Exhibition of the week
Van Gogh and Britain
The turbulent painter of the modern inner life spent a short but critical time in Britain and remained a lifelong reader of English literature. How did Britain shape him – and how has he shaped modern British art?
• Tate Britain, London, 27 March to 11 August.
Also showing
Emma Kunz
Intense abstract drawings by this untrained mystical Swiss artist.
• Serpentine Gallery, London, 23 March to 19 May.
Gary Hume
Leggy sculptures by the master of decadent 1990s pop painting. So 20th century.
• New Art Centre, Salisbury, 23 March to 12 May.
Bedwyr Williams
The Welsh artist and Eisteddfod winner meditates on the rise and fall of cities in an apocalyptic vision fusing ancient Rome and modern Manhattan.
• Southard Reid Gallery, London, until 4 May.
Filip Markiewicz
A meditation on the crisis of Europe opens, just as the turmoil comes home to roost for Britain. It features Polish beer bottles and good old Ludwig van Beethoven.
• CCA, Derry, 23 March to 11 May.
Masterpiece of the week
Pietà, c 1465, probably the workshop of Rogier van der Weyden
The emotional intensity of Vincent van Gogh had powerful precedents in the art of the Low Countries. Rogier van der Weyden brought a new soulfulness and passion into painting more than 500 years ago. This painting thought to be from his workshop certainly looks like it’s based on one of his harrowing designs. The dead Christ is shown against a desolate, eerie landscape whose rocks and hills provide a mournful mirror of the participants’ grief. Mary mourns her son directly, openly, kissing his corpse. We are made to feel her pain. Centuries later Van Gogh would resurrect the visceral brilliance of the “Flemish Primitives” in paintings that similarly pour feeling into the landscape.
• National Gallery, London.
Image of the week
Windermere Jetty, by Carmody Groarke
Windermere’s new Jetty museum of boats, steam and stories pushes the boat out with a design that steers playfully around traditional boathouse spaces. The museum, near Bowness in the Lake District, showcases the boats, inventions and craftsmanship of the Lakes’ living history.
What we learned
Artists at MoMA in New York are dissecting the uses and abuses of technology
What to do when a forklift punches through your Picasso
Thomas Heatherwick’s Vessel has landed in New York
… and the Messenger has landed in Plymouth
The British Museum insists its Munch show is not a scream against Brexit
Why Mike Nelson turned Tate Britain into a salvage yard
Greece’s gift idea for North Macedonia is not a Runner
London’s National Portrait Gallery said no to a Sackler donation
David Bailey is having a Taschen moment
US museums are failing on diversity
We remembered the highly influential Nigerian curator Okwui Enwezor, who has died aged 55
Soraya Zaman’s American Boys captures the trans experience
Welsh kids gave their town a makeover
Art for the bio-revolution features cloned frog meat and a gold gimp suit
A caricature of actor Geoffrey Rush won Australia’s Bald Archy satirical portrait awards
Possible clues to Van Gogh’s life and love in London were uncovered in Brixton
The Flintstones’ neighbours are up in arms
A once-stolen Willem de Kooning painting went on display
A Peterloo exhibition is shedding light on the massacre
Joy Gerrard draws protests with her art
The Chicago imagists made their outrage visible
Cambridge has a new eco-friendly mosque
Life was a party for Ibrahima Sanlé Sory
Elena Anosova found warmth in Siberia
New York photographer Vivian Cherry died aged 98
We remembered former Art Gallery of NSW director Edmund Capon
Don’t forget
To follow us on Twitter: @GdnArtandDesign
Sign up to the Art Weekly newsletter
Data protection laws have changed in the UK, under an initiative called GDPR. Make sure you continue to receive our email roundup of art and design news by confirming your wish here.
