1978 in art

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The year 1978 in art involved some significant events and new works.

Events

27 June – Stitching the Standard by Edmund Leighton is sold at Sotheby's in Belgravia to a private collector.^[1]

Archibald Prize: Brett Whiteley – Art, Life and the other thing
John Moores Painting Prize - Noel Forster for "A painting in six stages with a silk triangle"^[2]

Zdzisław Beksiński – AA78
Christo and Jeanne Claude - "Wrapped Walk Ways" in Loose Park in Kansas City, Missouri^[3]
Dan Flavin – untitled (to the real Dan Hill)
Helen Frankenthaler – Cleveland Symphony Orchestra
David Gentleman – "Eleanor cross" mural for Charing Cross tube station (London)
Jack Goldstein – The Jump
Michael Heizer – Isolated Mass/Circumflex (Number 2) (land art, Houston, Texas)
Bryan Hunt – Big Twist (bronze, Houston, Texas)
Nabil Kanso – Hiroshima Nagasaki One-Minute
Liz Leyh – Concrete Cows (Milton Keynes)
Odd Nerdrum – The Murder of Andreas Baader
Dennis Oppenheim – Cobalt Vectors – An Invasion
Mikhail Savitsky – Partisan Madonna of Minsk

1 January – Don Freeman, American author, painter and illustrator (b. 1908)
10 January – Gluck, born Hannah Gluckstein, English painter (b. 1895)
19 January – Živko Stojsavljević, Serbian painter (b. 1900).
24 February – Alma Thomas, African American abstract expressionist painter (b. 1891).
13 April – Jack Chambers, Canadian artist and filmmaker (b. 1931).
8 May – Duncan Grant, Scottish painter (b. 1885).
31 May – Hannah Höch, German Dada photomontage artist (b. 1889).
13 July
- Thomas B. Hess, American art editor, writer, and curator (b. 1920)
- Oliver Messel, English-born stage designer (b. 1904).
5 August – Victor Hasselblad, Swedish inventor and photographer (b. 1889).
14 August – Nicolas Bentley, British author and illustrator (b. 1907).
27 August – Gordon Matta-Clark, American artist (b. 1943).
6 November – Harry Bertoia, Italian-born American artist and designer (b. 1915).
8 November – Norman Rockwell, American painter and illustrator (b. 1894).
20 November – Giorgio de Chirico, Greek-Italian painter (b. 1888).