Events from the year 1944 in art.

Events

• June 6 – Normandy landings: Robert Capa takes "The Magnificent Eleven" photographs.
• July – Dulwich Picture Gallery in London is substantially damaged by a V-1 flying bomb; half a dozen paintings are destroyed, but most have been evacuated to Aberystwyth.
• Autumn – Peggy Guggenheim's The Art of This Century gallery on Manhattan releases a 78 rpm 3-record album containing Paul Bowles' Sonata for Flute and Piano and Two Mexican Dances with a cover by Max Ernst.^[1]
• Clandestine publication of Vaincre, an album of 12 colour lithographs by 8 artists in support of the French Resistance.

Awards

• Archibald Prize: Joshua Smith – Hon Sol Rosevear, MHR, Speaker of the House of Representatives

Exhibitions

• Jean Dubuffet's first solo exhibition.

Works

• David Aronson – The Last Supper
• Duffy Ayers – Portrait of Tirzah Garwood
• Francis Bacon – Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion
• David Bomberg – Evening in the City of London
• Stella Bowen – Bomber Crew
• Robert Capa – "The Magnificent Eleven" (photographs)
• William Coldstream – Casualty Reception Station, Capua
• Salvador Dalí –
  • Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening
  • Tristan and Isolde created for the ballet Mad Tristan by Leonide Massine and Dali which in turn was inspired by the opera Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner^[2][3]
• Paul Delvaux – Sleeping Venus
• Jacob Epstein – sculptures
  • First Portrait of Esther (with long hair)
  • Lucifer
• George Grosz – Cain, or Hitler in Hell
• Jean Hélion – The Stairway
• Bror Hjorth – Gås-Anders (sculpture)
• Frida Kahlo
  • The Broken Column
  • Diego and Frida 1929-1944
• Dame Laura Knight – Take Off
• Fernand Léger – Three Musicians (Museum of Modern Art, New York)
• Henri Matisse – Annelies, White Tulips and Anemones
• Joan Miró – Barcelona Series (lithographs)
• Piet Mondrian (died February 1) – Victory Boogie-Woogie (unfinished)
• Walter Thomas Monnington
  • Southern England: Spitfires Attacking Flying-bombs
  • Tempests Attacking Flying-bombs
• Felix Nussbaum – Triumph of Death
• Pablo Picasso – Man with Sheep (sculpture)
• William Roberts
  • The Ballet
  • The Ferry (at Marston near Oxford)
  • Parson's Pleasure (On the Lawn)
• Robert F. Sargent – Into the Jaws of Death (photograph)
• Ben Shahn – The Red Stairway

Births

• 9 January – Ian Hornak, American painter and draughtsman (d. 2002).
• 10 January – Jeff Jones, American illustrator.
• 12 February - Jane Livingston, American curator.
• 4 March – Glen Baxter, English cartoonist.
• 29 March – Abbas, Iranian-born documentary photographer (d. 2018).
• 4 April – Phyllida Barlow, English sculptor (d. 2023).
• 8 May – David Vaughan, English psychedelic artist and muralist (d. 2003).
• 24 July – Maya Wildevuur, Dutch painter (d. 2023).
• 4 August – Allan McCollum, American conceptual artist, all media.
• 15 August – Gianfranco Ferré, Italian fashion designer (d. 2007).
• 20 August – Brian Barnes, English mural artist.
• 27 August – Catherine Leroy, French-born photographer (d. 2006).
• 1 September – Louis Delsarte, American painter (d. 2020).
• 4 November
  • Don Eddy, American painter.
  • Michael Heizer, American sculptor, earth artist.
• 23 November – Peter Lindbergh, born Peter Brodbeck, Polish-born fashion photographer (d. 2019).

Full date unknown

• Richard Mock, American painter, sculptor and cartoonist (d. 2006).
• Allen Ruppersberg, American conceptual artist, installation artist.

Deaths

• January 23 – Edvard Munch, Norwegian expressionist painter (b. 1863)
• February 1 – Piet Mondrian, Dutch abstract painter (b. 1872)
• February 26 – Lucienne Heuvelmans, French sculptor (b. 1885?)
• April 25 – George Herriman, American cartoonist (Krazy Kat) (b. 1880)
• July 18 – Rex Whistler, English painter (killed in action) (b. 1905)
• August 2 – Felix Nussbaum, German Jewish surrealist painter (in Auschwitz concentration camp) (b. 1904)
• August 18 – Hans Mertens, German painter (b. 1906)
• September 3 – William Logsdail, English landscape, portrait and genre painter (b. 1859)
• September 27
  • Aristide Maillol, French sculptor (b. 1861)
  • Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, Russian-born color photographer (b. 1863)
  • David Dougal Williams, British painter (b. 1888)
• October 14 – Marko Murat, Serbian painter (b. 1864)
• October 21 – Hilma af Klint, Swedish abstract painter and mystic (b. 1862)
• November 22 – Sir George Clausen, English artist (b. 1852)
• December 10 – Miklós Ligeti, Hungarian sculptor (b. 1871)
• December 13 – Wassily Kandinsky, Russian abstract painter (b. 1866)
• December 24 – Alfred Drury, English sculptor (b. 1856)
• Undated – Esther Kenworthy Waterhouse, English flower painter (b. 1857)