Exhibition of the week
Peter Lanyon
This British abstract(ish) painter’s fascination with gliding – which ultimately led to his death in 1964 – is the theme of the latest exhibition at one of the most thoughtful galleries around.
• Courtauld Gallery, London, until 17 January.
Other exhibitions this week
Cerith Wyn Evans
The leading Welsh conceptual artist explores emotion with a light touch.
• White Cube Bermondsey, London, until 15 November.
Anj Smith
Seriously weird paintings that mock portrait conventions with some of the wit of Francis Picabia.
• Hauser and Wirth, London, until 21 November.
Frank Stella
One of the most important artists alive, a man who changed painting and is still full of ideas.
• Bernard Jacobson, London, until 21 November.
British Art Show 8
All the latest names and trends in this five-yearly survey of the state of British art.
• Leeds City Art Gallery until 10 January.
Masterpiece of the week
Cézanne – The Great Bathers (circa 1894-1905)
Cézanne is not painting real women in this revolutionary painting. He is painting his own fantasy and the process of visualising it. Faces look like African masks – before Picasso – and bodies are distorted by desire. This is modern art at its most provocative and serious.
• At National Gallery, London.
Image of the week
Eric and Angie before they turn the lights out
What we learned this week
That you can get a comedy drawing of your genitals for free this week at Frieze Art Fair
And why Ken Kagami, the genital artist, won’t draw a vagina
That foxes like the Bee Gees – thanks to Frieze
That Burntwood school in London won the Stirling prize for best building of the year
Searching for Sam Gilliam: how an 81-year-old art genius was saved from oblivion
That the photographer Hilla Becher, documenter of industrial decline, has died
How life looks without smartphones
How motherhood in art has transformed from miracle milk to joke shop breasts and caesarean scars
That Giacometti created the most profound, universal art of the past 75 years
Porn on the fourth of July: how Fiona Banner is rewriting the art of war
That a satsuma Sistine Chapel has won an Edible Masterpieces competition
The amazing life stories of forgotten female photographers brought to light
And what a day really looks like in the NHS
What life’s like inside Fukushima’s nuclear exclusion zone
That London is calling for help in its housing crisis
And finally …
B is for body: send your submissions for our A to Z of readers’ art now
