1938 in art

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	Art; Archaeology; Architecture; Literature; Music; Philosophy; Science; +...

Events

Albert Namatjira exhibition in Melbourne includes over 2,000 works, the first solo display of indigenous Australian art.
Kröller-Müller Museum, designed by Henry van de Velde, opens in Otterlo, Netherlands.
American art collector Louis J. Caldor 'discovers' Grandma Moses.

January 2
- David Bailey, English photographer
- Robert Smithson, American artist (d. 1973)
January 7 – Roland Topor, French illustrator, painter, writer and filmmaker (d. 1997)
February 13 – Joan Brown, American figurative painter (d. 1990)
March 6 – Pauline Boty, English pop art painter (d. 1966)
March 15 – Dick Higgins, English composer, poet, printer and early Fluxus artist (d. 1998)
April 20 – Andrew Vicari, Welsh-born portrait painter (d. 2016)
May 12 – Paul Huxley, English painter and academic
May 18 – Janet Fish, American Realist painter
July 24 – Eugene J. Martin, American visual artist (d. 2005)
July 28 – Robert Hughes, Australian-born art critic (d. 2012)
August 19 – Robert Graham, Mexican-American sculptor (d. 2008)
August 29 - Hermann Nitsch, Austrian performance artist
September 25 – Bill Owens, American photographer
September 27 - Günter Brus, Austrian performance artist
October 15 – Brice Marden, American painter
October 20 – Iain Macmillan, Scottish photographer (d. 2006)
November 10 – Claude Serre, French cartoonist (d. 1998)
date unknown
- John Behan, Irish sculptor
- Paul Neagu, Romanian-born artist (d. 2004)

January 1 – Alice Bailly, Swiss painter and multimedia artist (b. 1872)
January 19 – Rosa Mayreder, Austrian freethinker, author, painter, musician and feminist (b. 1858)
February 3 – Niels Skovgaard, Danish sculptor and painter (b. 1858)
April 7 – Suzanne Valadon, French artists' model and painter, mother of Utrillo (b. 1865)
April 24 – John Wycliffe Lowes Forster, Canadian historical portrait painter (b. 1850)
May 22 – William Glackens, American realist painter (b. 1870)
June 15 – Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, German Expressionist painter (b. 1880; suicide)
October 24 – Ernst Barlach, German Expressionist sculptor (b. 1870)