Events from the year 1986 in art.
21 May – Eighteen Old Master paintings from the Beit collection are stolen from Russborough House in Ireland by Martin "The General" Cahill, the second major art theft from this location.
19 August – Two weeks after it was stolen, the Picasso painting Weeping Woman is found in a locker at Spencer Street station in Melbourne, Australia.
Opening of the Musée d'Orsay (formerly the Gare d'Orsay) in Paris.
Archibald Prize – Davida Allen, Dr John Arthur McKelvey Shera
Sulman Prize – Wendy Sharpe, Black Sun – Morning and Night
Turner Prize – Gilbert and George
Shortlisted: Art & Language, Victor Burgin, Derek Jarman, Stephen McKenna and Bill Woodrow
23 November – The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890–1985 opens at Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Organized by Maurice Tuchman, this is the first public showing of the abstract art of Swedish painter and mystic Hilma af Klint (died 1944).
Category:1986 paintings and Category:1986 sculptures
David Adickes – Cornet (sculpture, Galveston, Texas)
Yaacov Agam - Fire and Water Fountain at Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv, Israel (Dedicated)
Ruth Asawa – Aurora (sculpture, San Francisco)
John Buckley – The Headington Shark (Untitled 1986; painted fibreglass sculpture)
Daniel Buren - Les Deux Plateaux in the inner courtyard (Cour d'Honneur) of the Palais Royal in Paris, France
John Burgee and Philip Johnson – Clarke Memorial Fountain (Notre Dame, Indiana)
Wayne Chabre – Einstein Gargoyle (sculpture, Eugene, Oregon)
John Doubleday – Royal Marines Commando Memorial (Lympstone, England)
Georgia Gerber – Animals in Pools (sculptures, Portland, Oregon)
Robert Graham - Monument to Joe Louis installed at Hart Plaza in Detroit, Michigan, United States
David Hockney – Pearblossom Highway #2 (photocollage)
Ellsworth Kelly – Houston Triptych (bronze sculpture, Houston, Texas)
Igor Mitoraj – Heros de Lumiere
Odd Nerdrum – Return of the Sun
Kantilal B. Patel – Mohandas Gandhi (sculpture, New York City)
Andy Warhol
Camouflage
Map of Eastern U.S.S.R.