1981 in art

	… 1971; 1972; 1973; 1974; 1975; 1976; 1977; ; 1978; 1979; 1980; 1981; 1982; 1983; 1984; ; 1985; 1986; 1987; 1988; 1989; 1990; 1991 …;
	Art; Archaeology; Architecture; Literature; Music; Philosophy; Science; +...

Events from the year 1981 in art.

Events

10 September – Picasso's painting Guernica is returned from New York to Madrid.
Blek le Rat begins his stencil graffiti art in Paris.

Tony Cragg – Britain as Seen from the North
John Doubleday – Statue of Charlie Chaplin (Leicester Square, London)
Don Eckland – Emergence (bronze, Eugene, Oregon)
Bryan Hunt – Arch Falls (bronze, Houston, Texas)
Nabil Kanso – Dreamvision series of paintings completed
Ellsworth Kelly – Curve XXIV (sculpture, Seattle)
Carlo Maria Mariani – The Constellation of Leo
Ana Mendieta Maroya (Esculturas Rupestres) (executed in caves in Cuba)^[1]
Odd Nerdrum – Twilight
Helmut Newton – Sie kommen! ("They're coming!", photographic diptych; published in French Vogue, November)
Richard Serra – Tilted Arc, Federal Plaza, New York City (dismantled 1989)
Andy Warhol – Myths series
Aubrey Williams – Shostakovich series of paintings completed

15 April – Seth Wulsin, American artist.
19 April – Saskia de Brauw, Dutch model and artist
4 November – Paul Tucker, Canadian visual artist and graphic novel and webcomic illustrator.
20 November – Scott Hutchison, Scottish singer, songwriter, guitarist, and visual artist (d. 2018)^[2]

19 January – Francesca Woodman, 22, American photographer
4 April - Isaac Frenkel Frenel, Israeli French painter and sculptor (b. 1899)
8 May – Grethe Jürgens, German painter (b. 1899)
25 May – Armando de Armas Romero, Cuban painter (b. 1914)
28 May – Jean Paul Slusser, painter, designer, art critic, professor, and director of the University of Michigan Museum of Art (b. 1886)
16 June – Hans Coper, German-born English studio potter (b. 1920)^[3]
19 June – Lotte Reiniger, German silhouette animator and film director (b.1899)
29 June – Russell Drysdale, Australian artist (b. 1912)
8 July – Isaac Soyer, Russian-born American painter, (b. 1902)
16 July – John E. Berninger, American landscape painter (b. 1896)
7 September – Christy Brown, Irish author, painter and poet (b. 1932)
12 October – Enzo Plazzotta, Italian-born British sculptor (b. 1921)
13 October – Antonio Berni, Argentine painter (b. 1905)
20 October – Annot, German painter (b. 1894).
23 October – Reg Butler, English sculptor (b. 1913)
17 November – Nano Reid, Irish painter (b. 1905)
22 November – Corrado Parducci, Italian-American architectural sculptor (b. 1900)
5 December - Max Spivak - 74, American muralist (b. 1901)
28 December – Bram van Velde, Dutch painter (b. 1895)

^ Glista, Tia (2019-11-13). "See Ana Mendieta's Cave Art Up Close". www.papermag.com.
^ Kreps, Daniel (11 May 2018). "Frightened Rabbit Singer Scott Hutchison Dead at 36". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 12 May 2018.
^ Janet Podell (May 1982). Annual Obituary, 1981. Thomson Gale. p. 391. ISBN 978-0-912289-51-9.