1956 in art

• March 1 – Replica statue of the Discus Thrower dedicated in Washington, D.C., as a gift from the Italian government to commemorate the return of looted art objects after World War II. • March – 56 Group founded, to promote modernist art in Wales. Subsequently renamed 56 Group Wales. • August 9 – Art exhibition This Is Tomorrow opens at Whitechapel Art Gallery in London. • September 17 – Release in the United States of the biographical film Lust for Life with Kirk Douglas portraying Vincent van Gogh and Anthony Quinn as Paul Gauguin. • Le mystère Picasso, a French documentary film, shows Pablo Picasso in the act of creating paintings for the camera (which he subsequently destroys so that they will exist only on film). • William Klein publishes his photo essay New York, 1954–55. • Shanghai Art Museum, the predecessor of the China Art Museum, opens. • English curator Jim Ede settles at Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, England. • English painter Edward Seago joins a tour of the Antarctic. • Two attacks are made on Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa in the Louvre, Paris. ==Awards==

• Archibald Prize: William Dargie – Mr Albert Namatjira • Kate Greenaway Medal – Edward Ardizzone for Tim All Alone ==Films==

• Laurence Bradshaw – Monument to Karl Marx at Highgate Cemetery, London (including bronze bust) • Alexander Calder – Red Mobile • Frank Cadogan Cowper – The Golden Bowl • Salvador Dalí – Living Still Life • M. C. Escher – Print Gallery (lithograph) • Max Ernst – ''L'oiseau Rose'' • Helen Frankenthaler – Eden • Richard Hamilton – ''Just What Is It that Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?'' (collage) • Rudolf Hausner – The Ark of Odysseus • Hans Hoffman - Fortissimo • Eduardo Kingman – La Lavendera • Roy Lichtenstein – Ten Dollar Bill (lithograph) • O. Winston Link - Hotshot Eastbound (black-and-white photograph) • L. S. Lowry – The Floating Bridge • Joan Mitchell • Café • Hemlock • Candido Portinari – Self-portrait • Norman Rockwell – The Scoutmaster • Kay Sage – Le Passage • Alexander Nikolayevich Samokhvalov – Cafe Gurzuf • Charles Sheeler – On a Shaker Theme • David Wynne – Sir Thomas Beecham (bronzes) ==Exhibitions==

• August 9–September 9 – This Is Tomorrow, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, featuring principally the interdisciplinary ICA Independent Group, including early examples of Pop Art. ==Births==

• January 2 – Lynda Barry, American cartoonist • January 19 – Junpei Satoh, Japanese Western-style painter • February 24 – Fiona Graham-Mackay, née Bain, British portrait painter • May 25 – Andrea Pazienza, Italian comics artist (d. 1988) • date unknown • Lee Bae, South Korean visual artist • Emma Biggs, English mosaicist • Cornelia Parker, English sculptor and installation artist • Veronica Ryan, Montserrat-born British sculptor • Mackenzie Thorpe, English painter and sculptor ==Deaths==

• January 13 – Lyonel Feininger, German American painter and cartoonist (b. 1871) • April 23 – Cecile Walton, Scottish painter, illustrator and sculptor (b. 1891) • May 3 – Peter Watson, English arts benefactor (murdered) (b. 1908) • June 8 – Marie Laurencin, French painter and engraver (b. 1883) • June 11 - Frank Brangwyn, Welsh painter (b. 1867) • July 26 – Louis Raemaekers, Dutch painter and cartoonist (b. 1869) • August 7 – LeMoine FitzGerald, Canadian painter (b. 1890) • August 11 – Jackson Pollock, American painter (b. 1912) • August 16 – Theodor Pallady, Romanian painter (b. 1871) • November 3 – Jean Metzinger, French painter (b. 1883) • December 16 – Nina Hamnett, British painter, model and designer (b. 1890) • Mohamed Nagy, Egyptian painter (b. 1888) ==See also==