Exhibition of the week
Giovanni da Rimini
This close look at the art of a forgotten master is a trip to the very birth of the Renaissance. Giovanni da Rimini’s masterpiece Scenes from the Lives of the Virgin and Other Saints (1300-05) is a window on the moment when Italian artists rejected the stiffness of Byzantine painting and started to look at reality with fresh eyes. It is an encounter with medieval genius.
• National Gallery, London, 14 June to 8 October
Also showing
Into the Unknown
A journey into the worlds of science fiction, from the 19th-century vision of Jules Verne to contemporary art by Conrad Shawcross and Larissa Sansour.
• Barbican Art Gallery, London, until 1 September
Benedict Drew
Multimedia installation that takes apart free-market ideology with allusions to 1930s Hollywood and Max Ernst.
• Whitechapel Gallery, London, until 3 September
Arthur Jafa
This artist and cinematographer advances a radical aesthetic of film in a meditation on black lives in America.
• Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London, until 10 September
Simon Patterson
A survey of Patterson’s subversive conceptual art that mixes his work with curiosities from local museums.
• De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, until 3 September
Masterpiece of the week
The Annunciation by Duccio (c 1307-11)
The grace and gentle calm of this gorgeously coloured medieval masterpiece illuminates the creative brilliance of Italy 700 years ago. Duccio is one of a generation of great artists who worked in the city republic of Siena in Tuscany. His Annunciation manages to be both substantial and ethereal, mapping the solid shapes of reality yet never losing sight of the mystical gold light of paradise.
• National Gallery, London
Image of the week
Shamah Darweesh, more than 90 years old, from Homs
Giles Duley travelled from refugee camps in Iraq to the beaches of Greece to document the Mediterranean refugee crisis for the UNHCR. Now he has collected his images in a book, I Can Only Tell You What My Eyes See – read this interview about the project.
What we learned this week
London’s Whitechapel Gallery looks at history through layers of dust
The superyacht set sailed in for a design party at the Saatchi Gallery
Rashid Johnson has enjoyed being Hauser & Wirth’s man in Somerset
Readers made their own election posters …
… while Banksy got himself in political hot water
Carson Davis Brown takes aim at consumerism, with the help of guerrilla Amish-style quilts
Grayson Perry aims for the feelgood factor at the Serpentine
Photographer Daniel Adams helped his Malaysian friends tackle racism
A Guatemalan village is turning itself into an artwork to boost tourism
A new Danish triennial focuses on nature
The National Gallery of Ireland is reopening its doors
Sgt Pepper at 50 amused our pop music critic
You can colour scenes of weekend rituals with Modern Toss
Get involved
Guardian members can book now for an exclusive private view: True Faith, a group show exploring the impact of Joy Division and New Order on the art world, part of Manchester international festival.
Don’t forget
To follow us on Twitter: @GdnArtandDesign.
