Exhibition of the week
Grayson Perry: Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman
As the British Museum reopens, Perry explores the universal human themes of death and mourning in its global exhibits.
• British Museum, London, ongoing.
Also showing
Atelier Picasso
This immersive re-creation of Picasso’s studio in the south of France – his base after the second world war – offers a glimpse of the modern artist at work. Picasso’s life revolved around his obsessive creativity. His studio reflects that. At once a museum of art that inspired him, a carefully annotated archive of his own work and a cluttered man-cave.
• Bastian Gallery, London, 3 September until 31 October.
Georg Baselitz
Gold paintings, drawings and reliefs of emaciated and desiccated hands fill this new exhibition by the painter, printmaker and sculptor. Baselitz, 82, is one of the revolutionary artists who remade the German imagination in the 1960s and helped make German art the most audacious and mighty of our time.
• White Cube, London, 4 September until 14 November.
Cubism
As Scotland’s modern art museum reopens, this show takes you to Paris in the early 1900s. Picasso and Georges Braque were not trying to shock (they didn’t even show their art) but were researching the very nature of reality when they took everyday appearances apart in their “cubist” work. Their experiment inspired followers from Juan Gris to Piet Mondrian and unleashed every big idea in modern art.
• Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One), Edinburgh, ongoing.
Elizabeth Price
There’s something strangely wholesome and even old-fashioned about the frightening and disturbing art of 2012 Turner prize-winner Elizabeth Price. At a time when contemporary art is often issue-based, she makes eerie films that would have fitted perfectly into the less political art scene of the 90s. More strength to her and to Artangel, veterans of the site-specific, who commissioned this exhibition.
• The Assembly Room, 82 Borough Road, London, 4 September until 25 October.
Collecting and Empire Trail
As the British Museum reopens its doors, it has to face not only the aftermath of Covid but a new critical attitude to the colonial past. So it is addressing its issues head-on with this trail through the museum that explicitly makes connections between archaeology, anthropology and the British empire. There’s a lot to chew over.
• British Museum, London, ongoing.
A Brief History of Art
Bring the world’s galleries into your home with my interactive Guardian Masterclass about the history of art. From the ice age art of 30,000 years ago to Tracey Emin’s coronavirus diary – and the important revolutions in between – I’ll take you through a series of artworks that reveal something important about each period of art history.
• Online webinar, 4 September at 6.30pm via the Guardian Masterclasses.
Image of the week
Charlie the poodle stars in Nancy Baron’s collection of photos of California’s proudest pooch owners and their mid-century modern American properties. Palm Springs: Modern Dogs at Home is published through Schiffer in September. See our full gallery.
What we learned
V&A Dundee exposed Scottish design icons’ links to slavery
Banksy is funding a refugee rescue boat operating in the Mediterranean
A pampered pooch and life under lockdown feature in this year’s Portrait of Britain show
The National Trust denied dumbing down in a drive for ‘new audiences’
Turner winner Elizabeth Price recalled her ‘exasperating’ recovery from Covid-19
It’s a brilliant time to visit the National Gallery
Architects want to tear down garden fences
New York artist Ron English has created a line of creepy skeleton face masks
More Australians support the arts than ever before
Italy’s older gay people are confronting two taboos
A £13m painting by an old master has been stolen … for a third time
Mexico’s greatest photographer of disaster has a passion for emergency service toys
Georg Baselitz is a master of obscenity – and inspired Bowie
JJ Gonson explained how she photographed the ‘real’ Elliott Smith
Barnett Freedman’s designs ranged from Faber & Faber to the Milk Marketing Board
John F Kennedy delighted in being a dad
A German library has forked out £2.5m for a ‘friendship book’
Palm Springs is home to some of the world’s most pampered pooches
‘Me and my gun’: what Appalachian kids did with a camera
Congolese dandies take fashion to the streets of Brazzaville
Ian Brown visited every US state to capture images of Americans’ dreams
Australia paid tribute to ‘inspiring’ artist and curator John Nixon
Masterpiece of the week
Stone relief of soldiers crossing a river, 865-860 BC, by ancient Assyrian
The Assyrian army shows the ingenuity and toughness that made it such a formidable foe in this wall decoration from the royal palace at Nimrud. Assyria’s disciplined armies created an empire across the Middle East and their achievements are portrayed with grim relish in palace art, from sieges to mass executions. But this picture is unusually touching. The soldiers swim nearly naked through rippling waters, accompanied by fish, while archers on boats protect them from attack. You get the impression they will jump out on the far bank and immediately start fighting.
• British Museum, London
Don’t forget
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