Exhibition of the week
Summer Show
I hate it, but it never goes away, and it is a link with history. The sprawl of this show, where famous RAs rub shoulders with dedicated artists of less fame but huge variety, is always a crowd-puller. It continues a tradition that goes back to the 18th century, and a way of looking at art that is more open-minded than today's hypercharged curated exhibitions. So perhaps I am wrong – perhaps this is a great event after all. Then again, I always say that before seeing it.
• Royal Academy, London W1J from 9 June until 17 August
Other exhibitions this week
Ben Nicholson and Winifred Nicholson
Doubtless a sensitive, intelligent show on British modern art in the 1920s – but are we really going to carry on kidding ourselves that anything happening in British art at that time was significant compared to what was being done in Paris, Berlin or St Petersburg?
• Dulwich Picture Gallery, London SE21 from 4 June until 21 September
Mondrian and his Studios
The grids and coloured rectangles painted by Mondrian are among the true wonders of modern art, and uncannily captivating. Any decently done exhibition about him has to be magical.
• Tate Liverpool, 6 June until 5 October
Phyllida Barlow
The sculptor who currently has a vast installation filling the centre of Tate Britain shows 50 years' worth of her drawings.
• Hauser and Wirth, London W1S until 26 July
Nicholas Pope
A modern work of religious art in which sculptures of the apostles fitted with lamps are set against the ethereal beauty of the medieval architectural masterpiece that is Salisbury Cathedral.
• Salisbury Cathedral, until 3 August
Masterpiece of the week
Michelangelo – The Taddei Tondo (1504-5)
This really is a masterpiece. The Taddei Tondo, a circular stone relief of the Virgin and child, carved just after his statue of David, is the only sculpture by Michelangelo in Britain. It offers an intimate encounter with the daring of Michelangelo – and it is intimate for the same reason it is daring: because he left it unfinished, much of its surface is pockmarked by his chisel. His actual chisel. The finished parts have a soft, suggestive quality that mirrors the painting style of his rival at the time, Leonardo da Vinci.
• Royal Academy, London W1J
Image of the week
What we learned this week
Why Marina Abramović is caught up in a row over the concept of "nothing"
Why David LaChapelle took a photo of Naomi Campbell representing the rape of Africa
Why art prankster Thomas Mailaender is bringing real chickens into a gallery
That there will soon be the first (self-building) artwork on the moon
That Tracey Emin's Bed is up for sale
And how you'd go about making it
The absolute best gags in art – thanks to Tamsin Greig
How the Glasgow School of Art cleanup is going
... Smashing mirrors with a sledgehammer
Yinka Shonibare has become a Royal Academician – by poking fun at bankers
That William Morris started the craze for sandals
What bags on the head, spectacles designed for two and cat's cradle have in common
And finally ...
Send us your collages now, before our new Share Your Art theme kicks off on Monday
