1921 in art

Events

• March – Puhl & Wagner are contracted to decorate the interior of the Golden Hall with neo-Byzantine mosaics designed by Einar Forseth.
• September–October – 5x5=25 abstract art exhibition held in Moscow.
• The experimental short documentary film Manhatta is shot by painter Charles Sheeler and photographer Paul Strand in New York City.
• Paul Sérusier publishes his ABC of Painting.
• André Delatte opens his glasswares studio in Nancy.
• Simon Rodia begins construction of the Watts Towers in Los Angeles.

  Awards

• Archibald Prize: W B McInnes – Desbrowe Annear

  Works

• Carlo Carrà – The Engineer's Lover
• Dora Carrington – '
• Charles Demuth – Incense of a New Church
• Guy Pène du Bois – :File:WLA lacma Guy Pene du Bois An American Oriental 1921.jpg|An American Oriental
• Marcel Duchamp – Why Not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy?
• Max Ernst – The Elephant Celebes
• Lady Feodora Gleichen – 37th Division memorial
• J. W. Godward – Megilla
• Duncan Grant – '
• Auguste Herbin – Le Cateau-Cambrésis
• Edward Hopper – Girl at Sewing Machine
• Seán Keating – :File:Keating, Men of the South.jpg|Men of the South
• Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
• * :File:Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Zwei Brüder M. 1921-1.jpg|Two Brothers
• * :File:Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - View of Basel and the Rhine.jpg|View of Basel and the Rhine
• Boris Kustodiev – Portrait of Chaliapin
• Fernand Léger – Still Life with a Beer Mug
• Wyndham Lewis – :File:LewisAsTheTyro.jpg|Mr Wyndham Lewis as a Tyro
• Sir Bertram Mackennal – Bronze equestrian statue of King Edward VII
• Piet Mondrian
• * Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue
• * Tableau I
• Alfred Munnings – The Red Prince Mare
• Francis Picabia
• * The Cacodylic Eye
• * Cannibale
• Pablo Picasso
• * Reading the Letter
• * Three Musicians
• Man Ray – The Gift
• Stanley Spencer
• * Christ's Entry into Jerusalem
• * Crucifixion
• Félix Vallotton – Femme nue dormant au bord de l'eau
• Han van Meegeren – Hertje

  Births

January to June

• January 1 – César Baldaccini, French sculptor
• January 3 – Bill Gold, American graphic designer
• January 14 – Norris Embry, American neo-expressionist painter
• January 24 – Sybil Connolly, Welsh-Irish fashion designer
• January 27 – Georges Mathieu, French abstract painter
• February 2 – Pietro Cascella, Italian painter and sculptor
• February 5 – Ken Adam, German-born British film set designer
• February 13 – Louis Féraud, French fashion designer and artist
• February 20 – Michael Ayrton, English sculptor, graphic artist and writer
• February 22 – Cecil King, Irish abstract-minimalist painter
• February 23 – John Latham, Zambian conceptual artist
• March 2 – Ernst Haas, Austrian photographer
• March 13 – Al Jaffee, American cartoonist
• March 28 – Norman Bluhm, American painter
• April 21 – Dimitrije Bašičević, Serbian painter and sculptor
• April 23 – William Brice, American painter and teacher
• April 25 – Karel Appel, Dutch painter, sculptor and poet
• May 18 – Joan Eardley, British painter
• May 29 – Enzo Plazzotta, Italian-born British sculptor

  July to December

• July 16
• * Ernst Beyeler, Swiss art dealer and collector
• * Guy Laroche, French fashion designer
• August 4 – Jean Pierre Capron, French painter
• August 28 – Jean-Philippe Charbonnier, French photographer
• September 22 – Will Elder, American illustrator and comic book artist
• September 25 – Jacques Martin, French comics creator
• September 27 – Jean-Pierre Sudre, French photographer
• October 26 – Raymond Nasher, American art collector

  Deaths

• January 18 – Adolf von Hildebrand, sculptor
• January 30 – John Francis Murphy, landscape painter
• February 3 – William Strang, painter and engraver
• February 4 – Eugène Burnand, Swiss painter
• February 11 – William Blake Richmond, English painter and designer
• February 21 – George Dunlop Leslie, English genre painter
• March 23 – Jean-Paul Laurens, painter and sculptor
• March 24 – Marcus Stone, painter and illustrator
• March 30 – Franz Benque, photographer
• April 6 – Vardges Sureniants, Armenian painter
• April 30 – Mabel Esplin, English stained-glass artist
• May 5 – William Friese-Greene, photographer and cinematographer
• May 29 – Abbott Handerson Thayer, painter
• June – Frank Enders, painter and etcher
• October 7 – John Thomson, photographer
• November 1 – Francisco Pradilla Ortiz, painter
• November 12 – Fernand Khnopff, Symbolist painter
• November 13 – William Robert Colton, sculptor