Exhibition of the week
Liverpool Biennial
Public commissions by Rashid Johnson, Linder, Larry Achiampong and others launch this city-wide art happening before the gallery components can open later.
• Until 20 June.
Also showing
Jessica Rankin
A sensuality that evokes the abstract expressionist Helen Frankenthaler clashes with bright splashes worthy of a Damien Hirst spin painting.
• White Cube online until 1 May.
Synergy: Vivaldi and Canaletto
You can’t get a closer march between sound and vision than these two 18th-century Venetian greats. To kick off a new online concert series, Orpheus Sinfonia play from this beautiful gallery.
• Wallace Collection online, 21 March, at 6pm GMT.
A Queer Walk Through British Art
John Constable’s wind-bitten landscape, Hadleigh Castle, is one of the works in this online choice by LGBTQ+ people.
• Tate.org.uk.
Roni Horn
Take a virtual trip to New York to see Horn’s latest exhibition of drawings.
• Hauser & Wirth online, until 10 April.
Image of the week
Spring Cannot Be Cancelled by David Hockney and Martin Gayford
Lockdown blossom … A lavishly illustrated record of the exchanges between the artist, in Normandy, and the critic, in Cambridge, during the past year has been published by Thames & Hudson. As Nicholas Wroe notes in his review: “This book is Gayford’s record of their exchanges placed within the context of a wider appreciation of Hockney and his work, of art history in general and of some pleasingly digressive musings on the ‘new things said and done by an old friend, and the thoughts and feelings they prompted in me’”. Read the full review.
What we learned
Architecture’s Pritzker prize went to “unflashy” French duo Lacaton & Vassal
Kathryn Maple was knocked over by her John Moores painting prize triumph
Faith Ringgold talked about her life and activism
France will return a Klimt looted by Nazis from an Austrian Jewish family
Peter Halliday is looking at the forgotten concrete architecture of Wales
Pop artist Kaws talked about his Brooklyn retrospective …
… and Sally Davies visited some fabulous New York apartments
The Lampedusa cross – made from a capsized refugee boat – will tour England
Laura Cumming reviewed the Artes Mundi biennial in Cardiff
Digital art’s “non-fungible token” rush poses a theft risk as much as a bonanza
Banksy’s Reading jail escapist has been defaced
New posters remind Britons of their debt to NHS staff
UK studies will examine racial inequality in art and music
Gary Calton went to the North Yorkshire seaside out of season …
… and Alfio Tommasini went to Switzerland in search of milk
The Great British Art Tour brought us a Moore-ish king and queen, a proud royalist, a lobster, wild cats and giant kelpies
Read the Observer/Anthony Burgess prize nominee Emilia Ong on Andy Warhol
A new film will celebrate art deco ceramicist Clarice Cliff
Documentary-maker Nick Broomfield has examined the legacy of his photographer father, Maurice
Alexey Vasilyev saw a small miracle in Russia
Jennifer Higgie writes about five centuries of the female gaze …
… as London’s National Portrait Gallery pledges to feature more women
We remembered artist Duggie Fields …
… and we discussed Covid memorials
Masterpiece of the week
A Male Académie (“The Barque of Charon”), circa 1770, after Pierre Subleyras
This cool and mysterious painting of a naked man posing with a pole in his hand comes from an age when to become an artist you started by drawing nude models from life and copying admirable works. The painter of this scene has done both: it is a copy of an older academic nude. The muscled model is pretending to be Charon, the ferryman who takes dead souls across the river Styx in ancient myth and Dante’s Inferno. But he isn’t pretending very hard. You feel the chill in the studio as nudes freeze and artists copy one another. There’s life here, but it’s under tight control.
• National Gallery, London.
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