Events from the year 1931 in art.

• February 15 – Abstraction-Création group formed in Paris by Theo van Doesburg to promote non-figurative, non-surrealist art. Other founder members include Auguste Herbin, Jean Hélion and Georges Vantongerloo.^[1]
• October 4 – Debut appearance of the Dick Tracy comic strip, created by cartoonist Chester Gould.
• The Whitney Museum of American Art is founded by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in its original building in Greenwich Village, New York City.
• The Pierre Matisse Gallery opens in New York City.
• Collector Kay Kimbell of Fort Worth, Texas, purchases his first painting, origin of the Kimbell Art Museum.
• Henry Moore holds his first solo exhibition of sculptures, at The Leicester Galleries in London.

• Max Beckmann – Paris Society
• Thomas Hart Benton – America Today
• Heitor da Silva Costa and Paul Landowski – Christ the Redeemer (statue, Rio de Janeiro)
• Salvador Dalí – The Persistence of Memory
• Robert William Davidson – Eve (sculpture)
• Charles Demuth – Chimney and Watertower
• Antonio Donghi – Woman at the Café
• Frida Kahlo – Frida and Diego Rivera
• Helmut Kolle – Self-Portrait in White Tie
• Tamara de Lempicka – Adam and Eve
• René Magritte – The Voice of Space
• Carl Milles – Flygarmonumentet (Stockholm)
• Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen – The Herd Boy playing a Wooden Flute (monument to the sculptor's husband, the composer Carl Nielsen (d. 1931), at his birthplace, Nørre Lyndelse)
• Georgia O'Keeffe – Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
• Pablo Picasso – Figures by the Sea
• Diego Rivera - The Rivals^[2]
• Lorado Taft – The Crusader (sculpture)
• Carel Willink – Late Visitors to Pompeii
• Grant Wood
  • The Birthplace of Herbert Hoover
  • The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

• Archibald Prize: John Longstaff – Sir John Sulman

• January 1 – Stephanie Scuris, Greek-born American artist and sculptor
• January 10 – Massimo Vignelli, Italian designer (d. 2014)
• January 18 – Jay Maisel, photographer
• January 21 – Paul Deliège, Belgian comic strip artist and writer (d. 2005)
• January 30 – Linda Nochlin, née Weinberg, American feminist art historian (d. 2017)
• February 7 – Serge Danot, French animator (d. 1990)
• February 9 – Robert Morris, American sculptor (d. 2018)
• February 16 – Irina Dobrekova, Russian painter
• February 17 – Fay Godwin, German-born English landscape photographer (d. 2005)
• February 18 – Johnny Hart, American cartoonist (d. 2007)
• February 21 – Derek Hyatt, English abstract landscape painter (d. 2015)
• February 23 – Tom Wesselmann, American pop artist (d. 2004)
• February 26
  • Radomir Stević Ras, Serbian painter and designer (d. 1982).
  • Jacques Rouxel, French animator (d. 2004)
• March 4 – Gwilym Prichard, Welsh landscape painter (d. 2015)
• March 13 – Michael Podro, English art historian (d. 2008)
• March 25 – Jack Chambers, Canadian artist and filmmaker (d. 1978)
• April 24 – Bridget Riley, English op art painter
• April 25 – David Shepherd, English wildlife, railway and military painter and conservationist (d. 2017)
• April 26 – Vera Nazina, Russian painter
• April 29 – Frank Auerbach, German-born British painter (d. 2024)
• May 10 – Olja Ivanjicki, Serbian painter (d. 2009)
• June 7 – Malcolm Morley, English-American photographer and painter
• July 8 – Leo Dee, American silverpoint artist (d. 2004)
• July 15 – Brian Sewell, English art critic (d. 2015)
• July 20 – Sheila Fell, English painter (d. 1979)
• July 25 – Carlo Maria Mariani, Italian painter (d. 2021)
• July 28 – Hans Schröder, German sculptor and painter (d. 2010)
• August 15 – Rose Hilton, English painter (d. 2019)^[3]
• August 20 – Bernd Becher, German photographer (d. 2007)
• August 24 – Bartolomeu Cid dos Santos, Portuguese artist and professor (d. 2008)
• September 24 – Elizabeth Blackadder, Scottish painter (d. 2021)^[4]
• October 9 – Stuart Devlin, Australian-born gold/silversmith (d. 2018)
• date unknown
  • Barrie Cooke, British-born abstract expressionist painter (d. 2014)
  • Enno Hallek, Estonian-born Swedish artist

• January 7
  • Giuseppe Barison, Italian painter (b. 1853)
  • Joseph Bernard, French sculptor (b. 1866)
• February 3 – Jefferson David Chalfant, American painter (b. 1856)
• February 11 – Bela Čikoš Sesija, Croatian Symbolist painter (b. 1864)
• March 7
  • Theo van Doesburg, Dutch painter and architect, leader of De Stijl (b. 1883)
  • Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Finnish painter (b. 1865)
• March 12 – Frida Hansen, Norwegian textile artist (b. 1855)
• March 14 – Alfred Grenander, Swedish-born architect (b. 1863)
• March 24 – Derwent Lees, Australian landscape painter (b. 1885)
• May 1 – Thomas Cooper Gotch, English painter (b. 1854)
• May 31 – Willy Stöwer, German marine painter and illustrator (b. 1864)
• July 11
  • Giovanni Boldini, Italian painter (b. 1842)
  • Jean-Louis Forain, French Impressionist painter (b. 1852)
• September 14 – Tom Roberts, Australian painter (b. 1856)
• September 20 – Max Littmann, German architect (b. 1862)
• September 29 – Sir William Orpen, Irish portrait painter (b. 1878)
• October 7
  • Charles Ricketts, English designer (b. 1866)
  • Daniel Chester French, American sculptor (b. 1850)
• October 10 – Sir Bertram Mackennal, Australian-born sculptor (b. 1863)
• November 17
  • Helmut Kolle, exiled German painter, endocarditis (b. 1899)
  • Edward Simmons, American Impressionist painter (b. 1852)
• December 7 – Leslie Hunter, Scottish painter (b. 1877)
• December 31 – Lancelot Speed, British illustrator (b. 1860)
• date unknown
  • Todor Švrakić, Serbian painter (b. 1882)
  • William John Wainwright, English painter (b. 1855)

• 1931 in fine arts of the Soviet Union