• March–November – City Sculpture Project in England.
• May 21 – In St. Peter's Basilica (Vatican City), Laszlo Toth attacks Michelangelo's Pietà statue with a geologist's hammer, shouting that he is Jesus Christ.
• June 8 – KUNSTEN Museum of Modern Art Aalborg, Denmark, designed by Alvar and Elissa Aalto and Jean-Jacques Baruël, is completed.^[1]
• September 4 – 1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery.
• September 15 – Release in France of Luis Buñuel's surrealist film The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.
• September 16 – Opening of A.I.R. Gallery at 97 Wooster Street, SoHo, New York, the first artist-run, not-for-profit gallery for women artists in the United States.
• September – Release in the United Kingdom of Ken Russell's biographical film about Gaudier-Brzeska, Savage Messiah.
• October 4 – Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, designed by Louis Kahn, is opened.^[2]
• date unknown
  • BBC Television broadcasts Ways of Seeing, a four-part series by John Berger on art.^[3]
  • The Bridgeman Art Library is established as a commercial virtual archive of images by Harriet Bridgeman in London.
  • Costantino Nivola becomes the first non-American member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
  • Friedensreich Hundertwasser publishes his architectural manifesto, Your window right – your tree duty.
  • Portmeirion Pottery brings out its best-selling "Botanic Garden" design.
  • Oliver Millar becomes the first full-time Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures in the United Kingdom, succeeding Anthony Blunt.^[4]

• Archibald Prize: Clifton Pugh – The Hon E G Whitlam
• John Moores Painting Prize - Euan Uglow^[5]

• Francis Bacon – Triptych–August 1972
• Thomas Hart Benton – Joplin at the Turn of the Century
• Christo and Jeanne Claude – Valley Curtain (along Colorado State Highway 325)^[6]
• Bronisław Chromy – Wawel Dragon (statue, Kraków)
• Marcelle Ferron – Untitled stained glass panel at Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
• Helen Frankenthaler – Coral Wedge
• Barbara Hepworth – Minoan Head and Assembly of Sea Forms
• David Hockney – Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)
• Elek Imredy – Girl in a Wetsuit (bronze, Vancouver, British Columbia)
• Joan Jonas – Vertical Roll
• Alexander Liberman – Contact II (sculpture, Portland, Oregon)
• Natalia LL – Consumer Art (video series, begins)
• Paul McCarthy – Black and White Tapes
• Clifton Pugh – Death of a Wombat
• John Raimondi – David
• Liberty Bell (Portland, Oregon)
• Mansu Hill Grand Monument (Pyongyang, North Korea)

• Don McLean - Vincent - a tribute to Vincent van Gogh

• January 29 – Brian Wood, American author and illustrator.
• April 6 – Rinko Kawauchi, Japanese photographer.
• April 29 – Roman Dirge, American comic book artist and magician.
• July 2 – Coster Balakasi, Zimbabwean sculptor.
• July 19 – Zanele Muholi, South African visual activist.

Full date unknown edit

• Andrea Büttner, German-born artists.
• Duncan Campbell, Irish-born video artist.
• Jules de Balincourt, French painter.
• Gilles Tréhin, French artist and author.
• Hema Upadhyay, née Hirani, Indian installation artist and photographer (d. 2015).

January to June edit

• January 19 – Suzanne Malherbe, French illustrator and designer (b. 1892).
• February 19 – Tedd Pierce, American animated cartoon writer, animator and artist (b. 1906).
• March 13 – Tony Ray-Jones, English photographer (b. 1941).
• March 23 – Cristóbal Balenciaga, Spanish fashion designer (b. 1895).
• March 27
  • M. C. Escher, Dutch graphic artist (b. 1898).
  • Ricco Wassmer, Swiss painter (b. 1915).
• April 26 - Fernando Amorsolo, Filipino painter (b. 1892)

July to December edit

• July 31 – Dod Procter, English painter (b. 1890)^[7]
• October 23 – Clarice Cliff, English ceramic artist (b. 1899)
• October 31 – Beta Vukanović, Serbian painter (b. 1872).
• December 23 – Norman Clyde, American mountaineer, nature photographer and naturalist (b. 1885).
• December 24 – Gisela Richter, English archaeologist and art historian (b. 1882).
• December 29 – Joseph Cornell, American artist and sculptor (b. 1903).

Full date unknown edit

• Gerard Curtis Delano, American painter (b. 1890).
• Ilija Bašičević, Serbian painter (b. 1895)^[8]

• 1972 in Fine Arts of the Soviet Union