1979 in art

October 25 – Frederic Edwin Church's 1861 painting The Icebergs sells for US$2.5 million at Sotheby's New York, the third-highest amount paid for any painting at auction at this date.^[1]
November 15 – Art historian and former Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures Anthony Blunt's role as one of the 'Cambridge Five' double agents for the Soviet NKVD during World War II is revealed by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.^[2]
The Xing xing ("The Stars Group") of 20 avant-garde Chinese artists (including Ma Desheng, Wang Keping, Huang Rui, Li Shuang, Qu Leilei, Ah Cheng and Ai Weiwei) stage an illegal exhibition outside the National Art Museum of China in Beijing.
The Bauhaus Archive, designed by Alexander Cvijanović with Hans Bandel after Walter Gropius, is completed in West Berlin, Germany.
Edward Delaney's statue of Wolfe Tone in Dublin is destroyed by terrorists.

Works

January 11 – Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, German-born French Art dealer (born 1884)
February 3 – Aaron Douglas, American painter (born 1898)
February 7 – Charles Tunnicliffe, British wildlife painter (born 1901)
March 20 – Jean Charlot, French painter and illustrator (born 1898)
April 5 – Eugène Gabritschevsky, Russian biologist and artist (born 1893)
June 23 – Reynolds Stone, English wood engraver (born 1909)
June 25
- Dave Fleischer, Austrian American animator, film director, and film producer (born 1894)
- Philippe Halsman, Latvian American portrait photographer (born 1906)
July 13 – Ludwig Merwart, Austrian painter and graphic artist (born 1913)
August 20 – Christian Dotremont, Belgian painter and poet (born 1922)
August 29 – Ivon Hitchens, English painter (born 1893)
September 17 – Paul Maze, French-born English Post-Impressionist painter (born 1887)
November 8 – Edward Ardizzone, British writer and illustrator (born 1900)
November 20 – Tyra Lundgren, Swedish painter, ceramist, glass and textile designer and writer on art (born 1897)
December 5 – Sonia Delaunay, Ukrainian-French artist (born 1885)
December 23 – Peggy Guggenheim, American-born art collector (born 1898)
December 26 – Karl Hubbuch, German painter, printmaker and draughtsman (born 1891)
date unknown
- Russell Brockbank, Canadian-born cartoonist (born 1913)
- Sheila Fell, English painter (born 1931)

Events