Exhibition of the week
Sargent: Portrait of Artists and Friends
John Singer Sargent, the strange, compelling and subversive painter of the Edwardian age, is modern in the same way that his contemporaries Henry James and Joseph Conrad are. This overdue exhibition may turn out to be unforgettable.
• National Portrait Gallery, London from 12 February until 25 May.
Other exhibitions this week
Damien Hirst
Come on, you remember him. The one who did the dots??! The shark? That’s him. Now he’s doing Love.
• Paul Stolper Gallery, London, from 9-21 February.
History Is Now
Seven artists tackle modern British history in this appetiser for the general election.
• Hayward Gallery, London, from 10 February until 26 April.
Henry Moore
The sculptor’s studio is re-created as he becomes ever more fashionable. It’s all a load of biomorphs if you ask me.
• Gagosian Gallery Davies Street, London, from 9 February until 2 April.
Cotton to Gold
The amazing art collections assembled by 19th-century factory owners in north-west England are showcased at this marvellously eccentric Thameside mansion.
• Two Temple Place, London, until 19 April.
Masterpiece of the week
Claude Monet – Water-Lilies, Setting Sun (c 1907)
The endless reflections and blurring of up and down, substance and memory in this painting are as radical, as modern, as the work of Monet’s juniors Matisse or Picasso.
• National Gallery, London.
Image of the week
What we learned this week
That the only Michelangelo bronzes in existence have been discovered – and they’re panther-riders.
And why masterpieces are coming out of the woodwork more than ever.
That an artist has snooped on Google’s data farm against its wishes.
Who the pioneers of British graffiti were.
What one man’s LSD adventures look like.
About Lynda Benglis’s obsession with sex toys and sea creatures.
About the artists that have made a magical, mesmerising maze of silent films.
That a cold-war missile launcher is being installed in London.
What the grungiest art of the 90s is.
About the beautiful, flawed world of Marlene Dumas.
That photographs can be more powerful than art.
That a politically incorrect Angolan artist is a hit in Birmingham.
That Sotheby’s has broken its auction record.
How the Wind of Change swept through the 60s.
About the fascinating lives of identical brother farmers from Hungary.
