Botticelli goes pop and Yoko tells the time

Botticelli goes pop and Yoko tells the time – the week in art

Rebirth of Venus by David LaChapelle, which appears in Botticelli Reimagined. Photograph: David LaChappelle/Victoria and Albert Museum London

Exhibition of the week

Botticelli Reimagined
This provocative look at the afterlife of an artist shows how the Renaissance genius of Sandro Botticelli was rediscovered by the Victorian age and has fascinated art ever since. With poptastic versions of Botticelli by everyone from Andy Warhol to Dolce & Gabbana, this is no staid old-master exhibition – but there are plenty of real Botticellis too. Is this the future of art’s past?
• V&A, London, 5 March to 3 July

Also showing this week

Botticelli Drawings
If you are swept up by Botticelli mania (or are puzzled by the fuss), don’t miss this show of some of his great illustrations for Dante’s Divine Comedy.
• Courtauld Gallery, London, until 15 May

The Indivisible Present
Douglas Gordon, Yoko Ono and Elizabeth Price are among the artists in this exhibition about how we experience time.
• Modern Art Oxford, until 16 April

Bandits Live Comfortably in the Ruins
Curated by artist Sean Lynch and featuring Michele Horrigan, John Latham, Fiona Marron and more, this exhibition explores relationships with the environment.
• Flat Time House, London, 3 March to 2 April

James Coleman
New film installations and past works by an innovator in time-based art.
• Marian Goodman Gallery, London, 4 March to 16 April

Masterpiece of the week

The Virgin of the Rocks, by Leonardo da Vinci. Photograph: The Gallery Collection/Corbis

Leonardo da Vinci: The Virgin of the Rocks, c1491/2-9 and 1506-8
In his notebooks, Leonardo da Vinci reports a bit angrily that Botticelli – his friend and rival in Renaissance Florence – says all you need to do to create a landscape is throw a paint-soaked sponge at a panel or wall. The truth behind this rude remark of Sandro’s, claims Leonardo, is that if you stare at stains on a wall for long enough you will start to see landscapes and other images. The blue hills and bizarre rock formations in this dreamlike painting are surely the result of Leonardo’s radical method.
• National Gallery, London

Image of the week

Ian Dury by David Arnoff. Photograph: David Arnoff

Ian Dury poses outside Bela Lugosi’s former home. The photographer David Arnoff told us: “We ventured cautiously in, like trespassing schoolkids. Then we decided to get out before it was too late and [Ian] suddenly lurched toward me like Dr Frankenstein’s Igor, which suited him right down to the ground.”