Exhibition of the week
The Horror Show!
Bauhaus, Helen Chadwick, Susan Hiller, Juno Calypso and many more in a ghost train tour through the story of modern Britain.
• Somerset House, London, 27 October to 19 February.
Also showing
Hayley Tompkins
Paintings on everyday objects and films made on phones feature in this Glasgow artist’s two-decade retrospective.
• Fruitmarket, Edinburgh, 22 October to 29 January.
The Art of Banksy
This popular international touring show of the well-known street artist hits the north-west.
• MediaCity, Salford, until 8 January.
Peasants and Proverbs: Pieter Brueghel the Younger
Not the genius Pieter Brueghel the Elder, but his less gifted son – still, who can resist paintings of carnivals and peasant life?
• Barber Institute, Birmingham, until 22 January.
Alexander the Great: The Making of a Myth
This exhibition looks at how the image of the Macedonian conqueror has haunted history.
• British Library, London, until 19 February.
Image of the week
Targets of recent rocket strikes on central Kyiv have been unclear – the only real clarity is that they have exploded in central, residential districts, close to parks, offices and cultural buildings – leading to speculation that Russia might be trying to destroy key Ukrainian monuments. In Volodymyrska Hirka Park, a sculpture dedicated to Dante Alighieri pokes a defiant head above the sandbags – an entirely appropriate symbol of the coal-black sense of humour that so many Kyivans are displaying in the face of the Russian invasion. Read the full story here.
What we learned
Hannah Starkey’s photography starts an honest conversation about modern femininity
London’s immersive art Instagram-friendly son et lumière Frameless is winning over audiences
Fuseli’s perverse mindset has been laid bare
Kurt Schwitters’ Lake District Merz Barn is to be sold for development
Hilma af Klint has been hailed as the true pioneer of abstract art
Damien Hirst’s NFTs pose a burning question
Slapstick, drag and hairnets feature in the 2022 Turner prize show at Tate Liverpool
Aboriginal communities want stolen objects on loan from overseas museums to stay in Tasmania
The attack on Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in London has sparked controversy
A planned Channel 4 show on art has proved controversial
Masterpiece of the week
Saints Christina and Ottilia by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1506
This painting from a complex many-panelled wooden altarpiece depicts two of the many saints whose martyrdoms and miracles were at the heart of medieval Christianity. Saint Christina miraculously survived a series of brutal attempts to kill her for her Christian faith. Saint Ottilia was healed of blindness when she was baptised. Cranach portrays Christina as a Renaissance beauty modelled on Italian art, with long curly locks reminiscent of Botticelli’s women. She also wears a low-cut gown. The most sensational detail, however, is Cranach’s depiction of the eyes on Ottilia’s cushion. He has clearly studied a pair of dissected eyeballs. He graphically shows the pink attachment of the optic nerve with a materialism that sits awkwardly with the painting’s spiritual intent. Cranach would later become a Protestant and be best man at his friend Martin Luther’s wedding: maybe there are hints of cynicism about “idolatry” in his carnal depiction of Christina, as well as the gory eyeballs.
• National Gallery, London
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