Exhibition of the week
Bellotto
This haunting painter of sublime views was Canaletto’s nephew but the paintings gathered here obsessively study a German castle – we’re not in Venice any more.
• National Gallery, London, from 22 July to 31 October.
Also showing
Folkestone Triennial
Gilbert and George lend their panache to the seaside art festival that also stars Bill Woodrow, Assemble and Bob and Roberta Smith.
• Folkestone, Kent from 22 July until 2 November.
Phyllida Barlow at Highgate Cemetery
The decaying Victorian necropolis of Highgate Cemetery is intensely atmospheric – what will Barlow’s sprawling sculpture add?
• West Cemetery, Highgate from 24 July until 30 August.
John Crome
This moving painter of the Norfolk landscape deserves to be as famous as his contemporary Constable.
• Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery until 5 September.
Shirazeh Houshiary
Ethereal blue abstract paintings that float in their own sea of spiritual calm.
• Lisson Gallery, Cork Street, London until 31 July.
Image of the week
Hundreds of people took the knee after a vandalised mural of footballer Marcus Rashford was repainted in Manchester. Wellwishers poured in to leave poems, posters and messages, including a father and his two children who had travelled from Birmingham. In a tweet, Rashford said simply: “Overwhelmed. Thankful. Lost for words.” Read more here.
What we learned
10 Black artists in Cambridge are taking Britain’s pulse
Tino Sehgal’s Blenheim invasion is thrilling – and offending the palace’s visitors …
… ‘I have to persuade visitors that what I’m doing is worth their attention’, Sehgal told the Observer
Paula Rego’s deeply ambiguous work goes straight for the subconscious at Tate Britain …
… while Lucian Freud’s gay relationships are explored in a new exhibition …
… and Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s paintings pop and quiver at Tate Modern
Guggenheim Bilbao has asked for €100,000 to restore Jeff Koons’ giant Puppy …
The best of Latin American photojournalism went on display in New York …
… where photographer Thomas Holton spent time with a family in their Chinatown flat
Olivia Arthur’s best shot is inside a women’s prison in Tbilisi …
… while Harry Gruyaert photographed a vivid, sun-dappled Spanish picnic
Top illustrators are helping girls in Nepal get an education
Doug Fishbone built a street in Cork to show house-price madness
Charles Lutyens, great nephew of Sir Edwin, created a vast mosaic in a London church
Alan Cox, who made prints for countless Howard Hodgkin, Jim Dine and David Bowie, has died
Diego Cortez introduced Jean-Michel Basquiat to the art world
1960s op art pioneer Jeffrey Steele maintained a sense of order and rationalism
Berger and Wyse poked fun at gallery visitors …
… while a magic mushroom-inspired Dracula swooped into British Art Show 9
Kurt Tong’s “ghost marriage” photographs are about a man who wed his dead fiancee
Brian Lomas photographed Manchester’s disappearing shopfronts in the 1980s …
… while Grimsby’s Victorian ice factory is to become a theatre …
The We, Women social-impact photography project is exhibiting directly under Brooklyn Bridge …
Masterpiece of the week
Antoine-Jean Gros, General Bonaparte Reviewing Troops, c1802-3
Napoleon’s soldiers stretch away in rows of anonymous robotic phantoms as if they are not individuals at all. Only the general, turned in heroic profile on his horse, appears fully human along with an admiring officer. Gros sees the future emperor as almost godlike in his lean heroism. He adored Napoleon, following him on campaign and portraying him several times from life, then building vast panoramic propaganda paintings from his sketches. This small oil sketch seems to capture reality on the hoof and, if so, reveals how charismatic and uncanny the presence of Napoleon must have been.
• Wallace Collection, London.
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