Exhibition of the week
Dutch Flowers
The Dutch Republic in the 17th century took flowers seriously – so seriously it was gripped by tulip-mania. The flower-growing obsessions of the age still shape the look of Holland today. In art, flowers offered a perfect subject for the realist artists from an age when the microscope was pioneered. Paintings by Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, Rachel Ruysch and others showcase fascinating visions of colour – but look out for the worm in the bud, the lizard under the leaf.
• National Gallery, London, 6 April-29 August.
Also showing
Glasgow International
The only British city that rivals London as a centre of new art (and has a nicely rougher and less commercial creative edge) celebrates its vibrant scene with a host art events, including a group show at the Tramway co-designed by Martin Boyce and featuring Alexandra Bircken, Sheila Hicks and Amie Siegel among others.
• Various venues, Glasgow, 8-25 April.
The Other Art Fair
Fancy your chances as a talent spotter? Collect the next art star cheap, or at least support young artists at this fair specialising in “emerging and undiscovered” British art.
• Victoria House, London, 7 April -10 April.
Graham Hudson
Video installation that explores mind, body and an unrequited desire for Che Guevara.
• Canal Projects, London, 8 April-14 May.
Sokari Douglas Camp
Botticelli is all over the place right now. This exhibition is called Primavera and offers an African perspective on the European classical tradition.
• October Gallery, London, 7 April-14 May.
Masterpiece of the week
Caravaggio is a mean painter of reptiles. Like the snakes that writhe on a human head in his terrifying portrait of the monster Medusa, the lizard that nips a sensuous youth’s filthy finger in this early work is highly realistic. It has been painted from life as have the dusty water in the flower bowl through which the studio’s yellow windows are refracted. Such details of raw life give Caravaggio’s art its biting power.
• National Gallery, London.
Image of the week
What we learned
‘Queen of the curve’ Zaha Hadid has died at 65
Hadid was a maker of wonders – with her share of blunders
What the Syrian city of Palmyra looks like after its recapture
Spencer Tunick is asking the people of Hull to strip off – chilly!
Scarecrows live up their name in these terrifying photographs
Bruce Munro has flown 60,000 lightbulbs out to Uluru in Australia
Van Gogh had his ear to the New York pavement this week …
… and the installation Jungleized has brought the Amazon to the concrete playground
Google’s Deep Dream is creating some beautiful – and sometimes terrifying – images
A fragment from a Roman Christian settlement has been found in London
Why flora- and fauna-mad Maria Sibylla Merian was an artist ahead of her time
British Museum new chief Hartwig Fischer has some history lessons for us
The Los Angeles mural movement is in rude health
Famous photographers have snapped their favourite food
This couple quit their jobs to spend a year photographing each other
Kitsch-peddler Ken Done might just be Australia’s most underrated artist
Photographers have turned their lens on the 1% – and it’s not pretty
How Whistler’s Mother became a powerful symbol of the great depression
All you need for a good beard is a big bottle of bubble bath
Londoners are a photogenic bunch
Don’t forget
To follow us on Twitter @GdnArtandDesign
.jpg?w=600)
