Exhibition of the week
Mark Wallinger
One of the wittiest and most thoughtful artists at work in Britain today meditates on identity and psychoanalysis in this large new show featuring self-portraiture, ink-blot tests, Leonardo da Vinci and Sigmund Freud. What an ego! Or rather, what an id.
• Hauser and Wirth, London, 25 February to 7 May
Also showing this week
Death on the Nile
Not an exhibition about Agatha Christie but rather a serious examination of the art and rituals that surrounded death in ancient Egypt.
• Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 23 February to 26 May
Beyond Beauty
Even more Egyptomania, as this exhibition in one of London’s most characterful Thameside buildings delves into ancient transformations of the human body.
• 2 Temple Place, London, until 24 April
Pubic Space
No, that is not a misprint. This exhibition by poet Ariana Reines and sculptor Oscar Tuazon explores the sexually explicit ancient Greek boundary markers known as herms. Does all public art originate in the pubic? Good to see modern art exploring the classics, with knobs on.
• Modern Art, London, 25 February to 9 April
Vogue 100
The clothes of history and the faces of the modern age dazzle by in an exhibition that reminds us Vogue was launched in the year of the battle of the Somme.
• National Portrait Gallery, London, until 22 May
Masterpiece of the week
Jacopo Pontormo – Joseph with Jacob in Egypt, c1518
This beautiful yet bizarre Florentine mannerist painting proves northern artists such as Bosch and Bruegel did not have a monopoly on wild imagination in the Renaissance. Strange spiralling architecture, weird statuary and legions of Hobbit-like figures create a fantasy of ancient Egypt that is deeply personal and enigmatic. Colours as delicate and intense as butterfly wings give the whole thing a unique alchemy.
• National Gallery, London
Image of the week
Joel Peter Witkin reimagines The Raft of the Medusa in The Raft of George W Bush. “My George Bush worked at Malibu zoo and cost $1,000. Barbara was a retired nurse,” he told us.
What we learned
Performance art can be like being stuck in a lift with Shia LaBeouf
Paolozzi moves down in the world at Tottenham Court Road station
The National Museum of Scotland is to open 10 new galleries in major expansion
A reported $500m sale of a De Kooning and a Pollock has broken new records
The World Press Photo prize has gone to an image of a child crossing a border fence
Following in Picasso’s footsteps, Kanye West might be hip-hop’s greatest cubist
Jo Spence stared death in the face in her final, astonishing photo series
Grayson Perry’s sketchbooks are “sacred artefacts”
Science reveals Van Gogh’s darkening mind changed the colour of his paint
… but science can’t tell us all we need to know about art
Kalpesh Lathigra has returned to the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre
The National Gallery’s Delacroix show is a case of hero worship without a hero
London’s floating Yodas might not be art, but we needn’t kick them to the kerb
Imran Qureshi’s miniatures are exquisite but splashed with blood and violence
Joe Machine’s paintings of Brittanic myths show they’re not so British after all
The provenance of 22 Asian works at the National Gallery of Australia is in doubt
… but who cares if paintings aren’t by famous artists after all? The Prado
A metro station in Düsseldorf has reopened with art instead of ads on its walls
Photographer William Yang has spend five decades recording gay Australia
Martin Parr is boxing with Putin in a reissue of his book Autoportrait
A US art project is getting people in prison to draw ‘people who should be’
That Ugo Mulas photographed some of the biggest names in New York pop art
About the world-class wrecking crew, AKA the architects who destroy to create
Nasa has released a series of posters touting space as a holiday destination
Readers’ art
Cosmic crossings: share your space-inspired holiday posters
F is for Fire: share your blazing artwork now
Nairn’s London turns 50: share your favourite London buildings
And finally
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