2008 in art

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Events

May – Police seize photographs by Bill Henson from an upcoming exhibition at the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney, Australia, as potentially constituting child pornography.^[1]

La Danse de la fontaine émergente, fountain in Paris designed by Chen Zhen and completed by his widow Xu Min
Of All The People In All The World, installation and performance^[3] by Stan's Cafe

3 January – Joan Gillchrest, 89, British painter.
2 February – Roger Testu, French cartoonist (b.1913).
3 March – William Brice, American painter and teacher (b.1921).
11 March – Dave Stevens, American illustrator and comics artist (b.1955).
19 March – Hugo Claus, Belgian novelist, poet, playwright, painter and film director (b.1929).
28 March – Michael Podro, English art historian (b.1931).
29 March
- Angus Fairhurst, Young British Artist, installation, photography and video artist (b.1966).
- Josef Mikl, Austrian abstract painter (b.1929).

3 April – Vladimír Preclík, Czech writer and sculptor (b.1929).
6 April – John Plumb, English painter (b.1927).
9 April – Burt Glinn, American photographer (b.1925).
14 April – Ollie Johnston, American animator (b.1912).
16 April – Joseph Solman, American painter (b.1909).
23 April – Paul Wonner, American painter (b.1920).
25 April – Enrico Donati, Italian-born American Surrealist painter and sculptor (b.1909).
10 May – Herbert Albert, 82, British painter and etcher.
12 May – Robert Rauschenberg, American artist (b.1925).
15 May – Will Elder, American illustrator and comic book artist (b.1921).
18 May – Pietro Cascella, Italian painter and sculptor (b.1921).
21 May – Bartolomeu Cid dos Santos, Portuguese artist and professor (b.1931).
23 May – Cornell Capa, Hungarian-American photographer and photo curator (b.1918).
28 May – Beryl Cook, English painter (b.1926).
1 June
- Alton Kelley, American poster and album artist (b.1940).
- Yves Saint Laurent, French fashion designer (b.1936).
18 June – Tasha Tudor, American illustrator and author of children's books (b.1915).

7 July
- Bruce Conner, American artist in film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage and photography (b.1933).
- Fred Yates, English artist (b.1922).
19 July – Dave Pearson, English painter (b.1937).
1 August – Pauline Baynes, English book illustrator (b.1922).
12 August – Michael Baxandall, Welsh art historian (b.1933).
18 August – Manny Farber, American painter and film critic (b.1917).
23 August – John Russell, British American art critic (b.1919).
3 September – Derek Davis, English painter and potter (b.1926).
4 September – Alain Jacquet, French artist (b.1939).
12 September – Simon Hantaï, Hungarian abstract artist (b.1922).
1 October – Boris Efimov, Russian cartoonist and propaganda artist (b.1900).
7 October – Miles Richmond, English painter (b.1922).
11 October – William Claxton, American photographer (b.1927)
14 October – Ray Lowry, English cartoonist and illustrator (b.1944).
18 October – Gwyther Irwin, English abstract artist (b.1931).
15 November – Grace Hartigan, American Abstract Expressionist painter, (b.1922)
16 November – Jan Krugier, Polish born Swiss art dealer (b. 1928.
17 December – Willoughby Sharp, American author, curator, critic (b.1936)
27 December – Robert Graham, Mexican-American sculptor (b.1938).
29 December - Vladislav Lalicki, Serbian painter (b. 1935).