Exhibition of the week
Egypt: Faith after the Pharaohs
The rich and varied religions of Egypt are explored in a timely reminder of a complex cultural history.
• British Museum, London, from 29 October until 7 February 2016
Other exhibitions this week
Jean-Etienne Liotard
Sweet and sensitive pastel portraits that resurrect Europe’s age of Enlightenment. A lovely find.
• Royal Academy, London, from 24 October until 31 January
West Africa: word, symbol, song
The powerful cultures of West Africa, from traditional arts to cutting-edge contemporaneity.
• British Library, London, until 16 February
Bill Viola
Engaging, thrilling and memorable video art that delves into spiritual depths.
• Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, until 10 April
Masterpiece of the week
Artemidorus – From Hawara, Egypt, Roman period (c100-120 AD)
Ensconsed in his red and gold mummy case, a young man looks back at you with intimacy and freshness. He is here. He is alive. Or he seems to be in the astonishingly realistic portrait that preserves the appearance of the long dead Artemidorus.
• British Museum, London
Image of the week
What we learned this week
That a tiny Dutch museum has achieved the impossible with its new Hieronymus Bosch show
The story of Evelyn Dunbar: the genius in the attic discovered on the Antiques Roadshow
What Europe’s last miners look like
Why Bambi is more than just a female Banksy
That astronaut Scott Kelly’s “space art” makes him Picasso in a space suit
That an artist is using magic ink to help China’s blind children
That the meltdown of Europe has been retold – by toys
That a new exhibition shows what party animals the Eameses were
That Japan has gone crazy for microhomes
That Louise Bourgeois was a fierce interrogator
Which skin colour are you? The human swatch chart that confronts racism
That Bill Bryson is totally wrong about Avebury stone circle
How Irving Penn’s portraits sum up 60 years of chic
That Damien Hirst has had his superbasement green-lit – a new low
Who has topped the 2015 art power list?
What happened when a gorilla got shot in the jungle
What the clothes that survived Hiroshima look like now
And finally ...
B is for body: send your submissions for our A to Z of readers’ art now
