c. 530 BC

Invention of red-figure vase-painting

490 BC

Persian emperor Darius invades Greece and is defeated at Marathon

c. 470 BC

Delphi Charioteer

Temple of Zeus at Olympia begun; it houses Phidias’ statue of the god, one of the Seven Wonders of the World

c. 460–429 BC

Pericles presides over a golden age in Athenian culture

c. 450 BC

Myron: Discus Thrower

447 BC

Parthenon, Athens, begun

432 BC

Parthenon sculptures completed

431–404 BC

Peloponnesian War, in which Sparta defeats Athens

399 BC

Socrates d.

c. 350 BC

Mausoleum, Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), with sculptural decoration by Scopas and others

c. 330 BC

Demeter of Cnidus

Praxiteles: Hermes

323 BC

Alexander the Great d.

c. 300 BC

Alexander Sarcophagus

Euclid’s Elements represent a breakthrough in mathematics

c. 280 BC

Colossus of Rhodes completed

c. 200 BC

Barberini Faun

Victory of Samothrace

c. 180–150 BC

Pergamum altar

146 BC

3rd Punic War ends with the destruction of Carthage, leaving Rome dominant in the western Mediterranean

c. 100 BC

Alexander Mosaic

Venus de Milo

70 BC

Virgil b.

44 BC

Julius Caesar assassinated

13–9 BC

Ara Pacis Augustae, Rome

AD 17

Ovid d.

c. AD 30

Laocoön

Jesus Christ crucified

AD 43

Romans occupy Britain

79

Pompeii and Herculaneum destroyed by eruption of Vesuvius

c. 81

Arch of Titus, Rome

98–117

Reign of Trajan, when Roman Empire reaches its height of power and prosperity

113

Trajan’s Column, Rome, dedicated

c. 118–c. 128

Pantheon, Rome

c. 161–80

Marcus Aurelius equestrian statue, Rome

c. 200

Wall paintings, catacomb of Priscilla, Rome (one of the earliest examples of Christian art)

203

Arch of Septimius Severus, Rome

c. 240

Wall paintings, Dura Europos synagogue, Syria (the earliest continuous cycle of biblical images)

306–37

Constantine rules Roman Empire

c. 312–15

Arch of Constantine, Rome

330

Constantine establishes Byzantium as his capital and renames it Constantinople

c. 360

Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus

402

Ravenna becomes capital of western Roman Empire

410

Visigoths sack Rome

c. 425

Good Shepherd mosaic, Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna

432

Traditional date for the beginning of St Patrick’s mission in Ireland

476

Western Roman Empire falls

c. 500–600

Vienna Genesis

532–7

Church of Hagia Sophia, Constantinople

c. 540

St Benedict of Nursia writes his ‘rule’, which establishes principles of Western monasticism

c. 540–7

Mosaics, S. Vitale, Ravenna (consecrated 547), one of the greatest ensembles of Byzantine art

590–604

Pontificate of Gregory the Great, whose reforms lay foundation of medieval papacy

597

St Augustine leads Christian mission to England

632

Death of Muhammad, founder of Islamic religion

c. 650–80

Book of Durrow

c. 700

Lindisfarne Gospels

711

Muslim invaders begin conquest of Spain

732

Frankish leader Charles Martel wins decisive victory at Battle of Poitiers (also called Battle of Tours), halting Muslim advance in Europe

c. 750

Ruthwell Cross, Scotland

Beowulf, Anglo-Saxon epic poem

800

Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor

c. 800

Book of Kells

c. 816–35

Utrecht Psalter

962–73

Otto the Great rules as Holy Roman Emperor

c. 970

Gero Crucifix

c. 1008–15

Bronze doors for St Michael, Hildesheim, commissioned by Bernward of Hildesheim

c. 1063

St Mark’s, Venice, begun

1066

Norman Conquest of England

c. 1080

Bayeux Tapestry

1093

Durham Cathedral begun

1096–9

First Crusade

1098

Cistercian order founded in France

c. 1107–18

Rainer of Huy: bronze font, Liège

c. 1120

Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela begun

c. 1130

Gislebertus: Last Judgement tympanum, Autun Cathedral

1140–4

Rebuilding of the abbey church of Saint-Denis, near Paris, for Abbot Suger, marking the birth of the Gothic style

1163

Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris, begun

1181

Nicolas of Verdun: Klosterneuburg Altar completed

1216

Foundation of Dominican order

1226

St Francis of Assisi d.

1259

Nicola Pisano: Pisa pulpit

1261

Coppo di Marcovaldo: Madonna del Bordone

1265

Dante b.

c. 1280

Cimabue: S. Trinità Madonna

c. 1303–6

Giotto: Arena Chapel frescos, Padua

1311

Duccio: Maestà completed

1333

Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi: Annunciation

1337–1453

Hundred Years War between England and France

1338–9

Ambrogio Lorenzetti: Good and Bad Government

1347–50

Black Death devastates Europe

1354–7

Orcagna: The Redeemer with the Madonna and Saints

c. 1395–9

Wilton Diptych

1395–1403

Sluter: Well of Moses

1401

Ghiberti wins competition for bronze doors of Florence Baptistery

c. 1413–16

Limbourg brothers: Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry

1415

Battle of Agincourt

c. 1415–17

Donatello: St George

1420–36

Dome of Florence Cathedral built (designed by Brunelleschi)

1423

Gentile da Fabriano: Adoration of the Magi

c. 1428

Masaccio: Holy Trinity

1431

Joan of Arc burnt at stake

1432

Jan van Eyck: Ghent Altarpiece completed

1435

Alberti writes De pictura

1436

Uccello: Sir John Hawkwood

c. 1438–45

Fra Angelico: S. Marco frescos

1447–53

Donatello: Gattamelata equestrian statue

1448

King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, begun

c. 1450

Jean Fouquet: Diptych of Melun

c. 1450–65

Piero della Francesca: Legend of the True Cross

1452

Quarton: Virgin of Mercy

Leonardo b.

1453

Mino da Fiesole: Piero de’ Medici

Turks capture Constantinople, ending Byzantine Empire

1465–74

Mantegna: Bridal Chamber, Ducal Palace, Mantua

1469–92

Lorenzo de’ Medici is head of the family and virtual ruler of Florence

1470–5

Dieric Bouts: Justice of Emperor Otto

1475

Michelangelo b.

c. 1475

Pollaiuolo: Martyrdom of St Sebastian

1475–6

Antonello da Messina: S. Cassiano Altarpiece

c. 1480

Botticelli: Primavera

1481–2

Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Perugino, and Rosselli paint frescos in Sistine Chapel

1481–96

Verrocchio: Colleoni equestrian statue

1483

Raphael b.

1489

Notke: St George and the Dragon completed

1492

Columbus lands in W. Indies

Moors driven from Granada, completing the Christian reconquest of Spain

c. 1495–7

Leonardo: Last Supper

1498

Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama becomes first European to travel to India by sea

1498–9

Michelangelo: Pietà

1503–13

Papacy of Julius II

c. 1503–6

Leonardo: Mona Lisa

1504

Barbari: Dead Bird

Cranach: Rest on the Flight into Egypt

1505

Giovanni Bellini: S. Zaccaria Altarpiece

1506

Bramante begins rebuilding of St Peter’s, Rome

1508

Raphael begins decoration of Vatican Stanze

1508–12

Michelangelo: Sistine Ceiling

1510

Giorgione d.

1512–18

Torrigiano: tomb of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York

1513

Dürer: The Knight, Death, and the Devil

c. 1515

Grünewald: Isenheim Altarpiece completed

1516

Bosch d.

1516–18

Titian: Assumption of the Virgin

1517

Andrea del Sarto: Madonna of the Harpies

1519

Leonardo d.

Charles V becomes Holy Roman Emperor

1520

Raphael d.

Luther excommunicated

1522

First circumnavigation of the globe completed by Spanish navigator Juan Sebastián del Cano (the original leader of the expedition, Ferdinand Magellan, having died the previous year)

1526

Sebastiano del Piombo: Clement VII

1527

Sack of Rome

1528

Castiglione: The Book of the Courtier

c. 1530

Correggio: The Loves of Jupiter

1533

Holbein: The Ambassadors

Ivan the Terrible becomes Grand Duke of Moscow (in 1547 he is the first ruler to assume the title of Tsar of Russia)

c. 1535

Parmigianino: Madonna of the Long Neck

1536–40

Dissolution of the monasteries in England and Wales

1536–41

Michelangelo: Last Judgement

1543

Copernicus’s De revolutionibus orbium coelestium lays the foundations of modern astronomy

1545

Council of Trent begins

c. 1545

Bronzino: Allegory with Venus and Cupid

1546

Francis I begins rebuilding Louvre, Paris

1548

Titian: Charles V on Horseback

1550

Vasari’s Lives of the Artists published

1554

Cellini: Perseus unveiled

1558–1603

Reign of Elizabeth I of England

1563

Accademia del Disegno founded in Florence

1564

Shakespeare b.

Michelangelo d.

1565

Pieter Bruegel starts The Months series

1565–87

Tintoretto: Scuola di S. Rocco

c. 1566

Palladio’s Villa Rotunda begun

1573

Veronese: Feast in the House of Levi

1577

Rubens b.

1577–9

El Greco: El Espolio

1581–2

Giambologna: Rape of a Sabine

1584

William the Silent, chief architect of Dutch independence, assassinated in Delft

1586–8

El Greco: Burial of the Count of Orgaz

c. 1587

Hilliard: Young Man Leaning on a Tree among Roses

1588

England defeats Spanish Armada

1597–1600

Annibale Carracci: Farnese Ceiling

1598

Edict of Nantes defines rights of Protestants at end of Wars of Religion in France

1600–1

Caravaggio: Crucifixion of St Peter and Conversion of St Paul

1603–6

Montañés: Christ of Clemency

1606

Rembrandt b.

1609

Elsheimer: Flight into Egypt

Dutch Republic effectively wins freedom from Spain

1610–11

Rubens: Raising of the Cross

1611

Authorized Version of the Bible

1614

Reni: Aurora

1616

Cervantes d.

Shakespeare d.

1618–48

Thirty Years War

1619–22

Inigo Jones, Banqueting House, London

1622–5

Bernini: Apollo and Daphne

1624

Hals: The Laughing Cavalier

1625–7

Lanfranco: Assumption of the Virgin

1632

van Dyck becomes court painter to Charles I of England

1633–9

Pietro da Cortona: Barberini Ceiling

1634–5

Velázquez: Surrender of Breda

1637

Descartes, Discourse on Method

1639

Ribera: Martyrdom of St Philip

1642

Rembrandt: The Night Watch

English Civil War begins

1643–1715

Reign of Louis XIV of France

1647–52

Bernini: Ecstasy of St Teresa

1648

Poussin: The Ashes of Phocion Terborch: The Swearing of the Oath of Ratification of the Treaty of Münster

Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture founded in Paris

1649

Charles I executed; England becomes a republic under Oliver Cromwell

1650

Georges de La Tour: The Denial of St Peter

Mola: Barbary Pirate

1653

Ruisdael: Bentheim Castle

1656

Vermeer: The Procuress

c. 1656

Velázquez: Las meninas

1660

Restoration of the English monarchy

1661

Louis XIV begins enlarging chateau of Versailles

1662

Philippe de Champaigne: Ex-Voto

1666

Fire of London

c. 1669

Rembrandt: The Return of the Prodigal Son

1672

Bellori, Lives of the Modern Painters

1674–9

Gaulli: Adoration of the Name of Jesus

1675–1710

St Paul’s Cathedral, London

1682

Claude: Ascanius and the Stag

1683

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, opens; the first public museum in Britain

1685

Johann Sebastian Bach b.

Handel b.

Louis XIV revokes Edict of Nantes

1685–90

Coello: Charles II Adoring the Host

1687

Newton, Principia mathematica

1689

Hobbema: The Avenue

1691–4

Pozzo: ceiling of S. Ignazio, Rome

1701

Rigaud: Louis XIV

1703

Peter the Great founds St Petersburg

1707

Act of Union unites England and Scotland

1717

Watteau: The Pilgrimage to the Isle of Cythera

1721–32

Tomé: Transparente, Toledo Cathedral

1728

Chardin: The Rayfish

c. 1730

Canaletto: The Stonemason’s Yard

1731

Rysbrack: Isaac Newton monument

c. 1735

Hogarth: A Rake’s Progress

1740

Scheemakers: Shakespeare monument

Frederick II (the Great) becomes ruler of Prussia

c. 1745

Piranesi: Carceri

1749

Goethe b.

1750

Bach d.

1750–3

Tiepolo: decorations for the princebishop’s palace, Würzburg

1751

Boucher: Reclining Girl

1753

British Museum established

1753–4

Reynolds: Commodore Keppel

1756

Mozart b.

1757

Tiepolo: decorations for the Villa Valmarana, Vicenza

1761

Mengs: Parnassus

Roubiliac: Nightingale monument

1764

Winckelmann, History of Ancient Art

1767

Fragonard: The Swing

1768

Wright: An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump

Foundation of Royal Academy, London

1770

Gainsborough: The Blue Boy

West: Death of Wolfe

Beethoven b.

1776

American Declaration of Independence

1778

Copley: Brook Watson and the Shark

1781

Fuseli: The Nightmare

1784–5

David: Oath of the Horatii

1786–7

Tischbein: Goethe in the Roman Campagna

1787

Mozart, Don Giovanni

1789

Blake: Songs of Innocence

French Revolution begins

1790

Bewick: A General History of Quadrupeds

1791

Mozart d.

1793

David: Death of Marat

Louvre, Paris, opens as first national public gallery

1797

Schubert b.

1798

Rowlandson: The Comforts of Bath

lithography invented

1799

Goya: Los Caprichos

Stubbs: Hambletonian: Rubbing Down

1802–3

Thorvaldsen: Jason

1804

Napoleon becomes Emperor of France Beethoven, Eroica symphony

1805

Battle of Trafalgar

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts founded

1805–7

Canova: Pauline Borghese as Venus

1808

Friedrich: The Cross in the Mountains

Gros: Battle of Eylau

Ingres: Valpinçon Bather

1809

Nazarenes formed

1812

Napoleon retreats from Moscow

1814

George Stephenson constructs the first successful steam locomotive

1815

Schinkel: designs for Mozart’s Magic Flute

Battle of Waterloo

1819

Géricault: Raft of the Medusa

First Atlantic steamship crossing Prado, Madrid, opens

1820–3

Goya: Black Paintings

1821

Constable: The Hay Wain

1822

Wilkie: Chelsea Pensioners

1824

Delacroix: Massacre at Chios

National Gallery, London, founded

1825–7

Martin: illustrations to Milton’s Paradise Lost

1827

Beethoven d.

1827–38

Audubon: The Birds of America

1828

Tolstoy b.

Schubert d.

1830

July Revolution in France

1830–3

Bryulov: The Last Day of Pompeii

1832

Daumier imprisoned for political satire

1833

Brahms b.

1833–6

Rude: La Marseillaise

1836–9

Cornelius: Last Judgement

1837

Queen Victoria accedes to throne in England

1839

Turner: The Fighting Temeraire

Daguerre publicizes ‘daguerreotype’

1840

Cole: The Voyage of Life

Monet b.

Rodin b.

1841

Eakins b.

1843

Powers: The Greek Slave

Ruskin, first volume of Modern Painters

1845

Bingham: Fur Traders Descending the Missouri

1847

Couture: The Romans of the Decadence

1848

Gauguin b.

The Year of Revolutions

Marx and Engels, Communist Manifesto

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood formed

1849

Rossetti: Girlhood of Mary Virgin

1850

Courbet exhibits A Burial at Ornans, Peasants at Flagey, and The Stone Breakers

1851

The Great Exhibition, London

1853

Holman Hunt: The Awakening Conscience

Van Gogh b.

1853–6

Crimean War

1855

Madox Brown: The Last of England

1858

Frith: Derby Day

Ivanov exhibits Christ’s First Appearance to the People (1837–57)

1859

Millet: The Angelus

Darwin, The Origin of Species

1861–5

American Civil War

1863

Ingres: The Turkish Bath

Manet: Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe

Salon des Réfuses

1864

Fantin-Latour: Homage to Delacroix

1870

Millais: Boyhood of Raleigh

Metropolitan Museum, New York, founded Wanderers founded

1870–1

Franco-Prussian War

1870–3

Repin: Barge Haulers on the Volga

1871

Whistler: Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter’s Mother

1872

Monet: Impression: Sunrise

1874

First Impressionist exhibition, Paris

1875

Eakins: The Gross Clinic

1876

Bell patents telephone

Battle of Little Bighorn

1878

Ruskin–Whistler libel trial

Edison invents phonograph

1880

Böcklin: The Island of the Dead

Rodin begins Gates of Hell

Apollinaire b.

Epstein b.

Kirchner b.

Flaubert d.

Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

1881

Degas: Little Fourteen-year-old Dancer

Saint-Gaudens: Admiral Farragut monument unveiled

Bartók b.

Léger b.

Picasso b.

Dostoevsky d.

Samuel Palmer d.

Ibsen, Ghosts

Tsar Alexander II assassinated

c. 1881–6

Renoir: Umbrellas

1882

Manet: A Bar at the Folies-Bergère

Braque b.

Charles Darwin d.

Rossetti d.

1883

Orozco b.

Manet d.

Marx d.

Wagner d.

Nietzsche, Also sprach Zarathustra

1884

Sargent: Madame X

Beckmann b.

Modigliani b.

First exhibition of Salon des Indépendents,

Paris

Huysmans, A rebours

1884–6

Seurat: Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

1884–93

Les Vingt group exhibitions

1885

van Gogh: The Potato Eaters

Victor Hugo d.

General Gordon killed as Khartoum is captured by the Mahdi Zola, Germinal

1886

Bartholdi: Statue of Liberty dedicated

Millais: Bubbles

Mies van der Rohe b.

Rivera b.

Liszt d.

New English Art Club founded in London

1886–94

Gauguin intermittently active at Pont-Aven

1887

Serov: Girl with Peaches

Archipenko b.

Chagall b.

Duchamp b.

Le Corbusier b.

Verdi, Otello

1888

Ensor: Entry of Christ into Brussels

Gauguin: The Vision after the Sermon

van Gogh: The Night Café

Albers b.

de Chirico b.

T. S. Eliot b.

van Gogh settles at Arles

Strindberg, Miss Julie

Wilhelm II becomes emperor of Germany

1889

Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and his mistress commit suicide at Mayerling, near Vienna

Eiffel Tower built

1890

Edelfelt: Christ and Mary Magdalene

Gabo b.

van Gogh d.

William Morris founds Kelmscott Press

1891

Fildes: The Doctor

Dix b.

Max Ernst b.

Gaudier-Brzeska b.

Prokofiev b.

Stanley Spencer b.

Seurat d.

Gauguin sails to Tahiti

1891–5

Monet: Rouen Cathedral series

Trans-Siberian railway started

1892

Leighton: The Garden of the Hesperides

Grant Wood b.

The Nabis’ first exhibition

1893

Munch: The Scream

Toorop: The Three Brides

Grosz b.

Miró b.

1894

Beardsley: illustrations to Oscar

Wilde’s Salome

President Carnot of France assassinated

1894–1906

The Dreyfus affair

1895

First Venice Biennale Lumière brothers present the cinématographe, the first apparatus to project motion pictures on a screen Marconi invents wireless telegraph Röntgen discovers X-rays

1896

André Breton b.

Millais d.

William Morris d.

Puccini, La Bohème

Alfred Jarry, Ubu Roi

First modern Olympic Games held in Athens

1897

Gauguin: Where Do We Come From?

Who Are We? Where Are We Going To?

Tate Gallery, London, opens Brahms d.

1898

Aalto b.

Calder b.

Magritte b.

Henry Moore b.

Beardsley d.

Boudin d.

Burne-Jones d.

1899

Dalou: Triumph of the Republic unveiled

Spanish-American War

1899–1902

Klinger: Beethoven monument

Boer War

1900

Denis: Homage to Cézanne

Ruskin d.

Oscar Wilde d.

Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams

Max Planck propounds quantum theory

Boxer Rising in China

1901

Klimt: Judith I

Alberto Giacometti b.

Böcklin d.

Toulouse-Lautrec d.

Queen Victoria d.

President McKinley assassinated

1902

Zola d.

1903

Rysselberghe: A Reading

Hepworth b.

Gauguin d.

Camille Pissarro d.

Whistler d.

Salon d’Automne founded in Paris

Wright brothers make first powered flight

National Art Collections Fund founded, London

1904

Picasso: The Frugal Repast

Dalí b.

de Kooning b.

Dvořák d.

1904–5

Matisse: Luxe, calme et volupté

Russo-Japanese War

1905

Burra b.

Bouguereau d.

Fauvism launched at Salon d’Automne

Die Brucke formed in Dresden

Einstein publishes his special theory of relativity

1906

Cézanne d.

1906–7

Picasso: Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

1907

Bellows: A Stag at Sharkey’s

Salon d’Automne holds Cézanne memorial exhibition

Kahnweiler opens gallery in Paris

1907–8

Epstein: figures for façade of British Medical Association, London

1907–14

Braque and Picasso evolve Cubism

1908

Henry Ford designs the Model T, the first mass-production automobile

1909

Kokoschka: Adolf Loos

Bacon b.

Marinetti launches Futurism

Diaghilev brings his Russian ballet company to Paris

1910

Rousseau: The Dream

Tolstoy d.

Roger Fry’s first Post-Impressionist exhibition, London

c. 1910

Birth of abstract art

1911

Braque: The Portuguese

Brock: Queen Victoria monument unveiled

Carrà: The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli

Le Fauconnier: Abundance

Lehmbruck: Kneeling Woman

Der Blaue Reiter’s first show Camden Town Group formed

1912

Archipenko: Walking Woman

Balla: Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash

Robert Delaunay: Circular Forms

Kupka: Amorpha: Fugue in Two Colours

Jackson Pollock b.

Gleizes and Metzinger, Du Cubisme

‘Donkey’s Tail’ exhibition, Moscow

1913

Boccioni: Unique forms of Continuity in Space

Duchamp: Bicycle Wheel (first readymade)

Kandinsky: Composition VI

Kirchner: Street, Berlin

Reg Butler b.

Camus b.

Armory Show, New York

Proust, Swann’s Way

‘Target’ exhibition, Moscow

Fry founds Omega Workshops

1913–14

Bomberg: In the Hold

Stravinsky, Rite of Spring

1914

Lamb: Lytton Strachey

Marc: Fighting Forms

Birth of Vorticism

c. 1914

Sickert: Ennui

1914–18

Gill: Stations of the Cross

First World War

1915

Duchamp begins constructing The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even

Dada founded

D. W. Griffiths: The Birth of a Nation

1916

Gertler: Merry-Go-Round

Eakins d.

1917

Thomson: Jack Pine

Rodin d.

Russian Revolution

De Stijl founded

Carrà and de Chirico meet

1918

Grosz: Fit for Active Service

Apollinaire d.

Poland and Czechoslovakia become republics

c. 1918

Malevich: White on White

1918–19

Sargent: Gassed

1919

Alcock and Brown make first transatlantic flight

The Bauhaus opens in Weimar

1919–20

Tatlin: model for Monument to the Third International

1920

Dix: The Match Seller

Modigliani d.

Group of Seven founded

1921

Ernst: Celebes

1922

Mussolini’s Fascists march on Rome

James Joyce, Ulysses

1923

Frank Dobson: Osbert Sitwell

1924

Lenin d.

First Surrealist manifesto

1924–6

Spencer: The Resurrection: Cookham

1925

Miró: The Harlequin’s Carnival

Eisenstein, Battleship Potemkin

Kafka, The Trial

1926

Magritte: The Menaced Assassin

Monet d.

First demonstration of television

1927

Hepworth: Doves

The Jazz Singer (first film with synchronous sound)

1928

Curry: Baptism in Kansas

Fleming discovers penicillin

1929

Wall Street Crash

Museum of Modern Art, New York, founded

1930

Grant Wood: American Gothic

Buñuel: L’Age d’or

1930–1

Empire State Building, New York

1931

Dalí: The Persistence of Memory

Abstraction-Création group founded in Paris Courtauld Institute of Art, London, founded

1932

Brockhurst: Adolescence

1932–3

Rivera: Detroit Industry

1932–5

Beckmann: Departure

1933

Gunn: Delius

Manship: Prometheus

Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany

1934

Burra: Dancing Skeletons

1935

Ben Nicholson: White Relief

Italy invades Ethiopia

1936

Oppenheim: Object

Spencer: The Leg of Mutton Nude

International Surrealist Exhibition, London

1936–9

Spanish Civil War

1937

Brancusi: Endless Column

González: Montserrat

Picasso: Guernica

Germans bomb Guernica, Spain

National Gallery of Art, Washington, founded

Nazi exhibition of ‘Degenerate Art’, Munich

1938

Lewis: T. S. Eliot

Kirchner d.

Germany annexes Austria

1939

Nash: Monster Field

Franco becomes Spanish dictator

Germany invades Poland

1939–45

Second World War

1940

Klee: Death and Fire

1940–2

Moore: Air-raid shelter drawings

1941

Japanese attack Pearl Harbor

Orson Welles, Citizen Kane

1942

Hopper: Nighthawks

Grant Wood d.

1943

Dobell: Joshua Smith

Mondrian: Broadway Boogie-Woogie

1944

Bacon: Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion

Allies liberate Paris

Gruber: Job

1945

Bartók d.

US drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Orwell, Animal Farm

1946

Burchfield: The Sphinx and the Milky Way

Nolan’s first Ned Kelly paintings

Moholy-Nagy d.

1947

Paolozzi: I Was a Rich Man’s Plaything

India gains independence from UK Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, founded

1948

Newman: Onement I

Wyeth: Christina’s World

South Africa adopts apartheid

Communists gain control in Czechoslovakia, making the country a satellite of the Soviet Union

1949

Sutherland: Somerset Maugham

Orozco d.

Carol Reed, The Third Man

1950

Pollock: Lavender Mist

Tooker: Subway

Beckmann d.

Gombrich, The Story of Art

1951

Armitage: People in the Wind

Dalí: Crucifixion of St John of the Cross

Davis: Owh! in San Pao

Freud: Interior at Paddington

J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

Festival of Britain

Harold Rosenberg coins term ‘Action Painting’

1952

de Kooning: Woman I

Frankenthaler: Mountains and Sea

Tretchikoff: Chinese Girl

Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

1953

Matisse: L’Escargot

Zadkine: To a Destroyed City completed

Stalin d.

Reg Butler wins international competition for monument to The Unknown Political Prisoner

1954

Burri: Sacking with Red

Matisse d.

1954–5

Annigoni: Queen Elizabeth II

1955

John’s first Flag paintings

Léger d.

1955–9

Rauschenberg: Monogram

1956

Hamilton: Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing?

Richards: ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’

Pollock d.

Hungarian uprising crushed by USSR

Suez crisis

1957

Rivera d.

USSR sends world’s first satellite into space

Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal

1958

Klein: Le Vide

1959

Kaprow’s first happenings

Epstein d.

Grosz d.

Spencer d.

Cuban revolution: Fidel Castro becomes prime minister

Guggenheim Museum, New York, opens

1960

Escher: Ascending and Descending

Tinguely: Homage to New York

Lady Chatterley’s Lover obscenity trial

Sharpeville massacre, South Africa

1961

Greenberg, Art and Culture

Joseph Heller, Catch 22

British Pop art is put on the map at Young Contemporaries exhibition

Berlin Wall erected

1962

Caro: Early One Morning

Oldenburg: Dual Hamburger

Warhol’s first Soup can paintings

Birth of Fluxus, Germany

Cuban missile crisis

Edward Albee, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

1963

Hilton: Oi yoi yoi

Lichtenstein: Whaam!

Braque d.

President Kennedy assassinated

1964

Gottlieb: Orb

King: And the Birds Began to Sing

Archipenko d.

1964–6

Kienholz: The State Hospital

1965

Beuys: How to Explain Pictures to a Dead

Hare

Kosuth: One and Three Chairs

Le Corbusier d.

1966

Andre: Equivalent VIII

Breton d.

Giacometti d.

Floods destroy Florentine art treasures

England wins football World Cup

1967

Hockney: A Bigger Splash

Magritte d.

The Beatles, Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band(LP cover design by Peter Blake)

1967–9

Rothko: paintings for the Rothko Chapel

1968

Close: Self-Portrait

Duchamp d.

Students and workers riot in Paris

USSR invades Czechoslovakia

1969

Gilbert & George: Underneath the Arches

Dix d.

Mies van der Rohe d.

Baselitz paints his first upside-down image

Kenneth Clark, Civilisation (television series)

First lunar landing

1969–75

Nagare: Cloud Fortress (destroyed in 2001 as a result of World Trade Center terrorist attack)

1970

Hanson: Tourists

Smithson: Spiral Jetty

1971

Intel develops microchip, USA

Pompidou Centre, Paris, opens

1972

Tony Smith: Gracehoper

Palestinian terrorists murder Israeli athletes at Munich Olympic Games

1973

Long: Circle of Sticks

Picasso d.

1974

President Nixon resigns following Watergate scandal

1974–9

Chicago: The Dinner Party

1975

Frink: Horse and Rider

Hepworth d.

1976

Christo: Running Fence

Aalto d.

Albers d.

Burra d.

Calder d.

Ernst d.

1977

Gabo d.

1978

Hockney: stage designs for Mozart’s Magic Flute

de Chirico d.

1979

Iranian Revolution deposes Shah Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain’s first woman Prime Minister

Soviet Union invades Afghanistan Anthony Blunt exposed as former spy

1980

Solidarity union formed, Poland

1980–8

Iran–Iraq war

1981

De Andrea: Model in Repose

First known AIDS case in USA Butler d.

1982

Schnabel: Humanity Asleep

Argentinian–British war in Falkland Islands

compact discs launched in Japan

1983

Miró d.

US occupies Grenada

1984

Malcolm Morley is first winner of Turner Prize

1985

Christo: The Pont Neuf Wrapped

Chagall d.

Mikhail Gorbachev becomes USSR leader, and introduces liberal policies

Saatchi Collection, London, opens

1986

Henry Moore d.

Chernobyl disaster

Musée d’Orsay, Paris, opens

1988

Tate Gallery Liverpool opens

1989

Berlin Wall torn down

Communist regimes deposed in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and elsewhere

Tiananmen Square massacre, China

1990

East and West Germany reunited Nelson Mandela released from prison Iraq invades Kuwait

Hubble space telescope launched

1991

Hirst: The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living

Gulf War

Civil war breaks out in former Yugoslavia Soviet Union breaks up

1992

Saint Phalle: Loch Ness Monster

Bacon d.

Bill Clinton elected US President

Vettriano: The Singing Butler

1993

Whiteread: Untitled (House)

Frink d.

Tate Gallery St Ives opens

1994

Max Bill d.

Mandela becomes South African president; apartheid abolished

1995

Christo: Wrapped Reichstag

Burri d.

1996

Taliban forces occupy Kabul

1997

Diana, Princess of Wales, killed in car crash

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, opens ‘Sensation’ exhibition, Royal Academy

1998

Gormley: Angel of the North installed

Pasmore d.

James Cameron, Titanic (wins II Oscars)

1999

Emin: My Bed

Buffet d.

2000

Kiefer: Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom

Lowry arts centre opens in Salford

Tate Britain and Tate Modern open in London

2001

Balthus d.

World Trade Center, New York, destroyed in terrorist attack

2002

Armitage d.

Riopelle d.

Saint Phalle d.

2003

Chadwick d.

Frost d.

Saatchi Gallery opens in London

US-led coalition deposes Saddam Hussein in Iraq