Exhibition of the week
Turkish Tulips
Mat Collishaw, Cornelia Parker, Damien Hirst and Peter Blake are among the artists delighting in the botany and art history of the tulip in this exhibition curated by the eponymous Gavin Turk.
•Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham, until 5 November.
Also this week
Soul of a Nation
Don’t miss this powerful and pertinent survey of how black consciousness transformed American art.
•Tate Modern, London, until 22 October.
Raqib Shaw
Echoes of Richard Dadd and the pre-Raphaelites glitter in Shaw’s opulent and fantastical paintings.
•The Whitworth, Manchester, until 19 November.
Giovanni da Rimini
An encounter with a little known master of medieval Italian art from the age of Dante.
•National Gallery, London, until 8 October.
Pink Floyd
Few rock bands invested so much in visual effects as the Floyd, from psychedelic light shows to Gerald Scarfe’s work on The Wall, so this is almost like a proper art exhibition.
•V&A, London, until 1 October.
Masterpiece of the week
Still Life with Tulips, Chrysanthemums, Narcissi, Roses, Irises and other Flowers in a Glass Vase (1608-10) by Jan Brueghel the Elder
This floral still life revels in the sheer abundance of nature, getting in as many intense colours and shapes as possible. Brueghel’s father, Pieter, was a brilliant painter of the social world whose epic social scenes such as The Tower of Babel and The Peasant Wedding compare with Shakespeare’s plays as human dramas. Jan opted for a quieter artistic life and his paintings of flowers were coveted and imitated throughout Europe. He was friends with Pieter Paul Rubens who portrayed him and his family in what can be seen as the first great artistic image of bourgeois domesticity. This painting is a hymn not just to nature but the civilised enjoyment of it.
•National Gallery, London
Image of the week
Love Symbol #2, by Pantone Color Institute
Pantone has announced a new shade of purple named in honour of the musician Prince, who died last year. The singer became associated with the colour after his global hit album and associated movie, Purple Rain. A 30th-anniversary edition of the album has just been released.
What we learned this week
RB Kitaj could take posthumous revenge on “no-talent” critics in a memoir to be published next month
… even as critics make a return to national TV
The Beazley design awards celebrate hats, flags and typefaces
London’s Garden Bridge is dead
JMW Turner’s Twickenham house has been restored
… while two London architects are letting the weather into their home
Korea is commemorating wartime “comfort women” with statues on buses
Yeats family treasures will go on display for the first time, ahead of auction
Japan’s first travel guide was created by woodblock artists
In Ward Roberts’ photo series Flotsam, sunbathers are marooned on New York’s Far Rockaway beach
Small worlds are made in a London workshop
Tate Modern is to host a ceramics factory
Sweden’s Fotografiska gallery is to open a London outpost
Making Faces shows how art helped brain injury survivors
Lee Ji-hee makes beautiful antique cameras out of paper
Nick Hannes shows how Dubai’s rich set live
The British Museum is marking a centenary of revolution with a show of communist currencies
Get involved
Book now for two forthcoming Guardian masterclass events. On Saturday 26 August, join Jonathan Jones for a morning tour of the Wallace Collection, London, on which he will talk about how to interpret some of his favourite works of art, and point out some of the secrets of their creation. And on 24 September, art scholar Edgar Tijhuis will lead a full-day course on How to write about art and make money from it at Kings Place, London. Book now to secure your place.
Our A-Z of Art series continues – share your art with the theme V for value.
And check out the entries we selected for the theme U for underwater.
Don’t forget
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