Exhibition of the week
Raphael
This is a once in a lifetime exhibition. It reassembles the legacy of a Renaissance genius who lived fast and died young – from grand frescoes and tapestries to delicate drawings and intimate portraits of lovers. By the end Raphael is laid bare: his personality hovers in the gallery. Even if you don’t think you like his classical perfection, this will change your mind.
• National Gallery, London, from 9 April to 31 July.
Also showing
Katie Paterson: Requiem
A timely installation about entropy and the death of Earth by this artist who makes poetry from science.
• Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, from 9 April to 11 June.
Rosemarie Castoro: Working Out
The first ever British solo show for a late, great New York minimalist.
• Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, London, until 21 May
Sheila Hicks: Off Grid
Colourful sculptures that uses homely textiles in spectacular ways.
• Hepworth, Wakefield, until 25 September.
Japan: Courts and Culture
British monarchs have been collecting Japan’s art ever since James I was sent a suit of samurai armour in the early 1600s: here’s a right royal take on more than 400 years of creativity.
• Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London, until March 2023
Image of the week
The National Gallery has altered the title of Edgar Degas’ drawing Russian Dancers to Ukrainian Dancers. After calls by Ukrainians on social media, the gallery said it had changed the name of the French impressionist’s turn-of-the-20th-century work, which is currently not on display. It is a pastel depicting troupes of dancers, who the artist was fascinated to see performing in Paris late in his life. The yellow and blue of Ukraine’s national colours are noticeable in what appear to be hair ribbons worn by the dancers and in garlands they are carrying. Read the full story here.
What we learned
Picasso’s portrait of his lover Marie-Thérèse Walter is set to fetch $60m at auction
Vietnamese art prodigy Xeo Chu gets compared to Jackson Pollock
Raphael’s Madonnas contain memories of the artist’s mother
Joy Labinjo is reviving forgotten Black British history
A football exhibition at London’s Design museum aims to uncover the rich history of the women’s game
Madrid’s Prado invites visitors to smell the Brueghel
Britain’s landmark department stores are under threat
… while Sheffield’s brutalist Park Hill estate survived the haters and their bulldozers
… and architects ask: should we rip up Cumbernauld town centre and start again?
Masterpiece of the week
Madame Moitessier, 1856, by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Raphael dominated western art for centuries after his death, his lucid classical style de rigueur in academies. In the 19th century, many artists rebelled, from the pre-Raphaelites in England to the French avant garde who broke Raphael’s rules to invent modernism. But Ingres, as this painting shows, made Raphael’s style itself “modern”. This portrait has a gravity and grace deeply indebted to the Renaissance master. Madame Moitessier seems to be a reincarnation of a Raphael, but dressed in the latest fashions of her day. The balanced, still dignity of this brilliant portrait, which took 12 years to finish, makes her monumental in her poise. Ingres was not the last artist to channel Raphael. Picasso said he could draw like Raphael when he was a child, and had to learn to draw like a kid: he proved this affinity when he had a “classical” period after the first world war, and, most movingly, in quotes from Raphael’s paintings Massacre of the Innocents and Fire in the Borgo that give Guernica its structure.
• National Gallery, London
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