Exhibition of the week
The Renaissance Nude
Some of the greatest artists in history, including Titian and Bronzino, portraying bodies of both sexes with unparalleled sensual poetry … what’s not to like?
• Royal Academy, London, 3 March-2 June.
Also showing
Henry Moore
The British follower of Picasso gets an outing among the Wallace Collection’s rococo delights.
• Wallace Collection, London, 6 March-23 June.
The German Revolution
The power of expressionist prints is revealed by Egon Schiele, Edvard Munch and more.
• The Hunterian, Glasgow, until 25 August.
Should I Stay Or Should I Go?
Artists protest against Brexit and wonder if it’s worth staying in Britain after the official leaving date of 29 March, with especially incisive pieces from Susan Stockwell, Michal Iwanowski and Michael Landy.
• Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London, until 13 April.
El Anatsui
The west African artist of dazzling metamorphoses reveals new uses for found stuff.
• October Gallery, London, until 6 April.
Masterpiece of the week
Sketch for ‘Hadleigh Castle’, c1828–9, by John Constable
This desolate vision of the Thames Estuary includes the saddest horizon in art. The bleary sky and pale water merge in a depressive blur. Hadleigh Castle, a smashed fragment of a forgotten past, adds its dark shadow to the misery. Yet this agonised canvas is so gripping. Constable translates feeling directly into paint. Each brushstroke looks difficult, as if it cost him huge inner struggle. It is a great slab of painted introspection. You are drawn to brood with him, and the experience is as intense as art gets. This is one of the greatest works of art ever created in Britain – on view at Tate Britain as part of the free Walk Through British Art: 1810 display.
• Tate Britain, London.
Image of the week
David Hockney was rescued by firefighters after being stuck in a lift in Amsterdam for half an hour. “Hockney – cigarette in hand and desperate for a smoke – cheerfully posed for photographs with his rescuers afterwards. He also asked for a cup of tea,” reported the Guardian’s Mark Brown. Hockney’s exhibition The Joy of Nature is at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, until 26 May.
What we learned
Should we take down galleries’ nudes after #MeToo?
Dorothea Tanning had an appetite for the gothic
Damien Hirst has paid lavish tribute to two men he blew away
Concrete has a seemingly unbreakable grip on architecture …
… though timber is making a comeback
Queer artists are giving Belfast a makeover
‘Lost Caravaggio’ rejected by the Louvre may be worth £100m
Photographer Graciela Iturbide deals in pain as well as beauty
Charles White’s work celebrating everyday African Americans is the subject of three exhibitions
Two communities have radically different plans for civic art collections
National Gallery lecturers have won a key public sector gig economy case
How the founder of Bauhaus changed the world
Azerbaijan faced ‘the worst cultural genocide of the 21st century’ says a damning new report
Crash-test dummy designers don’t think about women
Former White House photographer Pete Souza’s best photo of Obama … with Putin
Camilo José Vergara is cataloguing US neighbourhood murals
Australia is re-evaluating the untamed genius of Arthur Boyd
Grayson Perry took a close look at Martin Parr
Romania’s Geta Brătescu made lines dance
The second world war happened in colour
Photographers do it under water …
… except when they’re shooting outdoors
Police in 19th-century Scotland multitasked as portrait photographers
South Sea Islanders helped shape Australia
National Geographic unveiled its Traveller UK photo competition winners
Textile designer Bernard Nevill has died
Don’t forget
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