March 4 in Art History
7 real events recorded on March 4, the earliest from 1615. 2 artists were born , 1 died on this date.
The day's biggest moments
Born on this day 2
- 1756 Born
Born this day: Henry Raeburn
Sir Henry Raeburn, a renowned Scottish portrait painter, was born on March 4, 1756. He is notable for his role as Portrait Painter to King George IV in Scotland, creating works such as The Drummond Children and portraits of esteemed figures like George Harley Drummond and John Gray.
Raeburn's legacy lies in his significant contributions to Scottish portrait painting, leaving a lasting impact on the art world.
- 1832 Born
Born this day: Samuel Colman
Samuel Colman was an American painter, interior designer, and writer, known for his landscapes, particularly those of the Hudson River. His work reflects the influence of the Hudson River School, capturing the beauty of the American natural scenery. Born on March 4, 1832, Colman's artistic career spanned multiple styles, including American landscape and Orientalist themes.
Samuel Colman's legacy lies in his captivating portrayals of the American landscape, enduring as a notable figure in 19th-century American art.
Died on this day 1
- 1615 Died
Died this day: Hans von Aachen
Hans von Aachen was a German painter and leading representative of Northern Mannerism, known for his versatile and productive work in various genres, including portraits, religious, mythological, and allegorical subjects. His skill in depicting nudes and eroticized mythological scenes was particularly notable.
Hans von Aachen's work remains a unique witness to the cultural transfer between artists of his time.
Exhibitions & salons 1
- 2007 Exhibition Landmark
WACK! opens at MOCA
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles opened WACK!: Art and the Feminist Revolution at the Geffen Contemporary on March 4, 2007. Organized by MOCA curator Connie Butler, the survey framed feminist art internationally rather than as a narrowly American episode, concentrating on the crucial period from 1965 to 1980. It brought together approximately 120 artists and collectives from 21 countries across painting, sculpture, photography, film, video, and performance. The exhibition mattered because it gave museum-scale historical form to practices that had often been treated as activism, ephemera, or marginal art history, and it traveled afterward to Washington, New York, and Vancouver.
It helped canonize feminist art as a central field of postwar and contemporary art history.
Judy Chicago , Marina Abramović , Yoko Ono , Ana Mendieta , Louise Bourgeois Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Los Angeles
Openings & foundings 1
- 2016 Opening
Blank Forms inaugurates with Maryanne Amacher
Blank Forms was inaugurated on March 4, 2016 with Labyrinth Gives Way to Skin: Maryanne Amacher, a listening session and seminar organized at the Emily Harvey Foundation in New York. The program launched an organization devoted to experimental, time-based, and often hard-to-preserve artistic practices. Its first event focused on Amacher, whose sound installations and psychoacoustic work had been influential but difficult to present through conventional museum formats. The March 4 program began a longer series of Amacher seminars, listening sessions, and concerts, eventually leading to the Maryanne Amacher Foundation and the placement of her archive at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
It created a durable institutional platform for preserving sound art and experimental performance histories.
Auctions, prizes & heists 2
- 2025 Prize
Liu Jiakun wins the Pritzker Prize
On March 4, 2025, the Pritzker Architecture Prize announced Liu Jiakun of Chengdu as its 2025 laureate. The prize citation emphasized his architecture for ordinary citizens, his resistance to a fixed signature style, and his ability to make buildings that work simultaneously as infrastructure, landscape, historical record, and public space. Press coverage highlighted projects such as West Village in Chengdu and his use of locally resonant materials, including post-earthquake rebirth bricks. The award placed Liu's civic, human-centered practice within the top tier of global architectural recognition and broadened attention to contemporary Chinese architecture beyond spectacle-driven urban development.
The award elevated Liu's socially grounded architecture as a global model for dense, humane urban life.
- 2025 Auction
Banksy's Crude Oil sells in London
On March 4, 2025, Banksy's Crude Oil (Vettriano) sold at Sotheby's in London for GBP 4.3 million to a private buyer. The painting reworks Jack Vettriano's hugely popular The Singing Butler by inserting figures in yellow hazmat suits and an oil drum into the beach scene, turning a mass-market image of romance into an environmental and art-market satire. The sale was widely noticed because it occurred just after Vettriano's death was confirmed, and because the work had belonged to Blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus. It also showed how Banksy's secondary market can absorb and transform the cultural currency of another artist's most familiar image.
The sale reinforced Banksy's role in converting popular visual culture into high-value auction material.