Overview of the events of 2022 in art
The year 2022 in art involves various significant events.
The year 2022 was eventful in the art world, filled with both record-breaking achievements and notable social statements.
One major highlight was the sale of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen's art collection, which fetched an unprecedented $1.5 billion at Christie's, breaking multiple artist records and becoming the largest single-owner sale in auction history. Key pieces included works by Georges Seurat, Gustav Klimt, and Paul Cézanne, each selling for over $100 million. The proceeds were directed to charity per Allen's wishes.
Climate change activism also made waves as protesters targeted renowned artworks worldwide. Iconic pieces by artists like Van Gogh and Monet were involved, with protesters aiming to draw attention to environmental issues by targeting highly publicized works, all of which were fortunately protected under glass.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) also became a more prominent tool in the art scene. The release of DALL·E 2 and other AI tools brought new possibilities for digital art creation, transforming the landscape and offering artists innovative ways to express ideas through machine-aided design.
These highlights, alongside the ongoing NFT market turbulence and art market resilience amidst global financial uncertainty, made 2022 a dynamic year for art.
February - Twenty five works by the Ukrainian painter Maria Prymachenko are believed to have been destroyed by a fire which consumed the Ivankiv Historical and Local History Museum (where they were housed) in Ivankiv , Kyiv Oblast , Ukraine during the Russian Invasion of Ukraine .[ 1] [ 2]
April 9 - The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego opens to the public after a five-year, $105 million overhaul.[ 3]
May - French authorities charge former President of the Louvre , Jean-Luc Martinez with money laundering in conjunction with an art trafficking case.[ 4]
May 8 - The Andy Warhol silk-screen painting Sage Blue Shot Marilyn (1964) sells at Christie's in New York City for $195.04 million (with fees) shattering the record for a price paid at auction for a work by an American artist, besting the previous mark set by Jean-Michel Basquiat 's 1982 painting Untitled which sold for $110,500,000 in 2017.[ 5] [ 6] It also became the most expensive 20th century artwork sold in a public sale.[ 7] The buyer was the American art dealer Larry Gagosian .[ 8]
May 14 - An original print of Man Ray 's Le Violon d'Ingres sells for $12.4 million US (with fees) at Christie's in New York City making it the most expensive photograph ever sold at auction.[ 9] [ 10]
May 31 - At the Louvre in Paris a male provocateur initially disguised as an elderly female art-goer in a wheelchair smears the bulletproof glass on top of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci with cake . He later reveals that he believes that he was engaged in some sort of makeshift climate protest. The still unidentified 36-year-old man was subsequently placed in psychiatric care.[ 11] [ 12]
June 23 - The Orlando Museum of Art in Orlando, Florida is raided by the FBI who seize 25 suspect paintings potentially fraudulently attributed to Jean-Michel Basquiat . The museum's director, Aaron De Groft who staged the exhibition of the works at the art institution is fired five days later.[ 13]
July 4 - The Hay Wain (completed 1821) by the English landscape painter John Constable (1776-1837), and regarded as his most famous image, is subjected to two Just Stop Oil protestors attaching their own modified "apocalyptic vision of the future" version of the painting to the original and gluing themselves to the frame.[ 14] The National Gallery later reports that the surface varnish of the painting and its frame suffered minor damage.[ 15]
October 9 - Two Extinction Rebellion activists glue themselves to Pablo Picasso 's Massacre in Korea painting at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne .[ 16]
October
November 9
December 3 - Sydney Modern Project a A$344 extension to the Art Gallery of NSW opens to the public.[ 24]
January 31 until June 5 - Charles Ray : Figure Ground at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City .[ 25]
January 13 until February 20 - 1970S/Graffiti/Today at Phillips in New York City,[ 26]
February 3 until April 16 - Ed Kerns : Interconnected at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania .[ 27]
February 11 until April 17 - Tomás Saraceno : Particular Matter(s) at The Shed at Hudson Yards in New York City.[ 28]
February 11 until May 15 - Holbein : Capturing Character at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City.[ 29]
February 17 until May 15 - Jacques Louis David : Radical Draftsman at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.[ 30]
March 3 until April 14 - Dorothea Tanning : Doesn't the Paint Say it All at the Kasmin Gallery in New York City.[ 31]
March 3 until July 24 - Bridget Riley : Perceptual Abstraction at the Yale Center for British Art at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut .[ 32]
April 11 until July 31 - Sean Scully : The Shape of Ideas at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (originated at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Fort Worth, Texas ).[ 33]
May 4 until September 4 - Archipenko and the Italian Avant-Garde at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art in London, England.[ 34]
May 5 until July 22 - Nicole Eisenman : Untitled (Show) at Hauser & Wirth in New York City.[ 35]
May 5 into February 27, 2023 - Monet - Mitchell at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, France .[ 36]
May 14 until October 2 - Nick Cave : Forothemore at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago in Chicago, Illinois .[ 37]
May 20 until October 16 - Marc Quinn : History Paintings + at the Yale Center for British Art at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.[ 38]
May 22 until October 23 - Salman Toor : No Ordinary Love at the Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore , Maryland .[ 39]
May 25 until September 11 - Sam Gilliam : Full Circle at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC .[ 40]
July 22 until January 8, 2023 - New York: 1962-1964 at The Jewish Museum in New York City.[ 41]
September 9 until March 12 , 2023 - Łempicka at the National Museum in Kraków .[ 42]
September 23 until January 8, 2023 - Bernardo Bellotto . On the 300th Anniversary of the Painter's Birthday at the Royal Castle in Warsaw .[ 43]
October 18 until February 20, 2023 - Alex Katz : Gathering at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City.[ 44]
October 18 until January 8, 2023 - Ugo Rondinone : The water is a poem, unwritten by the air, no. the earth is a poem, unwritten by the fire at the Petit Palais in Paris .[ 45]
October 20 until January 22, 2023 - Cubism and the Trompe l'Oeil Tradition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.[ 46]
October 22 until April 9, 2023 - Frank Bowling 's Americas at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts .[ 47]
October 27 until December 17 - Pawel Althamer : Polish Sculpture at Anton Kern Gallery in New York City.[ 48]
November 3 until December 23, 2022 - David Hockney :20 Flowers and Some Bigger Pictures at Annely Juda Fine Art in London ,[ 49]
November 6 until April 30, 2023 - Henry Taylor : B Side at MOCA, Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California ,[ 50] then traveled to the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City from October 4, 2023 until January 26, 2024.[ 51]
Ongoing - Ricky Brown: Really Bad Portraits in Washington Square Park in New York City.[ 52]
Ferdi Alıcı - The Eye of Mexico in Mexico City , Mexico
Meriem Bennani - Windy commissioned for a. Installed on the High line in New York City.[ 53]
William Behrends - Statue of Tom Seaver (permanently installed at Citi Field in Queens, New York )[ 54]
Richard Bossons - Statue of Queen Elizabeth II at York Minster Cathedral in York, England [ 23]
Sandy Brown - Earth Goddess (installed in St Austell , Cornwall)[ 55]
Branly Cadet - Statue of Sandy Koufax (permanently installed at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California )[ 56]
Alex Da Corte - ROY G BIV (commissioned for and exhibited at the 2022 Whitney Biennial )[ 57]
Denise Dutton - Statue of Mary Anning
Michael Heizer - City in Garden Valley, Lincoln County, Nevada , USA (begun in 1972 and completed in 2022)[ 58]
David Hockney - Harry Styles, 31st May 2022 [ 59]
Dmitry Iv - Shoot Yourself (sculpture) in Kyiv , Ukraine [ 60]
Douglas Jennings - Statue of Margaret Thatcher (Grantham)
Samson Kambalu - Antelope (on the Fourth plinth, Trafalgar Square , London)[ 61]
Matthew Mazzotta - Phoebe the Flamingo installed at the main terminal at Tampa International Airport
Robin Kid - God Bless our Broken Home [ 62]
Eduardo Kobra - For the planet (mural on the side of the United Nations Headquarters in New York City)[ 63]
Hew Locke - Procession (sculptural mixed-media assemblage instillation) in the Duveen Galleries of the Tate Britain in London[ 64]
Jesse Pallotta - A Love Letter to Marsha
Donato Piccolo - Quando il fiore muore, il pensiero percuote [ 65]
Allison Saar - Statue of Lorraine Hansberry [ 66]
Basil Watson - National Windrush Monument
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(November 2024 )
Film, television series, and plays[ edit ]
January 1
January 4 - Craig Ruddy , 53, Australian artist and Archibald Prize winner (COVID-19)[ 68]
January 14 - Ricardo Bofill , 82, Spanish architect
January 15 - Hossein Valamanesh , 72, Iranian-Australian artist
January 16
January 31 - James Bidgood , 88, American filmmaker, photographer, and visual and performance artist
February 7 - Dan Lacey , 61, American painter
February 10 - John Wesley , 93, American painter
February 12 - Carmen Herrera , 106, Cuban-born American artist[ 70]
February 17 - John Scott , 71, Canadian artist
February 19
February 22 - DeWain Valentine , 86, American sculptor
February 26
February 27 - Nick Zedd , 63, American filmmaker and painter
March 1 - Conrad Janis , 94, American actor, art dealer, and son of Sidney Janis
March 13 - Albert Kresch , 99, American painter
March 18 - Budi Tek , 65, Indonesian art collector
March 28 - Mira Calix , 52, South African-born British visual artist and musician
March 29 - Ted Mooney , 70, American novelist and Art journalist (Art in America )
March 31 - Patrick Demarchelier , 78, French photographer
April 1 - Eleanor Munro , 94, American art critic, art historian, and writer
April 4 -
April 6 - David McKee , 87, British illustrator
April 18 - Hermann Nitsch , 83, Austrian artist (Viennese Actionism )
April 21 - Cynthia Plaster Caster , 74, American artist
April 22 - Marcus Leatherdale , 69, Canadian photographer
April 23 - Enoch Kelly Haney , 81, American sculptor and painter
April 30 - Ron Galella 91, American photographer
May 7 - Suzi Gablik 87, American artist, and art critic
May 10 - Enrique Metinides , 88, Mexican crime photographer
May 15 - Knox Martin , 99, American painter
May 18 - Bob Neuwirth , 82, American Musician, singer-performer, and painter
May 22 - Miss.Tic , 66, French street artist
May 24 - David Datuna , 48, Georgian born American artist
May 27 - Claude Rutault , 80, French painter
June 5 - Christopher Pratt , 86, Canadian painter and printmaker
June 6 - Jacques Villeglé , 96, French mixed-media artist
June 8 - Paula Rego , 87, Portuguese-British visual artist
June 11 - Duncan Hannah , 69, American painter
June 12
June 15
June 21 - Harvey Dinnerstein , 94, American artist
June 25 - Sam Gilliam , 88, American painter
June 26 - Margaret Keane , 94, American painter
July 2 - David Blackwood , 80, Canadian visual artist
July 4 - Kazuki Takahashi , 60, Japanese manga artist
July 9
July 18
July 22 - Emilie Benes Brzezinski , 90, American sculptor
July 25 - Jennifer Bartlett , 81, American painter
July 29 - Mary Obering , 85, American painter
August 2 - Velichko Minekov , 93, Bulgarian sculptor
August 5 - Issey Miyake , 84, Japanese fashion designer
August 9 - Raymond Briggs , 88, British author and illustrator
August 12 - Natalia LL , 85, Polish artist
August 13 - Marta Palau Bosch , 88, Spanish-born Mexican artist
August 14 - Dmitri Vrubel , 62, Russian painter
August 21 - Oliver Frey , 74, Swiss visual artist
August 24 - Lily Renée , 101, Austrian-born American comic book artist
August 25 - Charlie Finch , 68, American art critic (death announced on this date)
September 5 - Virginia Dwan , 90, American art dealer
September 8
September 13
October 8
October 11
October 16 - Jüri Arrak , 85, Estonian painter
October 17 - Jagoda Buić , 92, Croatian visual artist
October 21 - Peter Schjeldahl , 80, American art critic (The New Yorker , The New York Times , ARTnews ) and poet
October 22 - Rodney Graham , 73, Canadian visual artist
October 24 - Laila Shawa , 82, Palestinian visual artist
October 26 - Pierre Soulages , 102, French visual artist
November 2 - Nicholas Harding , 66, English-born Australian painter, Archibald Prize winner (2001)
November 7 - Brian O'Doherty , 94, Irish American artist and art critic
November 8 - Lee Bontecou , 91, American sculptor
November 10 - Hervé Télémaque , 85, Haitian-born French painter
November 28 - Tom Phillips , 85, English artist (A Humument )
November 30 - Ashley Bickerton , 63, Barbadian-born American artist
December 3 - Larry Qualls , American art editor and documentarian
December 7 - Ronald Sherr , 70, American portrait artist
December 9 - Judith Lauand , 100, Brazilian painter and printmaker
December 17 - Philip Pearlstein , 98, American painter
December 20 - Maya Widmaier-Picasso , 87, French art curator
December 21 - Franz Gertsch , 92, Swiss painter
December 26 - Dorothy Iannone , 89, American visual artist
December 28
Full date unknown
^ Stevens, Matt; Bowley, Graham (28 February 2022). "Treasured Paintings Burned in Russian Invasion, Ukrainian Officials Say" . The New York Times .
^ "Ukrainian Culture and Art Comes Under Attack in the Wake of Russia's Invasion" . March 2022.
^ "Review: Women take center stage as the curtain rises on a San Diego art museum" . Los Angeles Times . 7 April 2022.
^ "Former Louvre president Jean-Luc Martinez charged in Abu Dhabi art trafficking case" . The Washington Post . 2022-05-27. Retrieved 2022-06-08 .
^ Pogrebin, Robin (10 May 2022). "Warhol's 'Marilyn,' at $195 Million, Shatters Auction Record for an American Artist" . The New York Times .
^ "Andy Warhol's iconic Marilyn Monroe portrait sells for record $195m" . TheGuardian.com . 10 May 2022.
^ "At $195mn, Warhol's Marilyn becomes most expensive 20th-century painting - la Prensa Latina Media" . 10 May 2022.
^ "Who's Gagosian, the Winning Bidder for Warhol's $195 Million 'Marilyn' " . Bloomberg.com . 10 May 2022.
^ "Man Ray's 'Le Violon d'Ingres' photograph sells for record $12.4 million" . CNN .
^ "Man Ray's Famed Photograph of Kiki de Montparnasse Sells for Record $12.4 M" . 14 May 2022.
^ "Mona Lisa smeared with cake in apparent climate protest" . CBS News . 31 May 2022.
^ "Man arrested after Mona Lisa smeared with cake" . TheGuardian.com . 30 May 2022.
^ "Orlando Museum of Art director fired after FBI seizes 'purported' Basquiat paintings" . USA Today .
^ Williams, Helen (4 July 2022). "Anti-oil protesters attach 'apocalyptic vision' to Constable's Hay Wain" . The Independent . Retrieved 4 July 2022 .
^ Holland, Oscar (5 July 2022). "Climate protesters glue themselves to 200-year-old masterpiece" . CNN . Retrieved 5 July 2022 .
^ "Prized Picasso 'unharmed' after Extinction Rebellion activists glue hands to painting in Melbourne" . TheGuardian.com . 9 October 2022.
^ "Just Stop Oil activists throw soup at van Gogh's Sunflowers" . TheGuardian.com . 14 October 2022.
^ "Protesters throw mashed potatoes at Monet worth $110 million" . NBC News . 24 October 2022.
^ Ottermann, Philip (2022-10-29). "Obvious if you look? Mondrian has been upside down for 75 years" . The Guardian . London. p. 6. Retrieved 2022-10-29 .
^ "A Cezanne Landscape Owned by Microsoft Billionaire Co-Founder Sells for $138 M" . 10 November 2022.
^ Pogrebin, Robin (10 November 2022). "Paul G. Allen's Art at Christie's Tops $1.5 Billion, Cracking Records" . The New York Times . Archived from the original on 2022-11-10. Retrieved 2022-11-10 .
^ "A Klimt Sells for $105 Million, Setting a New Auction Record" . Bloomberg News . 10 November 2022. Archived from the original on 2022-11-19. Retrieved 2022-11-10 .
^ a b "King Charles Has Unveiled a Larger-Than-Life Statue of Queen Elizabeth II, Carved from Three Tons of Limestone" . 10 November 2022.
^ "The Sydney Modern project is finally open. Has the Art Gallery of NSW's $344m expansion paid off?" . TheGuardian.com . 2 December 2022.
^ "The Metropolitan Museum of Art" . The Metropolitan Museum of Art . Archived from the original on 26 February 2022. Retrieved 26 March 2023 .
^ "1970S / Graffiti / Today" .
^ " 'Interconnected' cross-campus exhibit celebrates four decades of ed Kerns' expression through art" .
^ "In Pictures: See Crowds Lose Themselves in Artist Tomás Saraceno's Immersive Spiderweb Environment at the Shed" . 7 March 2022.
^ "Holbein: Capturing Character" . 24 August 2021.
^ "Jacques Louis David: Radical Draftsman" .
^ "Dorothea Tanning's Enigmatic Art Journeys Beyond Surrealism in a New Show at Kasmin" . 9 March 2022.
^ "Bridget Riley: Perceptual Abstraction | Yale Center for British Art" .
^ "Major Exhibition of Work by Abstract Painter Sean Scully" .
^ "Archipenko and the Italian Avant Garde - Estorick Collection" .
^ "Exhibition | Nicole Eisenman, 'Untitled (Show)' at Hauser & Wirth, 22nd Street, New York, USA" . 29 July 2022.
^ "Fondation Louis Vuitton to Showcase Monumental Exhibition on Claude Monet and Joan Mitchell" . 19 July 2022.
^ "MCA - Nick Cave: Forothermore" .
^ "Marc Quinn: History Painting + | Yale Center for British Art" .
^ "Salman Toor: No Ordinary Love | Baltimore Museum of Art" .
^ "Sam Gilliam: Full Circle" .
^ "The Jewish Museum" .
^ "Łempicka - Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie" . mnk.pl .
^ 1396 Bernardo Bellotto 300th anniversary painters birthday zamek-krolewski.pl
^ "Alex Katz: Gathering" .
^ "Exhibitions. Ugo La Pietra: L'artista E La Città" . mutualart.com . Retrieved 26 March 2023 .
^ "Cubism and the Trompe l'Oeil Tradition - the Metropolitan Museum of Art" . Archived from the original on 2022-11-13. Retrieved 2022-11-15 .
^ "Frank Bowling's Americas" .
^ "Paweł Althamer: Polish Sculpture | October 27 - December 17, 2022" .
^ "David Hockney - 20 Flowers and Some Bigger Pictures" .
^ "Henry Taylor: B Side" .
^ "Henry Taylor: B Side Oct 4, 2023–Jan 28, 2024" .
^ "Funny Artist Draws "Really Bad Portraits" of Strangers on the Street of NYC for $3" . 19 April 2022.
^ "Windy" . The High Line .
^ "Mets unveil overdue Tom Seaver statue outside Citi Field" . 15 April 2022.
^ " 'Unwanted junk': Earth Goddess statue prompts unholy reaction in St Austell" . BBC News . 23 June 2022. Retrieved 27 June 2022 .
^ Ardaya, Fabian (June 19, 2022). "Dodgers unveil statue honoring Sandy Koufax" . The Athletic .
^ "Alex da Corte: ROY G BIV" .
^ William Van Meter. "I Ventured to Michael Heizer's Remote Land Art Masterwork—And Left Transformed" . Artnet .
^ "When Harry Styles met David Hockney" . 4 August 2023.
^ " 'Shoot Yourself': Statue of Putin with gun in his mouth appears in Kyiv" . 10 May 2022.
^ "Trafalgar Square Fourth Plinth: Winning design a 'litmus test' for society" . BBC News . 2021-07-05. Retrieved 2022-10-01 . .
^ "Robin Kid | God Bless Our Broken Home, 2022" .
^ "Brazilian artist's mural 'for the planet' proves big draw for GA | United Nations" . Archived from the original on 2022-11-18. Retrieved 2022-09-30 .
^ Fullerton, Elizabeth (April 2022). "Bright Colors, Dark Subjects: Hew Locke's Unsettling Pageant" . The New York Times .
^ "Les hommes s'habillent comme des robots" .
^ Bahr, Sarah (19 May 2022). "Lorraine Hansberry Statue to be Unveiled in Times Square" . The New York Times .
^ "Phoebe the Flamingo earns top bill from critics and audiences alike at international art contest" . WUSF . 2023-09-08. Retrieved 2024-11-14 .
^ "Craig Ruddy, Archibald prize-winning painter, dies at 53" . The Guardian . 5 January 2022. Retrieved 5 January 2022 .
^ Jessica Steinberg (17 January 2022). "Tova Berlinski, artist who painted the pain of Auschwitz, dies at 106" . Times of Israel . Retrieved 22 February 2022 .
^ Oliver Basciano (14 February 2022). "Carmen Herrera obituary" . The Guardian . Retrieved 22 February 2022 .
^ "Dan Graham, Conceptual Artist Who Bent Time and Space, Dies at 79" . 20 February 2022. Archived from the original on 2022-02-20. Retrieved 2022-02-22 .
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