Exhibition of the week
Beatriz Milhazes: Rio Azul
Dazzling abstract explosions of colour that update the modernism of Sonia Delaunay to 21st-century Brazil.
• White Cube Bermondsey, London, 18 April-1 July.
Also showing
Joseph Beuys: Utopia at the Stag Monuments
Some of this visionary artist’s most powerful sculptures are brought together in an exhibition curated by his collaborator Norman Rosenthal.
• Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, Ely House, London, 18 April–16 June.
Sony World Photography Awards
German artist Candida Höfer gets a special display within this survey of the global photography scene.
• Somerset House, London, 20 April-6 May.
Bomberg
A welcome survey of one of the most powerful British artists of the early 20th century.
• Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, until 28 May.
Somewhere in Between
Explorations on the frontier of art and science by Martina Amati, Daria Martin, Maria McKinney and John Walter.
• Wellcome Collection, London, until 27 August.
Masterpiece of the week
Landscape With a Footbridge (c 1518-20) by Albrecht Altdorfer
This eerie painting transports us to a wild medieval German landscape where you could easily encounter a werewolf, witches or death – at least, it can inspire such daydreams if you let it. That is because Altdorfer leaves the meaning of his painting open. He creates what feels like a real place, with its colossal fir tree dripping colour over a time-worn bridge. But he does not include a story or people. This is landscape as free imaginative space, a world for the eye to roam in – and as such an entirely new idea in European art when Altdorfer painted it.
• National Gallery, London
Image of the week
Tracey Emin combined a travellers’ love letter with a Brexit protest in her new installation I Want My Time With You at London’s St Pancras International railway station.
What we learned this week
Irish artists are making a stand in the abortion referendum debate
One ‘war artist’ infiltrated the strange world of arms fairs
Unseen early Diane Arbus photos went on show
Christo is building a new London landmark – made of oil barrels
Cathy Wilkes will be Britain’s artist in Venice
Canadian police are chasing a Yoko Ono thief
Rowan Moore considered the changing fortunes of two London landmarks
We looked forward to the Design Museum’s Azzedine Alaïa fashion show
Hobart’s Mona is helping to design a dementia-friendly village
The shortlist for the BP Portrait award 2018 was announced
Tom Hammick takes a lunar voyage ...
… while Serbia is forced to rethink its monument to space flight
Yang Fudong deals in modern Chinese allegories
In Chicago, Otobong Nkanga casts an African eye on western attitudes
… while Afrofuturism lands elsewhere in town
A Sydney hotel has designs on influential women
We took another look at Seydou Keïta’s portraits from Mali
Photographer Chloe Dewe searched for Frankenstein in Switzerland
European galleries are booming
And we remembered abstract painter Gillian Ayres
Don’t forget
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