Exhibition of the week
The Clock
Christian Marclay’s timely masterpiece of contemporary art uses film clips to magical and hypnotic effect.
• Tate Modern, London, 14 September to 20 January.
Also showing
Conrad Shawcross
Great sculpture or pretty decorations? The geometrical art of Shawcross is undoubtedly intriguing.
• Victoria Miro Mayfair, London, 13 September to 27 October.
Orlando at the present time
A celebration of Virginia Woolf’s dazzling 1928 novel of gender ambiguity.
• Charleston, East Sussex, until 6 January.
What is Europe?
Asian images of Europe offer an alternative perspective on our continent.
• British Museum, London, until 22 October.
Fig-futures
Eva Rothschild and Joe Moran kick off a month of short, sharp showings of new art.
• Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, 11 September to 7 October.
Masterpiece of the week
Jan Jansz. Treck – Vanitas Still Life (1648)
Time’s passing is a relentless process of decay in this pessimistic painting, and the last stop is the grave. The message is not exactly subtle. In case the smoked pipe, scallop shell and hourglass don’t get it across, there is a human skull on the artist’s table to ram home the imminence of mortality. Yet the painting is also full of images of human aspiration: a flute, a viol, sheet music, a fine piece of sensual silk. All of these objects are painted with a luminous glassy precision that freeze-frames a small piece of time.
• National Gallery, London
Image of the week
National Museum of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro
Fire engulfed most of Brazil’s National Museum on 2 September, destroying thousands of irreplaceable artefacts, artworks and books. The novelist Paulo Coelho said the Brazilian people were “in tears”, but should share responsibility for neglecting its heritage.
What we learned
Squid fights mixed with Magritte – the V&A’s five-star tour of video game design
A “soulless leisure shed” in Stockport won the Carbuncle Cup
Wrexham’s new gallery space offers bath bombs, masterpieces and milkshakes
George Loudon has loaned his freakish flowers and perverse picklings to the Whitechapel Gallery
Curator Jill Burke explained how art embraced nakedness
Sheffield is celebrating 60 years of CND with Peter Kennard’s startling anti-nuclear images
Greta Garbo for dinner? … Charleston’s new galleries open up Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant
The inaugural Earth Photo prize shortlist was announced
Battersea Arts Centre has risen from the ashes
Public art in New York is challenging climate change denial
Chris Schwarz’s photos of 1970’s Deptford are a vibrant time capsule
Rapper snapper Eddie Otchere swapped the Wu-Tang Clan for respecting ramblers
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov bring the Soviet back to Russia
The pre-Raphaelites’ muse speaks up
Radical art group A/political create ‘impossible’ art using roadkill
The New York Historical Society looks back at Jim Crow
Britain’s first world war poppy sculptures will find a permanent home
Gunther von Hagens’ Body Worlds will open a London museum
Brighton Pavilion is being filled with golden dragons, palm trees and an explosion of sunflowers
Don’t forget
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