Events from the year 1971 in art.

• July 22 – The Lady of Baza Iberian sculpture (4th century BCE) is discovered.
• October 24 – English painter Francis Bacon's lover, George Dyer, commits suicide two days before the opening of the artist's retrospective at Paris's Grand Palais; Bacon will paint The Black Triptychs in his memory.
• Construction of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris begins.
• New Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes, opens.

• Archibald Prize: Clifton Pugh – Sir John McEwen

• Chris Burden - Shoot
• Abram Games – Stockwell tile motif on London Underground's Victoria line
• Hans Haacke – Real Time Social System
• David Hockney
  • Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy
  • Portrait of Sir David Webster
• Helen Journeay – Dawn (sculpture, Houston, Texas)
• Nabil Kanso – Place des Martyres (paintings) (1971 through 1974)
• Fritz Koenig – Great Spherical Caryatid ("The Sphere", for World Trade Center, New York City)
• John Raimondi – Cage
• Lucas Samaras - Stiff Box 12
• Peter Sedgely – Pimlico tile motif on London Underground's Victoria line
• George Smith – Vauxhall tile motif on London Underground's Victoria line
• Kaapa Tjampitjinpa – Gulgardi
• Hans Unger – Brixton tile motif on London Underground's Victoria line
• Francisco Zúñiga – Mother and Daughter Seated (bronze, San Diego)

• August 22 until September 29 - The De Luxe Show curated by Peter Bradley at the De Luxe movie theater in Houston, Texas sponsored by the Menil Foundation.^[1]

• January 4 – Junichi Kakizaki, Japanese floral artist and sculptor
• May 9 – Nicolas Ghesquière, French fashion designer
• June 1 – Miguel Calderón, Mexican visual artist and performer
• June 13 - Joshua Davis, American visual artist and designer
• September 2 – Arnold Arre, Filipino comic book writer and artist
• September 7 – Sirpa Masalin, Finnish sculptor
• September 13 – Stella McCartney, English fashion designer
• October 1 – Stéphane Breitwieser, French art thief
• October 3 – Oliver Briceño, Venezuelan oboist
• October 4 – Jeremy Blake, American digital artist and painter (died 2007)
• October 16 – Mirko Reisser (DAIM), German graffiti-artist
• October 27 – Jade Arcade, American composer, musician, and comic book artist
• December 6 – Helena Bulaja, Croatian multimedia artist
• date unknown
  • Ahmed Al Safi, Iraqi sculptor
  • Amanda Coogan, Irish performance artist
  • Bernhard Gál, Austrian composer and artist

• January 10 – Coco Chanel, French fashion designer (born 1883)
• January 11 – I. Rice Pereira, American painter, (born 1902)
• February 1 – Raoul Hausmann, Austrian artist and writer (born 1886)
• February 7 – Emy Roeder, German sculptor (born 1890)
• April 1 – Ramiro Arrue, Basque painter, illustrator, and ceramist (born 1892)
• April 3 – Jacques Ochs, French artist, Olympic fencing gold medallist (born 1883)
• April 11 – Marcel Gromaire, French painter (born 1892)
• May 31 – Norman Wilkinson, English marine artist (born 1878)
• June 14 – Gerald Dillon, Irish painter (born 1916)
• July 7 – Ub Iwerks, American animator, cartoonist and special effects technician (born 1901)
• July 10 – George Kenner, German artist (born 1888)
• July 12 – Kiyoshi Yamashita, Japanese outsider artist (born 1922)
• August 27 – Margaret Bourke-White, American photographer and photojournalist (born 1904)
• October – Charles Walter Simpson, English painter of nature and teacher (born 1885)
• November 9 – Ceri Richards, Welsh painter (born 1903)
• December 6 – Jan Altink, Dutch painter (born 1885)