Exhibition of the week
Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind
The brilliant conceptual artist who became a controversial icon of pop culture gets the retrospective she deserves.
• Tate Modern, London, from 15 February until 1 September
Also showing
Frank Auerbach. The Charcoal Heads
Startling and profound studies of the human head by one of Britain’s greatest artists.
• Courtauld Gallery, London, until 27 May
Soulscapes
New visions of landscape art from Hurvin Anderson, Isaac Julien, Alberta Whittle and others to shake this temple of tradition.
• Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, from 14 February until 2 June
Outi Pieski
Contemporary art that’s rooted in Sámi culture and evokes the light of the far north.
• Tate St Ives, from 10 February until 6 May
Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art
Tracey Emin, Judy Chicago and many more reveal the place of textiles in today’s art.
• Barbican Art Gallery, London, from 13 February until 26 May
Image of the week
On the corner of Union Street and O’Meara Street in London, just south of the River Thames, stands a new white brick building with a great furrow gouged out of its facade, which enables people to continue to enjoy the view of a nearby church window. It is a rare considerate architectural WTF moment that has been stopping people in their tracks. Read the full story here.
What we learned
A new sculpture show is alive with orbs, sacs, gloop and a pink rollercoaster
Doron Langberg’s sex-fuelled queer rave paintings are pure hedonism
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley’s lo-fi games are terrifying – and hard
A Turner-listed artist is bringing the outside inside
Bulgaria’s goat-men are very furry, according to photographer Charles Fréger
Australia’s 2024 Venice Biennale pavilion will examine the impact of colonisation
Sebastião Salgado’s 80th birthday is being marked with a new retrospective
A stolen Van Gogh is back on public display, thanks to a Dutch art sleuth
Masterpiece of the week
A Vision of the Last Judgment by William Blake, 1808
William Blake is usually thought of as a prophet ignored in his lifetime, who created his illuminated books such as Visions of the Daughters of Albion and Jerusalem in obscure toil, ignored by the masses who preferred to laugh themselves sick at Gillray’s cartoons. But he did have some supporters, even in high society, as this unlikely treasure of a stately home shows. It was commissioned by Elizabeth Ilive, Countess of Egremont, and still hangs today in the Egremont family seat at Petworth, West Sussex, along with many paintings by Blake’s contemporary JMW Turner. It’s a homage to one of Blake’s heroes, Michelangelo. He fills the skies with blessed and doomed souls, delineated as bold physical forms, just like the towering bodies in Michelangelo’s Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel. But this is not just an artistic exercise. Blake really believed the end was nigh.
• Petworth House, West Sussex
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