Exhibition of the week
Robert Rauschenberg
The hungry genius of Rauschenberg embraced everything from the space race to Dante’s Inferno – often in the same work. His neo-dada art of assemblage, collage and montage is still very much alive in 21st-century art. At an anxious time in US history, the creative abundance of one of its greatest artists is a reminder of its democratic culture at its inclusive best.
• Tate Modern, London, 1 December-2 April.
Also showing
Painters’ Painters
Martin Maloney, Dexter Dalwood and Bjarne Melgaard, Ryan Mosley and David Salle are among the stars of this provocative survey of contemporary painting.
• Saatchi Gallery, London, 30 November-28 February.
Andy Warhol
King Death returns in a show from the admirable Artist Rooms collection that includes Warhol’s Self Portrait With Skull as well as some of his terrifying Electric Chairs.
• The Whitworth, Manchester, until 16 April.
Victor Pasmore
Pasmore’s abstract art is compared with his figurative work in a close look at an important British modernist of the mid-20th century.
• Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham, 26 November-19 February.
Magnus Plessen
Ernst Friedrich’s shocking 1924 book of first world war photographs called War Against War has inspired Plessen’s incongruously beautiful new paintings.
• White Cube Mason’s Yard, London, until 14 January.
Masterpiece of the week
The Townley Discobolus, second-century AD copy of Myron’s fifth-century BC original
This version of one of the most famous artistic masterpiece of ancient Greece was excavated in 1791 at the villa of the Roman emperor Hadrian. It was restored and sold to the British collector Charles Townley, but he was suspicious that it had been dishonestly restored. He was right: the head comes from a different statue and faces the wrong way, making this a masterpiece not so much of Greek art as of 18th-century neo-classicism.
• British Museum, London.
Image of the week
Jeff Koons, the US pop artist known for his balloon dogs and other kitsch sculptures, has donated this monumental sculpture to Paris to commemorate the terror attacks of November 2015. He called it a “symbol of remembrance, optimism and healing in moving forward from the horrific events that occurred in Paris one year ago”. It is currently being built, and will be installed next year outside the Museum of Modern Art and the Palais de Tokyo.
What we learned this week
David Hockney is to design a stained-glass window for Westminster Abbey …
… but perhaps he should be careful, given recent tepid examples
Francis Picabia’s monster show opened in MoMA – Jason Farago looked at his life
Bart Koetsier told us about his best photograph: a picture of a drunk man slumped in a Paris street
Next year, Tate Modern will be covered in artificial fog for a 10-day festival of live art events
Kara Walker is more relevant than ever, as an exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art opens
Street photographer Yassine Alaoui Ismaili followed the amputee breakdancer Zulu Rema
Get involved
Book now for three Guardian members’ events: Night in the Museum, at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery on 29 November; Rodin and Dance: The Essence of Movement, at London’s Courtauld Gallery on 18 January; and Insider’s View of Intrigue: James Ensor by Luc Tuymans, at London’s Royal Academy on 20 January.
Our A-Z of readers’ art series continues – share your art with the theme N for North Sea
And check out the entries we selected for the theme M for majesty
Don’t forget
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