Cosmic craftwork, photos from oblivion’s edge and Banksy gets trashed – the week in art | Art
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Exhibition of the week
Ancient Greeks: Science and Wisdom
Greek scientists theorised the existence of atoms and believed in a cosmic harmony that glows in the symmetries of their art and architecture. Meet the first great thinkers.
Science Museum, London, 17 November to 5 June
Also showing
What do you see, you people, gazing at me?
Natalie Ball, Tau Lewis and Agata Słowak are among the young figurative artists in this show about bodies, politics and art.
Sadie Coles HQ, London, 16 November to 29 January
Thomas Joshua Cooper
Eerie photographs of the frozen limits of the Atlantic Ocean by this artist and explorer.
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, until 23 January
Dante: The Invention of Celebrity
There’s still time to celebrate the great poet’s 700th anniversary year with this show exploring his fame.
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, until 9 January
Matt Black
Photographs of the decaying landscapes of the American Dream.
Magnum Gallery, London, until 17 December
Image of the week
It’s not only Banksy who can destroy his artworks for fun. Here’s Christopher Walken taking some matt emulsion to one. The stencilled rat was painted over for a scene in the last episode of Stephen Merchant’s TV comedy The Outlaws, in which Walken plays a man doing community service. A spokesman for The Outlaws said: “We can confirm that the artwork at the end of The Outlaws was an original Banksy, and that Christopher Walken painted over that artwork during the filming of this scene, ultimately destroying it.”
What we learned
The British Museum fitted 3,500 years of Peruvian culture into its new show …
… which our critic gave a five-star review
The Courtauld is reopening in London, with rooms full of masterpieces
The National Gallery published research into its own links with the slave trade
Anni and Josef Albers’ legacy has taken on concrete form in Senegal
Uganda-born sculptor Leilah Babirye is inspired by the illegal LGBTQ+ scene she left in her native country
Grayson Perry answered readers’ questions on cats, the meaning of life and more
David Morrissey and Bridgerton’s Phoebe Dynevor star in a new film about ceramicist Clarice Cliff
Valerie Strong, wife of Australian artist John Olsen, was an accomplished painter too
Street artist Ben Wilson is the Picasso of discarded chewing-gum art
Photographer Reed Estabrook captured the quintessentially American art of the roadside monument
NFTs are shaking up the art world …
while TikTok is a boon for enthusiastic artists and art lovers …
… and architecture and design fans
British designer Terence Conran lived life in style
Tokyo’s metabolist Capsule Tower faces an uncertain future
Black British art is bigger than ever
A San Francisco gallery is exhibiting international artists’ responses to the climate crisis
Penguin’s modern classics were as impressive on the outside as in
Tate Britain is celebrating Hogarth and his European contemporaries
Jeremy Deller’s latest installation holds a candle to the Murdoch family …
… though one Melbourne art critic rather missed the point
Hong Kong has a new (Chinese state-approved) modern art museum
One London market is an exemplar of urban design and renewal
The Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize announced its 2021 winners
Brian May has published a book about Victorian stereoscopic photography …
… while Midge Ure’s best photograph captured Paula Yates in mid-flight
A collection of bad record cover art is on show in Huddersfield
Edinburgh is hosting an exhibition of tapestry portraits of asylum seekers
Street photographer Mike Smith preserved the Boston of the 70s
Paris Photo 21 offers surreal sights
Guardian Photographer Sarah Lee went roaming in the gloaming
US illustrator Jerry Pinkney has died aged 81
Art historian Pamela Kember has died aged 66
Masterpiece of the week
Wedgwood factory portrait medallion of Galileo, c1775-80
Josiah Wedgwood pioneered the factory and mass-produced classical ceramics for 18th-century middle-class homes. He also campaigned against slavery and was friends with scientists such as Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles. This is a homage to the first modern scientist, Galileo Galilei, who used a telescope to find firm evidence for the theory of Copernicus that Earth orbits the sun. Galileo was a hero in Britain from the time of John Milton, who met him and put him in Paradise Lost. Then again as Brecht has him say in The Life of Galileo, “pity the land that needs heroes”.
British Museum, London
Don’t forget
To follow us on Twitter: @GdnArtandDesign.
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[ad_2]
Exhibition of the week
Ancient Greeks: Science and Wisdom
Greek scientists theorised the existence of atoms and believed in a cosmic harmony that glows in the symmetries of their art and architecture. Meet the first great thinkers.
Science Museum, London, 17 November to 5 June
Also showing
What do you see, you people, gazing at me?
Natalie Ball, Tau Lewis and Agata Słowak are among the young figurative artists in this show about bodies, politics and art.
Sadie Coles HQ, London, 16 November to 29 January
Thomas Joshua Cooper
Eerie photographs of the frozen limits of the Atlantic Ocean by this artist and explorer.
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, until 23 January
Dante: The Invention of Celebrity
There’s still time to celebrate the great poet’s 700th anniversary year with this show exploring his fame.
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, until 9 January
Matt Black
Photographs of the decaying landscapes of the American Dream.
Magnum Gallery, London, until 17 December
Image of the week
It’s not only Banksy who can destroy his artworks for fun. Here’s Christopher Walken taking some matt emulsion to one. The stencilled rat was painted over for a scene in the last episode of Stephen Merchant’s TV comedy The Outlaws, in which Walken plays a man doing community service. A spokesman for The Outlaws said: “We can confirm that the artwork at the end of The Outlaws was an original Banksy, and that Christopher Walken painted over that artwork during the filming of this scene, ultimately destroying it.”
What we learned
The British Museum fitted 3,500 years of Peruvian culture into its new show …
… which our critic gave a five-star review
The Courtauld is reopening in London, with rooms full of masterpieces
The National Gallery published research into its own links with the slave trade
Anni and Josef Albers’ legacy has taken on concrete form in Senegal
Uganda-born sculptor Leilah Babirye is inspired by the illegal LGBTQ+ scene she left in her native country
Grayson Perry answered readers’ questions on cats, the meaning of life and more
David Morrissey and Bridgerton’s Phoebe Dynevor star in a new film about ceramicist Clarice Cliff
Valerie Strong, wife of Australian artist John Olsen, was an accomplished painter too
Street artist Ben Wilson is the Picasso of discarded chewing-gum art
Photographer Reed Estabrook captured the quintessentially American art of the roadside monument
NFTs are shaking up the art world …
while TikTok is a boon for enthusiastic artists and art lovers …
… and architecture and design fans
British designer Terence Conran lived life in style
Tokyo’s metabolist Capsule Tower faces an uncertain future
Black British art is bigger than ever
A San Francisco gallery is exhibiting international artists’ responses to the climate crisis
Penguin’s modern classics were as impressive on the outside as in
Tate Britain is celebrating Hogarth and his European contemporaries
Jeremy Deller’s latest installation holds a candle to the Murdoch family …
… though one Melbourne art critic rather missed the point
Hong Kong has a new (Chinese state-approved) modern art museum
One London market is an exemplar of urban design and renewal
The Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize announced its 2021 winners
Brian May has published a book about Victorian stereoscopic photography …
… while Midge Ure’s best photograph captured Paula Yates in mid-flight
A collection of bad record cover art is on show in Huddersfield
Edinburgh is hosting an exhibition of tapestry portraits of asylum seekers
Street photographer Mike Smith preserved the Boston of the 70s
Paris Photo 21 offers surreal sights
Guardian Photographer Sarah Lee went roaming in the gloaming
US illustrator Jerry Pinkney has died aged 81
Art historian Pamela Kember has died aged 66
Masterpiece of the week
Wedgwood factory portrait medallion of Galileo, c1775-80
Josiah Wedgwood pioneered the factory and mass-produced classical ceramics for 18th-century middle-class homes. He also campaigned against slavery and was friends with scientists such as Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles. This is a homage to the first modern scientist, Galileo Galilei, who used a telescope to find firm evidence for the theory of Copernicus that Earth orbits the sun. Galileo was a hero in Britain from the time of John Milton, who met him and put him in Paradise Lost. Then again as Brecht has him say in The Life of Galileo, “pity the land that needs heroes”.
British Museum, London
Don’t forget
To follow us on Twitter: @GdnArtandDesign.
Sign up to the Art Weekly newsletter
If you don’t already receive our regular roundup of art and design news via email, please sign up here.
Get in Touch
If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email [email protected]