2004 in art

• April – A Belgian activist group cuts off the left hand of a bronze Congolese figure in a monument to Leopold II of Belgium in Ostend as a protest against colonial atrocities.{{cite news|first=Daniel|last=Boffey|title=Statue's stolen hand puts Belgium's colonial past in the spotlight|newspaper=The Guardian|location=London|date=2019-02-23|page=38|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/22/statue-missing-hand-colonial-belgium-leopold-congo|accessdate=2019-02-24}}
• 24 May – A fire in the Momart storage warehouse destroys major works by Helen Chadwick, Tracey Emin, Patrick Heron, Damien Hirst and other British artists.
• 18 July – The subterranean Chichu Art Museum on the Japanese island of Naoshima, designed by Tadao Ando, opens.
• 11 December – İstanbul Modern (art museum) is established in Turkey. The country's first modern art museum, the Doğançay Museum, opened earlier in the year, also in Istanbul; it is dedicated to the artistic legacy of Burhan Doğançay.

{{See also|Category:2004 sculptures}}

• David Backhouse – Animals in War Memorial (London)
• Banksy
• Di-faced Tenner (multiple copies)
• Kissing Coppers (stencil graffiti originally in Brighton)
• Bruce Beasley – Encounter (sculpture, Eugene, Oregon)
• Lucian Freud – The Brigadier (portrait of Andrew Parker Bowles){{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/nov/11/lucian-freud-portrait-of-camillas-ex-husband-sells-for-nearly-35m|title = Lucian Freud portrait of Camilla's ex-husband sells for nearly $35m| website=TheGuardian.com |date = 11 November 2015}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.tatler.com/article/lucian-freud-andrew-parker-bowles-royal-academy|title=Andrew Parker Bowles on being painted by Lucian Freud|date=11 October 2019 }}
• Rachel Joynt – Noah's Egg (sculpture at Veterinary Sciences Centre, University College Dublin in Ireland)
• Liz Magor – LightShed (installation, Vancouver)
• Cornelia Parker – Perpetual Canon (installation)
• Paula Rego – The Cake Woman
• Donald Wilson – Holon (sculpture, Portland, Oregon)
• Statue of Mahatma Gandhi (Houston, Texas)
• Artworks at Millennium Park in Chicago, United States:
• Anish Kapoor – Cloud Gate
• Jaume Plensa – Crown Fountain{{cite web|url=http://www.millenniumpark.org/artandarchitecture/jaume_plensa.html |title=Millennium Park – Art and Architecture – The Crown Fountain|publisher=www.millenniumpark.org|accessdate=2008-07-30|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724031652/http://www.millenniumpark.org/artandarchitecture/jaume_plensa.html|archivedate=2008-07-24}}{{cite web|url=http://www.architechmag.com/articles/detailarchitech.asp?articleid=2622|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061202104702/http://www.architechmag.com/articles/detailarchitech.asp?articleid=2622|archivedate=2006-12-02|accessdate=2007-06-13|publisher=Stamats Business Media|date=July–August 2005|work=Archi•Tech|title=Crown Fountain}}{{cite web|url=http://mmart.com/artropolis/citywide_events/public_art/index.html|accessdate=2007-06-13|year=2007|publisher=Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc|title=Artropolis|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071105232924/http://mmart.com/artropolis/citywide_events/public_art/index.html|archivedate=2007-11-05}}

• Archibald Prize – Craig Ruddy, David Gulpilil, two worlds
• Artes Mundi Prize – Xu Bing
• Beck's Futures – Saskia Olde Wolbers
• Hugo Boss Prize – Rirkrit Tiravanija
• Caldecott Medal for children's book illustration – Mordicai Gerstein, The Man Who Walked Between the Towers
• En Foco's New Works Photography Award – Manuel Rivera-Ortiz
• John Moores Painting Prize – Alexis Harding, Slump/Fear (orange/black){{cite web|url=http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/johnmoores/recent-exhibitions/23/prizewinners/alexis_harding.aspx|title='Slump/Fear (orange/black)', Alexis Harding - Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool museums|website=Liverpoolmuseums.org.uk|accessdate=28 November 2018}}
• Wynne prize – George Tjungurrayi, Untitled

• Edward Delaney retrospective at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin
• Drawings of Jim Dine at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
• Erich Heckel – His Work in the 1920s at the Brücke Museum, Berlin
• Paul Henry at the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
• Edward Hopper at the Tate Gallery, London

• Modigliani

• 4 January – Jeff Nuttall, English poet, publisher, actor, painter and sculptor (b.1933)
• 9 January – Nissim Ezekiel, Indian poet, playwright and art critic (b.1924)
• 3 February - Ward Jackson, American painter (b. 1928)
• 7 February – Norman Thelwell, English cartoonist (b.1923)
• 4 March – Stephen Sprouse, American fashion designer and artist (b.1953)
• 12 March – Milton Resnick, American painter (b.1917)
• 13 March – René Laloux, French animator and film director (b.1929)
• 27 March - Gerome Kamrowski, American artist (b.1914)

• 1 April – Enrique Grau, Colombian painter and sculptor (b.1920)
• 7 April – Wolfgang Mattheuer, German painter and sculptor (b.1927)
• 13 April – Muriel Berman, American art collector and philanthropist, co-founder of the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania
• 25 April – Jacques Rouxel, French animator (b.1931)
• 12 May – Syd Hoff, American children’s book author and cartoonist (b.1912)
• 28 May – Jean-Philippe Charbonnier, French photographer (b.1921)
• 5 June – Fiore de Henriquez, Italian-born British sculptor (b.1921)
• 11 June – Egon von Fürstenberg, Swiss fashion designer (b.1946)
• 15 June – Lothar Fischer, German sculptor (b.1933)

• 2 July – John Cullen Murphy, American comics artist (b.1919)
• 19 July – Sylvia Daoust, Canadian sculptor (b.1902)
• 3 August – Henri Cartier-Bresson, French photographer (b.1908)
• 4 August – Cécile Guillame, first woman to engrave a French postal stamps (b.1933).
• 8 August – Leon Golub, American painter (b.1922).
• 9 August – Liisi Beckmann, Finnish artist and designer (b.1924).
• 8 September – Frank Thomas, American animator (b.1912)
• 19 September – Eddie Adams, American Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer (b.1933)

• 1 October – Richard Avedon, American photographer (b.1923).
• 13 October – Ivor Wood, English stop-motion animator (b.1932).
• 15 October – Irv Novick, American comic book artist (b.1916).
• 13 November – Harry Lampert, American cartoonist, advertising artist and author (b.1916).
• 19 November
• Trina Schart Hyman, American illustrator of children's books (b.1939).
• Piet Esser, Dutch sculptor (b.1914).
• 22 November – Leo Dee, American silverpoint artist (b.1931).
• 25 November – Ed Paschke, Polish-American painter (b.1939).
• 9 December – Sergey Voychenko, Belarusian artist and designer (b.1955).
• 16 December – Agnes Martin, Canadian-American painter (b.1912).
• 17 December – Tom Wesselmann, American pop artist (b.1931).
• December – Cleve Gray, American Abstract expressionist painter (b.1918).

• List of years in art

{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:2004 In Art}}

Category:2000s in art

Category:Years of the 21st century in art