1988 in art

Events

Opening of the Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum in Helsinki, designed by Steven Holl

19 March – Isabel Bishop, American painter and graphic artist (b. 1902).
28 March – Neil Williams, American painter (b. 1934).
31 March – Georges Lévis, French comic artist (b. 1924).
3 April – Milton Caniff, American cartoonist (b. 1907).
17 April – Louise Nevelson, Ukrainian-born American artist (b. 1900).
4 May – Stanley Hayter, English-born printmaker (b. 1901).
16 May – Charles Keeping, English illustrator, children's book author and lithographer (b. 1924).
16 June – Andrea Pazienza, Italian comics artist (b. 1956).

12 July – Julian Trevelyan, English printmaker (b.1910).
12 August – Jean-Michel Basquiat, American artist (b. 1960).
21 August – Ray Eames, American artist and architect (b. 1912).
29 September – Charles Addams, American cartoonist (b. 1912).
12 November – Primo Conti, Italian Futurist artist (b. 1900).
25 November - Alphaeus Philemon Cole, American portrait artist (b. 1876 [sic.])
2 December – Kimon Evan Marengo, Egyptian-born British cartoonist (b. 1904).
30 December – Isamu Noguchi, Japanese American artist and landscape architect (b. 1904).
date unknown
- Reginald George Haggar, ceramic designer
- Chambré Hardman, Irish photographer (b. 1898).
- Nedeljko Gvozdenović, a world-renowned Serbian painter (b. 1902).