Events from the year 1955 in art.
Events
January 21 – O. Winston Link starts a 5-year personal project to document steam operations on the Norfolk and Western Railway in the United States using flash photography. January 26 – A trial establishes that the recently "restored" "medieval" frescoes in St. Mary's Church, Lübeck, are in fact newly painted by Lothar Malskat and an associate. March – A Photographer's Gallery is established in New York City by Roy DeCarava. May 17 – The Clark Art Institute opens to the public in Williamstown, Massachusetts. June 1 – Première of Billy Wilder's film of The Seven Year Itch featuring an iconic scene of Marilyn Monroe standing on a New York City Subway grating as her white dress (created by Travilla) is blown above her knees. June 27 – Sir Jacob Epstein marries Kathleen Garman. October–November – Nikolaus Pevsner delivers this year's series of Reith Lectures on The Englishness of English Art, originally broadcast on BBC radio in the UK. December – Iris Clert Gallery opens in the rue des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and its owner, Iris Clert, first meets Yves Klein. date unknown Marcel Duchamp becomes a citizen of the United States. Pablo Picasso finishes painting his Les Femmes d'Alger ("The Women of Algiers") series (inspired by Delacroix), concluding with "Version O" which in 2015 will sell at a world record price for a painting at auction. British studio potter Alan Caiger-Smith establishes Aldermaston Pottery in England. Enrique Tábara obtains an Ecuadorian government scholarship to study in Spain.
Awards
Archibald Prize: Ivor Hele – Robert Campbell Esq.
Works
Michael Andrews – Four People Sunbathing (Arts Council England) Pietro Annigoni – Portrait of Elizabeth II Balthus Girls on the Couch Nude Before a Mirror John Brack Collins St., 5 pm The Car Edward Burra – Izzy Orts Lucien Clergue – Trio des Saltimbanques (photograph) Carroll Cloar – My Father Was Big as a Tree Pompeo Coppini – Statue of George Washington (bronze, University of Texas at Austin) Salvador Dalí – The Sacrament of the Last Supper (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) (completed) Ben Enwonwu – Anyanwu (sculpture) Sir Jacob Epstein – Christ in Majesty (sculpture for Llandaff Cathedral) M. C. Escher – lithographs Compass Rose (Order and Chaos II) Convex and Concave Three Worlds Alberto Giacometti Diego (approximate date) Grande tête mince Oswaldo Guayasamín – El ataúd blanco Edward Hopper – South Carolina Morning Jasper Johns Flag White Flag Willem de Kooning Composition Woman as Landscape Woman-Ochre Lee Krasner Bald Eagle Color Totem L. S. Lowry (Tate collection) Industrial Landscape A Young Man René Magritte – The Mysteries of the Horizon Georg Mayer-Marton — Crucifixion (mosaic and fresco in Roman Catholic Church of Holy Rosary in Fitton Hill, Oldham, England) Henry Moore Upright Motive No. 1: Glenkiln Cross Wall Relief no. 1 (carved brick, Bouwcentrum, Rotterdam) Sidney Nolan – Ned Kelly Pablo Picasso – Don Quixote (sketch for Les Lettres Françaises, August) Robert Rauschenberg – Bantam Norman Rockwell – Marriage License Mark Rothko – Violet Center Charles Sheeler – The Web Hedda Sterne – New York, N.Y., 1955
Exhibitions
January – The Family of Man, a photography exhibition curated by Edward Steichen, opens at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. October – First public exhibition of Yves Klein's monochrome oil paintings, at Club des Solitaires, Paris. November 3–December 18 – Stanley Spencer: a Retrospective Exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London. Le Mouvement at Galerie Denise René, Paris, popularizing kinetic art. Exhibition by London members of Groupe Espace, organized by Paule Vézelay at the Royal Festival Hall.
Births
January 15 – Andreas Gursky, German large format photographer
January 21 – Jeff Koons, American "kitsch" artist
February 2 – Madi Phala, South African artist (d. 2007) March 10 – Mark Landis, American painter and art forger March 24 – Beverly K. Effinger, American painter May 20 – Anton Corbijn, Dutch photographer and videographer July 29 – Dave Stevens, American illustrator and comics artist (d. 2008) August 2 – PHASE 2 (Lonny Wood), American graffiti artist (d. 2019) November 15 – Sergey Voychenko, Belarusian artist and designer (d. 2004) undated Manasie Akpaliapik, Canadian Inuit sculptor Mariana Cook, American portrait photographer Miroslav Grčev, Macedonian architect and graphic designer Jaume Plensa, Catalan sculptor Rebecca Salter, English printmaker and multimedia abstract artist, President of the Royal Academy Alexander Sokolov, sculptor working in Spain