1957 in art

Events

• April 19 – Picasso is introduced by American photographer David Douglas Duncan to his dachshund Lump who becomes Picasso's companion and subject in paintings.
• May 17 – First known instance of a chimpanzee painting. His mentor Desmond Morris organises an exhibition of chimpanzee art at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.
• Hungarian National Gallery opens in Buda Castle, Budapest.
• Gruppe SPUR, an artistic collaboration, is founded in Germany.
• Chicago's Lithuanian community opens the Čiurlionis Art Gallery.
• John Lennon enrols at Liverpool College of Art where he will meet Stuart Sutcliffe.
• Man Ray's Object to Be Destroyed is destroyed
• Three new neo-grotesque sans-serif typefaces are released: Folio, Neue Haas Grotesk and Univers ; all will be influential in the International Typographic Style of graphic design.

  Awards

• Archibald Prize: Ivor Hele – Self Portrait
• John Moores Painting Prize: Jack Smith – Creation and Crucifixion

  Exhibitions

• January – Yves Klein – Proposte Monochrome, Epoca Blu, Gallery Apollinaire, Milan.

  Works

• Jean Arp – '
• Maurice Boitel – The Hens
• Paul-Émile Borduas – Étoile noire
• Arthur Boyd – Dreaming Bridegroom 1
• Yves Klein – Aerostatic Sculpture .
• L. S. Lowry – Man Lying on a Wall; Portrait of Ann
• Isamu Noguchi – Endless Coupling
• Pablo Picasso – Las Meninas
• Charles Sheeler – '
• Clyfford Still – 1957-D No. 1

  Births

• January 27 – Frank Miller, American comic-book artist
• April 3 – Yves Chaland, French cartoonist
• August 7 – Mark Bagley, American comic-book artist
• August 9 – Rick Leonardi, American comic-book illustrator
• August 28 – Ai Weiwei, Chinese installation artist
• October 16 – Jim Hodges, American installation artist
• November 18 – Ernst Billgren, Swedish sculptor
• November 26 – Félix González-Torres, Cuban artist
• undated
• * Bill Barker, American Schwa conceptual artist
• * Mike Bernard, English painter and multi-media artist
• * Martin Jennings, English figurative sculpture
• * Wang Chiu-chiang, Chinese shan-shui artist

  Deaths

• January 1 – Óscar Domínguez, Spanish painter
• January 17 – Jože Plečnik, Slovene architect
• January 20 – John Minton, English painter and illustrator
• February 4 – Miguel Covarrubias, Mexican painter and caricaturist
• February 11 – Gwen Raverat, English wood engraver
• February 14 – Emanuel Hahn, German Canadian sculptor
• March 16 – Constantin Brâncuși, Romanian-born sculptor
• March 28 – Jack Butler Yeats, Irish painter and illustrator
• March 23 – Andrzej Wróblewski, Polish figurative painter
• May 14 – Marie Vassilieff, Russian-born painter
• May 18 – Bruce Rogers, American book designer and typographer
• June 12 – Mario Urteaga Alvarado, Peruvian painter
• July 7 – Kiyoshi Koishi, Japanese photographer
• August 2 – Lasar Segall, Lithuanian-born Brazilian Jewish painter
• August 15 – C. T. Loo, Chinese-born art dealer
• August 19 – David Bomberg, English painter
• September 13 – Adam Emory Albright, American painter of figures in landscapes
• September 26 – Pompeo Coppini, Italian American sculptor
• October 11 – René Auberjonois, Swiss Post-Impressionist painter
• October 15 – Henry van de Velde, Belgian-born painter, architect and designer, a founder of the Art Nouveau movement
• October 24 – Christian Dior, French fashion designer
• November 2 – Mahonri Young, American sculptor
• November 20 – Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Russian-born graphic artist
• November 24 – Diego Rivera, Mexican painter
• November 30 – Paja Jovanović, a leading Serbian Realist painter
• December 14 – Josef Lada, Czech illustrator and painter
• December 15 – Heinrich Hoffmann, German propaganda photographer
• undated – Saishū Onoe, Japanese poet and calligrapher