Exhibition of the week
In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900–1930s
Some of the greatest art of the early 20th century has close connections with Ukraine. This survey of its modernist achievements includes Malevich (or Malevych), El Lissitzky and more.
• Royal Academy, London, from 29 June to 13 October
Also showing
Chris Ofili
Ofili’s mythological tapestry The Caged Bird’s Song comes home to the craft studios that helped him create it.
• Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh, until 5 October
Stephen Farthing
Swaggering over-the-top historical-styled portraits in this London stately home that’s crammed with masterpieces.
• Kenwood House, London, from 29 June to 3 November
Henry Moore
The British modernist’s powerful war art gets an outing in a show that also examines how he saw architecture.
• Courtauld Gallery, London, until 22 September
Voyage
The cinema magic of Georges Méliès inspires a summer group show at the seaside base of the Maureen Paley Gallery.
• Morena di Luna, Hove, from 29 June to 15 September
Image of the week
This self-constricted Mr Tickle by Garbage Pail Kids artist Rory McQueen is on show at Mr Men Little Miss Reimagined at Helm gallery in Brighton. He sits among four other artists’ playful reinterpretations of Roger Hargreaves’s classic children’s characters – from a Little Miss Chatterbox on her mobile phone to an X-ray of Mr Bump.
What we learned
The cover art of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has sold for £1.5m
Tavares Strachan makes art freighted with history and peopled by the overlooked
The Yoshida family’s exquisite prints pale without historical context
Graciela Iturbide’s photographs of Mexico are bleak, haunted and utterly compelling
A new portrait of David Attenborough, now 98, is green in all senses
Henry Moore’s wartime drawings are a welcome reminder of British decency
Australian artist Guy Warren has died aged 103 after a 70-year career
Masterpiece of the week
Cavalry Attacking Infantry by Studio of Philips Wouwerman, 1656-68
Europe was ravaged by warfare in the 17th century, from the thirty years’ war that killed up to eight million people across central Europe to the English civil war that slaughtered as high a proportion of the British population as the first world war would. This painting, it is thought, shows a battle between Poland and Sweden who were at war from 1655 to 1660. But it could be anywhere, any time, for it is a generalised nightmare of savage conflict. Cavalry and footsoldiers kill each other at close quarters, their faces contorted by fury. A pall of gunsmoke hangs over the bloody morass. In fact, many details, from the raised swords and standards at the heart of battle to the smoky atmosphere and rearing horses, are derived from Leonardo da Vinci’s depictions of war and his writings on how to paint it. Leonardo called war “a most bestial madness”: this is it.
• National Gallery, London
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