Exhibition of the week
Adventures in Moominland
Interactive exhibition for all ages about the Finnish artist and writer Tove Jansson and her surreal creations the Moomins.
• Southbank Centre, London, until 23 April
Also showing
Game Plan
If you need any extra encouragement to play board games over Christmas, this exhibition for all ages explores the history of games from ancient Egypt to Carcassonne (the game, that is).
• Museum of Childhood, London, until 23 April
Djordje Ozbolt
Bizarre pastiches of 18th-century portraits and landscapes inserted among this museum’s collection of real Georgian art.
• Holburne Museum, Bath, until 5 March
Memorial
Taxidermist Jazmine Miles-Long explores the history of her art at a museum with a spectacular collection of stuffed natural history specimens.
• Horniman Museum, London, until 1 May
You Say You Want a Revolution?
‘Tis the season to party with some of the greatest rock music ever recorded in this psychedelic 1960s blockbuster.
• V&A, London, until 26 February
Masterpiece of the week
Anonymous, The Adoration of the Shepherds, c. 1630s
This powerfully realistic portrayal of the humble shepherds who came to see the new born Christ is palpably influenced by Caravaggio and was probably painted in Naples about two decades after he worked there. Who can have created this tough yet tender image of the Christmas story? It is a mystery, but Naples was under Spanish rule and as well as being Caravaggeian this resembles The Adoration of the Magi by Velazquez. A painting to open hearts.
• National Gallery, London.
Image of the week
One of the remarkable creations by Phyllis Posnick, US Vogue’s executive fashion editor whose styling we showcased this week. She remembers: “I liked the ‘Minnie Mouse couture’ look of this mask and brought it to [photographer] Irving Penn. He thought it was charming and imagined it on a ‘young woman wearing an old‐fashioned negligee.’”
What we learned this week
Adrian Searle picked his top 10 contemporary art shows of the year
Menstrual blood is big in today’s performance art
Marc Quinn is the first contemporary artist to show work at the Sir John Soane Museum
A new gallery space is opening in a Westminster Abbey tower
Jennifer Scott is the first female director of the Dulwich Picture Gallery
We revisited the 1980s art-punk firebrands of New York’s Rivington School
Tracey Emin has abandoned plans to demolish a listed East End building to build a new home
An Oscar Wilde portrait is going on show for the first time in the UK
Get involved
Book now for Guardian members’ events: Insider’s View of Intrigue: James Ensor by Luc Tuymans, at London’s Royal Academy on 20 January; and a pair of events at London’s Science Museum, as part of next summer’s Robots exhibition.
Our A-Z of Readers’ Art series continued this week, looking at your artworks with the theme N is for North Sea – check out the best entries here.
We’ve also launched the theme for next month: O is for Oracle. Send in your artworks with that theme, and the best will be exhibited in next month’s gallery.
Don’t forget
To follow us on Twitter: @GdnArtandDesign
