Exhibition of the week
Magic Realism
Otto Dix and George Grosz are among the iconoclasts in this exhibition of the hard-hitting art of Weimar-era Germany.
• Tate Modern, London, until 14 July 2019
Also showing
Free the Pussy!
Yoko Ono, Judy Chicago and many more show their artistic support for Russia’s punk protesters Pussy Riot.
• Summerhall, Edinburgh, from 2 August until 23 September
Orson Welles
Amazingly this is the first exhibition of the director’s artworks.
• Summerhall, Edinburgh, from 2 August until 23 September
Shilpa Gupta
An installation about poetry and censorship that features fragments of 100 poems from various times and places. Read our interview with the artist.
• Fire Station at Edinburgh College of Art until 26 August
Lucy Skaer
The artist shortlisted for the 2009 Turner prize explores curiosities from the collections of Edinburgh University.
• Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, until 6 October
Masterpiece of the week
Three faces are lit by a silvery flame. As they gather around its pale yet intense glow, all are held equally transfixed. A boy and man are fascinated by the light. So is a monkey, whose features are portrayed with great empathy. How does its mind compare with those of its human companions? More to the point for El Greco, perhaps, has it got a soul? For it is the light of divine revelation that fills them with awe. El Greco, born Doménikos Theotokópoulos in Crete in 1541, trained as an icon painter before travelling west and learning Renaissance techniques in Italy, settling eventually in Spain. This painting blazes with the mysticism of his Byzantine beginnings.
• Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh
Image of the week
The bottom line with Rubens, according to Facebook, is that his pictures are rude. So tourism bosses in Flanders, Belgium, have decided to poke fun at prudish social media censorship by inviting art lovers to see the work of Flemish master painters, in all their fleshy glory, on its home soil.
What we learned
Hockney’s coming home … along with other National Portrait Gallery loans
Sheffield’s high-rises were home sweet home to many people, shows a new exhibition
A New York art dealer found six De Koonings in a storage locker
Shilpa Gupta is giving voice to silenced poets
Tate Modern recommends a change of pace with Pierre Bonnard
Roderic O’Conor was Ireland’s Gauguin
John Russell was an Australian impressionist in Paris
Bryony Kimmings became artist-in-residence at a sex clinic
Bruce Talomon went behind the scenes with the stars
Hong Kong fights to keep its neon
Tai Shani has built a women’s city
Omar Victor Diop finds common ground between African nationalism and football
A free Nelson Mandela exhibition is special
Photographer Alessio Mamo is accused of ‘poverty porn’ with his Indian fake food pictures
… while Hank O’Neal’s landmark book on photographers in the Depression is republished
The Ranger’s House in Greenwich is looking on the ugly side
Claire Thomas finds Mosul is ready for fun
REM’s Michael Stipe focused on the intimate
We remember the production designer Michael Howells
The Sea Galls relay team swim the Channel
Kate Stanworth shares her best photograph
Tacita Dean and Emil Nolde provide respite from the Edinburgh art festival’s disappointing offering
Don’t forget
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