Events from the year 1985 in art.

Events

• Charles Saatchi's collection opens to the public, arousing interest in Neo-expressionism.
• Germano Celant publishes Arte Povekira: Storie e protagonisti.
• Art gallerist Andrew Crispo and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum are involved in a dispute over Constantin Brâncuși's 1912 sculpture "The Muse" which ends in the museum paying $2 million US for the artwork, at the time believed to be the most ever paid for a 20th century sculpture.^[1]

Awards

• Archibald Prize: Guy Warren – Flugelman with Wingman
• John Moores Painting Prize - Bruce McLean for "Oriental Garden Kyoto^[2]
• Turner Prize – Howard Hodgkin

Shortlisted were: Terry Atkinson, Tony Cragg, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Milena Kalinovska and John Walker.

Works

• Mai Dantsig – And the Saved World Remembers
• Robyn Denny – Coloured lines at Embankment tube station in London, England
• Christo and Jeanne Claude - "The Pont Neuf Wrapped" at the Pont Neuf in Paris, France
• Thomas Morandi – Yankee Champion (sculpture, Portland, Oregon)
• Odd Nerdrum – The Cloud (Skyen)
• George Rickey – Double L Excentric Gyratory (sculpture)
• Sally Robinson (Australian) – Kakadu (screen print)
• Wayne Thiebaud – Sunset Streets
• Andy Warhol – Reigning Queens series

Births

• September 24 – Eric Adjetey Anang, Ghanaian sculptor
• date unknown
  • Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Jordanian-born artist
  • Helen Marten, English sculptor and installation artist

Deaths

• 8 January – Grace Morley, American-born curator (b. 1900)^[3]
• 18 January – Anwar Shemza, Pakistan-born British artist and writer (b. 1928)
• 7 March – Jessie Oonark, Canadian Inuit artist (b. 1906)
• 28 March – Marc Chagall, Russian-Belarusian-French painter (b. 1887).
• 21 April – Rudi Gernreich, Austrian American fashion designer (b. 1922).
• 11 May – Chester Gould, American cartoonist (b. 1900).
• 12 May – Jean Dubuffet, French painter and sculptor (b. 1901).
• 22 May – Wolfgang Reitherman, German-American animator (b. 1909).
• 26 July – Grace Albee, American printmaker (b. 1890).
• 21 August – David Olère, Polish-born Jewish French painter (b. 1902).
• 8 September – Ana Mendieta, Cuban American performance artist, sculptor, painter and video artist
• 28 September – André Kertész, Hungarian-born photographer (b. 1894).
• 17 November – Richard Amsel, American illustrator and graphic designer (b. 1947).
• 8 December – Paul Kelpe, German-born American painter (b. 1902).
• Ovartaci, Danish outsider artist (b. 1894)
• Antonio Rodríguez Luna, Spanish painter (b. 1910).