Exhibition of the week
Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse
What were the first abstract paintings? Monet’s late paintings of his waterlily pond put in a good bid for the prize. The RA revisits them in this blockbuster show that also includes garden paintings by Manet, Van Gogh, Cézanne and Klee – a pastoral gathering of modern giants.
• Royal Academy, London, 30 January-20 April.
Also this week
Electronic Superhighway (2016-1966)
A survey of art and the digital age from 1966 to now with 100 techno stars including Nam June Paik and Cory Arcangel.
• Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 29 January-15 May.
Line
This look at what drawing is now includes Julian Opie’s radically simplified notations, a line drawn on the gallery floor by Ceal Floyer and other reinventions of an ancient art.
• Lisson Gallery, London, 22 January-12 March.
Ryan Mosley
Latest works by this very interesting painter, mixing bizarre imagery and Kandinsky colours and well worth checking out.
• Alison Jacques Gallery, London, 29 January-3 March.
Masterpiece of the week
Long before Monet retreated into the shimmering world of Giverny, the garden was already a grand artistic theme. This painting depicts the Virgin Mary’s garden, an enclosed place whose high walls are lined with well tended hedges as she holds court under an outdoor canopy. A heavenly patch.
• At the National Gallery, London.
Image of the week
What we learned ...
Postwar public art is in need of our protection – now!
The 1916 Easter Rising continues to reverberate through Irish lives
The art market is in a ‘mania’ phase – the bubble might burst
The spirit of German architect Walter Segal lives on in Lewisham
Tracey Emin’s penis bracelet works like a charm (on some people)
This John Dee painting originally included a circle of human skulls
Contemporary artists are donating their work to the British Museum
Edward and Nancy Kienholz loved Americana, if not America itself
Dada art star Sophie Tauer-Arb deserved her Google doodle
Design students have made a coat that turns into a tent for refugees
Yugoslav art has staying power – and Tito liked kitsch ashtrays
London’s recreation of Miró’s studio is an elaborate shop window
Francis Towne’s watercolours paint a city lost in time and space
Men and women really are different – or so says the London Art Fair
It was kind of hypocritical for the Musee D’Orsay to call the cops
Roller Derby bruises come in all the colours of the rainbow
Porn sets are more fascinating when all the actors have gone home
