Exhibition of the Week
Beyond Caravaggio
One of those artists who blast his rivals off the walls, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio nevertheless inspired a legion of followers in early 17th-century Europe. How do their works compare with his?
• National Gallery, London, 12 October-15 January
Also showing
Picasso Portraits
There is a lot to love in this examination of Picasso as a portraitist but it is too small to do justice to his epic creativity and too staid to reveal the way he revolutionised the human image. Still, it does have his 1910 portrait of Kahnweiler, his 1906 Self-Portrait, and some hilarious, bawdy caricatures.
• National Portrait Gallery, London, to 5 February
Ed Ruscha
At once a conceptual artist and a painter, Ruscha is one of the wittiest and most stylish commentators on modern life.
• Gagosian Gallery, Grosvenor Hill, London, to 17 December
Tony Cragg
Quantum physics as art in the latest outlandish imaginings of one of Britain’s best sculptors.
• Lisson Gallery, London, to 5 November
Yinka Shonibare
Surreal pastiches of classical sculpture and kaleidoscopic paintings in Shonibare’s latest carnival of history.
• Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, to 5 November
Masterpiece of the week
Half a century before Caravaggio painted the snake-haired monster Medusa’s head on a shield, Benvenuto Cellini cast this horrific thing in bronze. This is a small trial version that Cellini made as he worked on his most ambitious masterpiece, a full-sized statue of Perseus holding Medusa’s head. It is a tiny but wondrous object of dread.
• Renaissance Europe galleries, V&A Museum, London
Image of the week
A girl with two new piscine friends, part of Philippe Parreno’s new Tate Modern installation in the Turbine Hall. Adrian Searle wrote in a five-star review that the installation was ‘one of the very best Turbine Hall commissions, filling the space with sounds and furies, grand and small events, stillness and movement, noises and light and silence.’
What we learned this week
Frieze art fair is a deranged hoot
… and Frieze Masters is poisoned by the 1%
Amanda Levete’s new building opened – it’s a massive snake of a cultural centre in Lisbon
Serge Attukwei Clottey dressed up in his dead mother’s clothes to highlight injustice against women
Christian Marclay’s best photograph is a picture of some children’s firecrackers
Malick Sidibé’s photographs of Mali are timelessly cool
The architects of the Utøya memorial building discussed loss and survival
Richard Serra and Michael Craig Martin discussed their long lives in art
Artemisia Gentileschi fought rape, snobbery and inequality with her paintbrush
The Picasso Portraits exhibition dodges the darkness in the life of Pablo
Cornelia Parker told us what she’s learned so far in her life
Brigid Delaney headed to Gwangju Biennale in South Korea, which focuses on “quiet contemplation”
The Guerilla Girls answered your questions – even the one about Stranger Things
Get involved
Our A-Z of Art series continues – share your art with the theme M for Majesty
And check out the entries for the theme L for London
For Guardian Members – private views of the Hepworth prize for sculpture, Beyond Caravaggio and ARTIST ROOMS: Andy Warhol
Don’t forget
To follow us on Twitter: @GdnArtandDesign
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