Exhibition of the week
Masters of the Everyday: Dutch Artists in the Age of Vermeer
Dutch art of the 17th century has a cool allure for modern eyes. The reality of it is so absorbing, the apparent use of optical instruments so precocious. But perhaps most of all, we recognise a world comparable with our own in these scenes of middle class domesticity. This exhibition includes the Queen’s two majestic Vermeers as well as works by Gerrit Dou, Gabriël Metsu, Jan Steen and Pieter de Hooch in a silent, subtle encounter with the art of ordinariness.
• Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London, until 14 February.
Other exhibitions this week
Heman Chong
Blacked out business cards, performances and business transactions are marshalled in Chong’s artistic critique of capitalism.
• South London Gallery, London, until 28 February.
Colin Self
This important and radical British pop artist shows works that celebrate the passing moment.
• Mayor Gallery, London, until 18 December.
Simon Denny
The New Zealand artist wowed the Venice Biennale with his “reverse espionage” on the NSA. He brings his radical questioning of contemporary power and organisation to the Serpentine in his first British solo show.
• Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London, until 14 February.
The Inoperative Community
Anne-Marie Miéville, Erica Beckman and Jean-Luc Godard are among the stars of this show about ideas of community in experimental film.
• Raven Row, London, until 14 February.
Masterpiece of the week
Samuel van Hoogstraten – A Peepshow with Views of the Interior of a Dutch House (c 1655-60)
This delightful optical toy is the only object of its kind in the National Gallery. Peering through a circular aperture you see inside a Dutch 17th-century house, with furniture, floors and windows all seemingly solid and real. It is a magical 3D illusion. There’s even a dog looking back at you.
• National Gallery, London
Image of the week
What we learned this week
Power to the people! Why Assemble’s Turner prize win is a triumph
How the Turner prize turns unknown artists into multimillionaires
Shia LaBeouf: ‘Why do I do performance art? Why does a goat jump?’
Who the Guardian’s most astonishing photographers of the year are
That 1 Undershaft, the tallest skyscraper in the London, has been revealed
And how to fly through the London skyline of tomorrow
Is RIBA really a racist, sexist old boys’ club?
There’s only one Mona Lisa: why a 10-year study got it all wrong
That a woman was charged in Miami after a stabbing – that was mistaken for performance art
The Chapman brothers’ filthy new shop, and it’s a nightmare before Christmas
That stolen Dutch paintings were offered for sale – by Ukrainian militia
Marina Abramović’s latest project: presenting distraction-free Bach
That a “knife angel” made of 100,000 bladed has caused a storm
Museum director walks into a bar: Neil MacGregor’s next career move should be as a standup
Socialism and cha-cha-cha: Agnès Varda’s photos of Cuba forgotten for 50 years
That there’s a plan to turn Picasso art school into a Woody Allen museum, and it’s causing a furore
Nicotine teens: the life of a young smoker
About Sian Davey’s life with Alice, her daughter who has Down’s syndrome
Ai Weiwei: “In human history, there’s never been a moment like this”
