at Sotheby's in Belgravia to a private collector.{{cite web| url =http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/lot.pdf.L11133.html/f/51/L11133-51.pdf| title =Victorian & Edwardian Art| publisher =Sotheby's| date =15 November 2011| accessdate =28 June 2014| archive-date =24 September 2015| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20150924141535/http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/lot.pdf.L11133.html/f/51/L11133-51.pdf| url-status =dead}}

Archibald Prize: Brett Whiteley – Art, Life and the other thing
John Moores Painting Prize - Noel Forster for "A painting in six stages with a silk triangle"{{cite web|url=http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/johnmoores/history/previous-winners-list/noel_forster.aspx|title=Noel Forster - Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool museums|website=Liverpoolmuseums.org.uk|accessdate=28 November 2018}}

Alicia Austin – Alicia Austin's Age of Dreams
Zdzisław Beksiński – AA78
Christo and Jeanne Claude - "Wrapped Walk Ways" in Loose Park in Kansas City, Missouri{{Cite web|title=Wrapped Walk Ways, Project for Jacob L. Loose Memorial Park, Kansas City, Missouri [right panel]|url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.120692.html|access-date=2021-09-20|website=www.nga.gov|date=1978 }}
Dan Flavin – untitled (to the real Dan Hill)
Helen Frankenthaler – Cleveland Symphony Orchestra
David Gentleman – "Eleanor cross" mural for Charing Cross tube station (London)
Jack Goldstein – The Jump
Michael Heizer – Isolated Mass/Circumflex (Number 2) (land art, Houston, Texas)
Bryan Hunt – Big Twist (bronze, Houston, Texas)
Nabil Kanso – Hiroshima Nagasaki One-Minute
Liz Leyh – Concrete Cows (Milton Keynes)
Odd Nerdrum – The Murder of Andreas Baader
Dennis Oppenheim – Cobalt Vectors – An Invasion
Mikhail Savitsky – Partisan Madonna of Minsk

10 January – Gluck, born Hannah Gluckstein, English painter (b. 1895)
19 January – Živko Stojsavljević, Serbian painter (b. 1900).
1 February – Don Freeman, American author, painter and illustrator (b. 1908)
24 February – Alma Thomas, African American abstract expressionist painter (b. 1891).
13 April – Jack Chambers, Canadian artist and filmmaker (b. 1931).
8 May – Duncan Grant, Scottish painter (b. 1885).
21 May – Jo Spier, Dutch artist and illustrator (b. 1900)
31 May – Hannah Höch, German Dada photomontage artist (b. 1889).
13 July
Thomas B. Hess, American art editor, writer, and curator (b. 1920)
Oliver Messel, English-born stage designer (b. 1904).
5 August – Victor Hasselblad, Swedish inventor and photographer (b. 1889).
14 August – Nicolas Bentley, British author and illustrator (b. 1907).
27 August – Gordon Matta-Clark, American artist (b. 1943).
6 November – Harry Bertoia, Italian-born American artist and designer (b. 1915).
8 November – Norman Rockwell, American painter and illustrator (b. 1894).
20 November – Giorgio de Chirico, Greek-Italian painter (b. 1888).
30 November - Otto Kallir, Austrian -American art historian, author, publisher, and gallerist (b. 1894).