1981 in art

	… 1971; 1972; 1973; 1974; 1975; 1976; 1977; ; 1978; 1979; 1980; 1981; 1982; 1983; 1984; ; 1985; 1986; 1987; 1988; 1989; 1990; 1991 …;
	Art; Archaeology; Architecture; Literature; Music; Philosophy; Science; +...

The year 1981 in art involved some significant events and new works.

Events

10 September – Picasso's painting Guernica is returned from New York to Madrid.
Blek le Rat begins his stencil graffiti art in Paris.

Tony Cragg – Britain as Seen from the North
John Doubleday – Statue of Charlie Chaplin (Leicester Square, London)
Don Eckland – Emergence (bronze, Eugene, Oregon)
Bryan Hunt – Arch Falls (bronze, Houston, Texas)
Nabil Kanso – Dreamvision series of paintings completed
Ellsworth Kelly – Curve XXIV (sculpture, Seattle)
Odd Nerdrum – Twilight
Helmut Newton – Sie kommen! ("They're coming!", photographic diptych; published in French Vogue, November)
Richard Serra – Tilted Arc, Federal Plaza, New York City (dismantled 1989)
Andy Warhol – Myths series
Aubrey Williams – Shostakovich series of paintings completed

15 April – Seth Wulsin, American artist.
4 November – Paul Tucker, Canadian visual artist and graphic novel and webcomic illustrator.

19 January – Francesca Woodman, 22, American photographer
28 May – Jean Paul Slusser, painter, designer, art critic, professor, and director of the University of Michigan Museum of Art (b. 1886)
19 June – Lotte Reiniger, German silhouette animator and film director (b.1899).
29 June – Russell Drysdale, Australian artist (b.1912).
8 July – Isaac Soyer, Russian-born American painter, (b.1902).
7 September – Christy Brown, Irish author, painter and poet (b.1932).
12 October – Enzo Plazzotta, Italian-born British sculptor (b.1921).
20 October – Annot, German painter (b.1894).
17 November – Nano Reid, Irish painter (b.1905).
22 November – Corrado Parducci, Italian-American architectural sculptor (b.1900).