1950 in art

Events

• Austrian painter Arnulf Rainer founds the Hundsgruppe with Arik Brauer, Ernst Fuchs and Josef Mikl.
• Paint by number kits introduced by Max S. Klein, an engineer and owner of the Palmer Paint Company of Detroit, and Dan Robbins.
• Ernst Gombrich's The Story of Art is published by Phaidon Press.

  Awards

• Archibald Prize: William Dargie – Sir Leslie McConnan
• Audubon Artists Gold Medal – Richmond Barthé

  Works

• Jean Arp –
• Francis Bacon – Fragment of a Crucifixion
• Marc Chagall – La Mariée
• Salvador Dalí – The Madonna of Port Lligat
• Max Desfor – Flight of Refugees Across Wrecked Bridge in Korea
• Robert Doisneau – Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville
• Alberto Giacometti – The Chariot
• Maruki Iri and Maruki Toshi – Ghosts, Fire and Water, first of The Hiroshima Panels
• L. S. Lowry – The Pond
• Henri Matisse – Beasts of the Sea
• Jackson Pollock – Autumn Rhythm
• William Scott – Bowl, Eggs and Lemons
• Vladimir Tretchikoff – Chinese Girl, popularly known as "The Green Lady"
• Keith Vaughan – Theseus and the Minotaur

  Births

• April 22 – Thierry Zéno, Belgian filmmaker
• June 24 – Bob Carlos Clarke, Irish photographer
• July 29 – Jenny Holzer, American neo-conceptual artist
• August 30
• * Konrad Bernheimer, Venezuelan-born German art dealer and collector
• * Antony Gormley, English sculptor
• November 10 – Jonathan Janson, American painter and art historian
• December 11 – Aleksandr Tatarskiy, Russian animator, artist and film director
• David Ruben Piqtoukun, Canadian Inuit sculptor

  Deaths

• February 12 – Boris Vladimirski, Soviet painter of the Socialist Realism school
• February 15 – Albert Herter, American painter
• April 5 – Hiroshi Yoshida, Japanese painter and woodblock printmaker
• September 26 – Pierre Roy, French-born painter, illustrator and designer
• December 7 – Wojciech Weiss, Polish painter and draughtsman
• December 28 – Max Beckmann, German painter
• James Sleator, Irish painter