Exhibition of the week
Albukhary Foundation Gallery of the Islamic World
A spectacular new setting and interpretation for Islamic art and history from its beginnings to the present.
• British Museum, London, from 18 October.
Also showing
Jamie Reid
Punk may be dead as a doornail but the iconoclastic art of the man who put a safety pin through the Queen’s nose rages on.
• Humber Street Gallery, Hull, until 6 January.
Lost Treasures of Strawberry Hill
Horace Walpole not only wrote the world’s first gothic novel at his eccentric, medievalist home but also filled it with his collection of art and curios. His treasures are assembled here for the first time in 170 years.
• Strawberry Hill House, London, from 20 October to 24 February.
Making Connections
This new exhibition reveals how the world of neolithic Europe that created Stonehenge was surprisingly networked and interrelated.
• Stonehenge until 21 April.
Atelier EB: Passer-by
Spooky mannequins are at the heart of an exhibition about fashion, money and the surreal in which the gallery becomes a fantastical showroom.
• Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London, until 6 January.
Masterpiece of the week
Exhibition of a Rhinoceros at Venice, circa 1751, by Pietro Longhi
It’s carnival time in Venice and masked revellers are gawping at a rare creature carried from distant climes for their amusement. The stolid rhino does not seem conscious of their presence, but in its eyes they might be the exotic curiosities – in their black and white masks enacting a peculiar ritual. Longhi cast the same kind of realist and ironic eye on 18th-century Venice that his contemporary William Hogarth turned on London. This painting preserves a mysterious moment when the human and animal worlds meet, and both look radically unfamiliar.
• National Gallery, London.
Image of the week
Girl With Balloon … shredded, by Banksy
Banksy’s shredder prank is his greatest work. Reaction to the street artist’s stunt at a Sotheby’s auction in London has dominated artistic discussion this week.
What we learned
Peter Barber is making social housing cool
Norman Foster’s Bloomberg HQ has won this year’s Stirling prize
Modern art has become a threat to life and limb
Why the big wheel became the ultimate must-have city accessory
How far-right ideology is changing German architecture
Metahaven are a collective battling post-truth bots
The V&A has put its photos on a new shelf
The avant-garde were a lustful lot
The world’s most expensive painting is a verified Leonardo
Dutch museums have discovered 170 artworks stolen by Nazis
Civilisation is trying to capture the 21st century
Censorship in public places begs the question of how explicit art should get
John Waters never wanted to be a cult film-maker
Banksy’s shredder prank is his greatest work
Lu Nan presents a different view of China
… while Evelyn Hofer captured everyday New Yorkers
Dawoud Bey examined black life in 1960s Alabama
Anni Albers made textiles that vibrate with sensuality …
… and changed the course of art history
Artists are highlighting British hospitals’ ‘bedblocking’ problem
Brexiters like realism, remainers prefer impressionists
Athi-Patra Ruga’s best photograph is a queer black fantasia
The secret of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s shocking wit
Don’t forget
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