Exhibition of the week
Kerry James Marshall: The Histories
America’s superstar painter shows his carnivalesque pictures which make Black people the triumphant heroes of art history.
Royal Academy, London, 20 September until 18 January
Also showing
Marie Antoinette Style
An exhibition about much more than style, this fantastic gathering of art and fashion does no less than bring the executed queen back to life.
V&A, London, until 22 March
Naeem Mohaiemen: Through a Mirror, Darkly
A troubling and haunting trip to the America of 1970 where students were shot for their radicalism.
Artangel, Albany House, London, from 21 September until 9 November
Can We Stop Killing Each Other?
Art from Japanese woodblock prints to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho features in this investigation of violence and war.
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Art, Norwich, from 20 September until 17 May
Hoi Polloi
Renaissance and rococo art rubs shoulders with Gillian Wearing and Glenn Brown at Brown’s Marylebone museum.
The Brown Collection, London, from 24 September until 8 August
Image of the week
Picasso’s previously unseen Bust of a Woman in a Flowery Hat (Dora Maar) was finished in July 1943, towards the end of his turbulent nine-year relationship with Maar. It was bought in August 1944 – the month of the liberation of Paris – and remained in the same private collection ever since, but was shown to the public for the first time this week by the Parisian auction house where it will go under the hammer in October. Read the full story here
What we learned
The remarkable Rosalyn Drexler juggled three careers, making polemical pop art, writing plays and novels and professional wrestling
Tate Modern’s new Picasso show is a riotous five-star triumph
Photographer Joy Gregory’s retrospective unveils a new work so long in the making some of its participants have died
Palestinian painter Samia Halaby brings an analytic eye to abstraction
An installation in Trafalgar Square affords everyone the same view as Nelson
Architect Nicholas Grimshaw, who has died, influenced the way Britain moved, worked and shopped
The renovation of stately home “Downton Shabby” has pit a US actor against Rochdale council
Graphic artist Edizon Musavuli has made a stunning comic strip of life in the Congo
Community photographers played a valuable part in immortalising Black lives in small-town Texas
Hilary Lloyd’s enchanted installation takes a sideways look into the world of playwright Dennis Potter
School shoes and Desert Boots spark memories in a museum celebrating two centuries of Clarks footwear
The Gaza Biennale, a travelling exhibition of work by Palestinian artists, has reached New York
Masterpiece of the week
The Banquet of Cleopatra by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1740s
You can feel the light and space of Venice in this oil sketch of a moment from ancient history, when Cleopatra was said to have dissolved a pearl in vinegar to show how little she thought of wealth. It may be a study for a fresco in a Venetian palace: it glows with a sense of the Venetian art tradition, directly evoking famous Renaissance artists such as Titian and Veronese. The way we look up the steps towards the blue melting sky recalls the airy upward view in Titian’s group portrait of the Vendramin family, also in the National Gallery: but the main model is Veronese’s Wedding at Cana, in the Louvre. Tiepolo recreates this huge painting’s depiction of a banquet between lofty classical buildings. But his painting is even more airy and light than its Renaissance inspirations, inviting you to float in a shimmering fairytale atmosphere.
National Gallery, London
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