Events from the year 1940 in art.

• February – The series of 'Careless Talk Costs Lives' propaganda posters by 'Fougasse' is published by the Ministry of Information (United Kingdom).
• March – The Tartu Art Museum is officially established in Tartu, Estonia; its first exhibition is opened in November 1940.^[1][2]
• July – The Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce (Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg) of the Nazi Party begins its task of appropriating cultural property from occupied territories, initially in France.
• October – Grandma Moses' second solo exhibition, "What a Farm Wife Painted", opens at Otto Kallir's Galerie Saint-Etienne in New York City.
• November 3 – The War Artists' Advisory Committee of the U.K. Ministry of Information opens its first exhibition of War Pictures by British Artists to the public at the otherwise-evacuated National Gallery in London.
• November 13 – Release of Walt Disney's animated movie Fantasia in the United States.
• December 8 – Mexican painters Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera remarry in San Francisco (U.S.)
• Cecil Beaton is among the photographers commissioned by the U.K. Ministry of Information to undertake war photography.
• Xawery Dunikowski is deported to Auschwitz concentration camp, where he survives until 1945.
• Jacques Lipchitz flees France for the United States.
• Henry Moore is commissioned as a war artist and produces drawings of Londoners sleeping in the London Underground while sheltering from The Blitz.
• Anthony Blunt's Artistic Theory in Italy 1450–1600 is published. This year he is recruited to work for MI5 while simultaneously spying for the NKVD.

• Archibald Prize: Max Meldrum – Dr J Forbes McKenzie

• Saved from Europe at Galerie St. Etienne in New York City^[4]

• January – Anthony d'Offay, British art dealer
• January 2 – Peter Young, American painter
• January 6 – John Byrne, Scottish painter and writer
• January 24
  • Vito Acconci, American conceptual artist, installation artist, performance artist and filmmaker (d. 2017)
  • Mel Bochner, American conceptual artist
• February 22 – Billy Name, born William Linich, Jr., American photographer, collaborator with Andy Warhol
• March 7 – Hannah Wilke, American painter, sculptor and photographer (d. 1993)
• March 20 – Mary Ellen Mark, American photographer (d. 2015)
• April 11 – Marcia Tucker, American museum curator (d. 2006)
• April 16 – Joan Snyder, American painter
• April 30 – Burt Young, born Gerald DeLouise, American actor, painter and author
• May 1 – Elsa Peretti, Italian jewelry designer (d. 2021)
• May 11 – Juan Downey, Chilean-American video artist (d. 1993)
• May 25 – Nobuyoshi Araki, Japanese photographer
• June 17 – Alton Kelley, American poster and album artist (d. 2008)
• July 5 – Chuck Close, American "photorealistic" painter (d. 2021)
• July 27 – Pina Bausch, German neo-expressionist choreographer and dancer (d. 2009)
• August 23 – Galen Rowell, American wilderness photographer (d. 2002)
• September 6 – Elizabeth Murray, American painter, printmaker and draughtsman (d. 2007)
• September 10 – David Mann, American painter
• September 26 – Arno Rink, German painter and professor
• September 27 – Rudolph Moshammer, German fashion designer (d. 2005)
• October 22 – Ashley Jackson, Malaysian-born Yorkshire landscape watercolourist
• date unknown
  • Germano Celant, Italian art critic, curator and historian (d. 2020)
  • Stevan Knežević, Serbian painter, sculptor and professor of art (d. 1995)
  • Anthony McCall, British-born American avant-garde installation artist, projected film
  • Dušan Otašević, Serbian painter and sculptor
  • Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Native American painter and printmaker

• January 18 – Jonas Lie, Norwegian American landscape painter (b. 1880)
• February 11 – Ellen Day Hale, American painter and printmaker (b. 1855)
• February 27 – Nicolae Tonitza, Romanian painter and etcher (b. 1886)
• March 16 – Iso Rae, Australian Impressionist painter (b. 1860)
• April 15 – Alexandru Plămădeală, Moldovan sculptor (b. 1888)
• May 13 - Henry Charles Fehr, British sculptor (b. 1867)
• June 21 – Édouard Vuillard, French painter (b. 1868)
• June 29 – Paul Klee, Swiss painter expressionism, cubism, and surrealism (b. 1879)
• July 4 – Józef Pankiewicz, Polish painter, graphic artist and teacher (b. 1866)
• July 28 – Gerda Wegener, Danish artist (b. 1886)
• July 31 – Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler, German avant-garde painter, by involuntary euthanasia (b. 1899)
• August 22 – Paul Gösch, German artist and architect (b. 1885)
• September 15 – Dick Ket, Dutch painter (b. 1902)
• September 27 – Walter Benjamin, German philosopher, "comparatist" and art critic (b. 1892)
• October 15 – Karl Uchermann, Norwegian canine painter (b. 1855)
• November 16 – Colin Gill, English war artist, muralist and portrait painter (b. 1892).
• November 17 – Eric Gill, English sculptor and engraver (b. 1882)
• date unknown – Francesco Stella, Italian painter and set designer (b. 1862)

• 1940 in fine arts of the Soviet Union