Exhibition of the week
Francis Towne
Towne’s watercolours of Rome done in 1781 are little known treasures of the British Museum. He left his immaculate depictions of Rome’s ruins to the Museum in 1816 at the time when the Elgin Marbles were intensifying interest in classical archaeology. Now, 200 years on, they are still compelling.
• British Museum, London, 21 January-14 August.
Other exhibitions this week
The Easter Rising 1916
Photographs of the most emotive and mythic moment in modern Irish history. A good visual start to this centenary year.
• Photographers’ Gallery, London, 22 January-3 April.
Ed and Nancy Kienholz
The grotesque and macabre imagination of Kienholz turns Americana into the stuff of nightmares.
• Spruth Magers, London, 22 January-20 February.
Listening
Janet Cardiff, Christian Marclay, Haroon Mirza and more explore what happens when we listen in this anthology of sound art.
• Art Exchange, Colchester, until 14 February.
Giacomo Manzù
Curvy and often erotic sculptures that kept the Art Deco flame alive in postwar Italy. This exhibition also includes Manzù’s drawings.
• Estorick Collection, London, until 3 April.
Masterpiece of the week
This stupendous object is a fantasy of ancient decadence created by the brilliantly imaginative architectural artist Piranesi using pieces of ancient sculpture that he found in the ruins of the emperor Hadrian’s villa. Today this kind of appropriation would scandalise archaeologists, but it’s a fascinating dream object that turns ancient Rome into the stuff of surrealism.
• British Museum, London.
Image of the week
What we learned ...
That Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena won 2016 Pritzker prize – and why
Frances Morris will be the new director of Tate Modern
One all-women show doesn’t make Charles Saatchi a feminist
Van Dyck might just be the Andy Warhol of 17th-century portraiture
Plastic surgery pioneer ORLAN believes she has ‘walked a long way for women’
Tokyo’s Olympic stadium architect denies copying Zaha Hadid’s design
How photographer Erwin Wurm got a museum director to stick pens up his nose
A dangerous north-south divide is opening up in England’s museum sector
The “wickest road” in 1950s Britain had a lot more going on besides
The real Ireland has as many ghosts as it does green fields
Annie Leibovitz wants to photograph Angela Merkel
Turner’s Dutch Boats don’t need to stay in the UK to wield their power
Louise Bourgeois will be one of the stars of Tate Modern’s new gallery
America’s black marching bands have soul, swagger and skill
The underground Tokyo punk scene has a mean line in mohicans
