Exhibition of the week
Marc Quinn
New works from the blood-head man. Outrageous sculptor of modern life or kitsch commissioner of bad carvings? Let’s see.
White Cube Bermondsey, London from 15 July until 13 September.
Other exhibitions this week
The London Open 2015
See what the new generation of London artists are up to.
Whitechapel Art Gallery, London from 15 July until 6 September.
Tony Swain
New paintings on old newspapers.
Modern Institute Aird’s Lane, Glasgow from 11 July until 22 August.
Camille Blatrix
This young French artist who won the Prix d’enterprise Ricard presents a show about ceramics and family by the seaside.
Mostyn, Llanudno from 18 July until 1 November.
Richard Billingham
Landscape photographs from the artist famous for controversially portraying his family.
Anthony Reynolds Gallery at Annely Juda Fine Art, London W1S from 10 July until 28 August.
Masterpiece of the week
Jacopo Pontormo – Joseph with Jacob in Egypt (c 1518)
This painting destroys cliches about the Italian Renaissance. It is not ordered but wild and strange. Faces out of Bruegel, a dreamscape out of Bosch, and electrifying colours that are unique to Pontormo make for a mysterious and bizarre jewel of a masterpiece that also includes portraits of Pontormo and his pupil, the young Bronzino.
National Gallery, London WC2N
Image of the week
What we learned this week
That a skyscraper has been based on Beyoncé’s body
Whether Michelangelo would have approved of Justin Bieber nude
How Jeff Koons became the top dog of art
About the strange strange case of the ‘Frankenstein’ Nefertiti, surely the ugliest public art ever
That Grayson Perry’s House for Essex is ‘like sleeping inside a migraine’
That a monster avatar made up of Adam Buxton, Bjork, Mr Tumble and more is taking over Manchester
What the Blitz looks like in living colour
And how Stephen Shore taught America to see in colour
Why Jonah the giant whale toured the UK in the 1950s
What a short history of blackface looks like
What conjoined piglets and two-faced kittens have in common
