Exhibition of the week
Impressionists in London
The first modern art movement had a special connection with London, where its founders took refuge during the Franco-Prussian war. Monet would later return to paint the greatest canvases of the capital.
• Tate Britain, London, 2 November to 7 May.
Also showing
Monochrome
Art that uses a single colour gives the National Gallery a way of linking Renaissance and modern artists from Albrecht Dürer to Gerhard Richter, Chuck Close, Bridget Riley and Olafur Eliasson.
• National Gallery, London, 30 October to 18 February.
NOW
The excellent Susan Philipsz leads a survey of storytelling in contemporary art.
• Modern One, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, 28 October to 18 February.
Marcel Broodthaers
The most poetic of conceptual art’s 1960s founders began as a surrealist. His art shares the ineffably bizarre quality of his Belgian compatriot René Magritte.
• Hauser and Wirth, London, until 18 November.
Haim Steinbach
Unlikely collections of banal objects by this influential 1980s postmodernist.
• White Cube Mason’s Yard, London, until 20 January.
Masterpiece of the week
Weymouth Bay: Bowleaze Cove and Jordan Hill (1816–17) by John Constable
This fresh, salty seashore scene shows what the impressionists saw in Constable. Fifty years before Monet and his contemporaries began painting in the open air, this English Romantic was already doing just that. The lifelike flow of clouds in this painting has exactly the sensual immediacy for which the impressionists would strive. Shadows move across the beach and you can almost hear the sea. Constable’s light and truth was celebrated in France before he found recognition in Britain. He was appreciated by a French culture of experiment that would lead to the birth of modernism.
• National Gallery, London
Image of the week
Circadian Rhyme 1, 2011, by Jitish Kallat
One section of Age of Terror: Art since 9/11 – featuring artists such as Ai Weiwei, Grayson Perry, Gerhard Richter, Jenny Holzer, Mona Hatoum, Alfredo Jaar, Coco Fusco and Jake and Dinos Chapman – is titled State Control, and includes this piece by Mumbai-based Jitish Kallat. But can tighter checks at airports compare with the real terrors of the last century that fill this museum? Read the full review here.
What we learned this week
A secret portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots, lost for centuries, has gone on display
Brighton Pavilion Garden and a London gasholder have been put on the at-risk heritage list
Bloomberg’s new European HQ looks like a department store – despite costing £1bn
Rebel architect Liz Diller is relishing the opportunity to build London’s Centre for Music
Why artist Stan Douglas restaged the London riots
Henry Moore’s sculpture Old Flo has returned to east London
Allegedly looted antiquities were on sale at London Frieze Masters art fair
Marcel Duchamp’s moustachioed Mona Lisa has sold for $750,000
Susan Philipsz shed a wondrous light on music’s science and sorcery
How Cézanne’s portraits blended coarseness and delicacy, certainty and doubt
That a revelatory retrospective of Polish artist Alina Szapocznikow is full of wonders and horrors
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov have turned everyday life in the Soviet Union into a tragicomic nightmare
Get involved
Our A-Z of Art series continues – share your art with the theme X for Xenophilia. And check out the entries we selected for the theme W for women.
Don’t forget
To follow us on Twitter: @GdnArtandDesign.
