The year 2003 in art involves various significant events.

Events

• January 21 – The Spire of Dublin is completed.^[1]
• May 11 – Benvenuto Cellini's Saliera is stolen from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
• June 15–November 2 – A record number of seven co-curators is involved in the 50th edition of the Venice Biennale, directed by Francesco Bonami.^[2]
• August 27 – Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna of the Yarnwinder is stolen from the Duke of Buccleuch collection at Drumlanrig Castle in Scotland.^[3] It is recovered in 2007.
• November – Gustav Klimt's Landhaus am Attersee sells for $29,128,000.
• December 25 – Beagle 2 lands on the surface of Mars; its calibration target plate is painted by Damien Hirst.
• date unknown – Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London takes over the Byam Shaw School of Art.

Exhibitions

• Jim Sanborn, Critical Assembly, Corcoran School of Art
• Patti Smith, Strange Messenger, The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh

Awards

• Archibald Prize – Geoffrey Dyer, a portrait of Richard Flanagan
• Beck's Futures – Rosalind Nashashibi
• Schock Prize in Visual Arts – Susan Rothenberg
• Turner Prize – Grayson Perry
• The Venice Biennale (June 15 - November 2) -
  • The Lion d'Or Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement: Michelangelo Pistoletto (Italy) and Carol Rama (Italy)
  • The Lion d'or for best artwork in the main exhibition: Fischli and Weiss (Switzerland)
  • The Lion d'Or for Best Pavilion: Sun-Mei Tse (Luxemburg)
• Wynne Prize – Tim Kyle, Seated Figure

Works

• Eco-Earth Globe, Salem, Oregon
• Jake and Dinos Chapman – Insult to Injury
• Tony Cragg – Stainless Steel Pillar
• Olafur Eliasson – The weather project (installation in Turbine Hall of Tate Modern, London)
• David Fairbairn – Self Portrait DF
• Cornelia Parker – The Distance (A Kiss With String Attached): Subconscious of a Monument (interventionist sculpture)
• Michal Rovner – Data Zone^[4]
• Jørn Utzon – Homage to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (tapestry in the Sydney Opera House)
• Kehinde Wiley – Go

Films

• Girl with a Pearl Earring
• Mona Lisa Smile
• Sound of Colors
• The Floating Landscape
• Turn Left, Turn Right

Deaths

January to March

• 9 January – Constantin Kluge, Russian and French painter (b.1912).
• 20 January – Al Hirschfeld, American caricaturist (b.1903).
• 21 January – Tony O'Malley, Irish painter (b.1913).
• 27 January – Louis Archambault, Canadian sculptor (b.1915).
• 2 February – Emerson Woelffer, American painter (b.1914).
• 10 February – Edgar de Evia, Mexican-born American photographer (b.1910).
• 14 March – Jack Goldstein, Canadian-born American performance and conceptual artist turned painter (b.1945).

April to June

• 9 April – Jorge Oteiza, Spanish sculptor, painter, designer and writer (b.1908).
• 16 April – Graham Stuart Thomas, English horticultural artist, author and garden designer (b.1909).
• 23 April – Fernand Fonssagrives, French photographer (b.1910).
• 25 April – Lynn Chadwick, 88, English sculptor
• 29 May – Pierre Restany, French art critic and cultural philosopher (b.1930).
• 7 June – Georges Pichard, French comics artist (b.1920).

July to September

• 11 July - Dorothy Miller, 99, American curator (b.1904).
• 15 August – Kirk Varnedoe, American art historian, writer and curator (b.1946).
• 21 August – Wesley Willis, American artist and musician (b.1963).
• 29 August – Vladimír Vašíček, Czech painter (b.1919).
• 1 September – Terry Frost, English artist noted for his abstracts (b.1915).

October to December

• 3 October – William Steig, American cartoonist, sculptor and author (b.1907).
• 16 October – Avni Arbaş, Turkish artist (b.1919).
• 9 November – Mario Merz, Italian artist (b.1925).
• 4 December – David Vaughan, English psychedelic artist and muralist (b. 1944).
• 15 December – George Fisher, American political cartoonist (b.1923).
• 17 December – Wally Hedrick, American artist (b.1928).