Exhibition of the week
Encounters: Giacometti x Mona Hatoum
Second in a sparky series of shows comparing sculptors of today to the 20th-century legend who captured the slender survival of the human spirit in spindly simplified figures.
Barbican, London, 3 September to 11 January
Also showing
Toyen
A welcome look at this Czech surrealist painter who has only recently been rescued from oblivion.
Richard Saltoun Gallery, London, from 3 September to 4 October
Paul McCartney
Photographs of the Beatles by McCartney as they became world famous in the winter of 1963.
Gagosian Davies Street, London, until 4 October
Suzanne Song
Highly calculated, precise and impressive abstract art from New York.
White Cube Mason’s Yard, London, from 4 September to 3 October
Andrew Geddes
This Scottish artist of the Romantic era is revealed as a pioneer of etching under the influence of Rembrandt.
The National, Edinburgh, until 28 September
Image of the week
A new retrospective shows how the lauded photographer David Bailey shook up fashion imagery in the 1960s with his Box of Pin-Ups. His sitters, some of whom like Michael Caine were already famous, were photographed with head and shoulders tightly cropped against a harshly lit white background. “They’re the hardest shots to do,” he said at the time. See more images here.
What we learned
An old master painting looted by Nazis was spotted on an estate agent’s website
Two-time Archibald prize-winning painter William Robinson died aged 89
There are poses and prizes in the best art this autumn
Catherine Leroy was fearless in the face of war
Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s cinematic art has a primal power
The UK has some glorious garages
after newsletter promotion
Photographer Martin Parr captures the magic of the mundane
African American life during the Great Depression was laid bare
Masterpiece of the week
The Charity of St Nicholas of Bari by Girolamo Macchietti, c.1555-60
This quirky painting is typical of the narrative technique of Macchietti’s master Giorgio Vasari, for whom he worked much of his career at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. Vasari was not just an architect and painter but also author of The Lives of the Artists, a massive compendium of tales, true and fanciful, about artists themselves. At the Palazzo Vecchio he directed an art of anecdotal storytelling including in the Studiolo of Francesco I where Macchietti was one of the painters. Both the charm and silliness of the Vasari style are seen here. Saint Nicholas of Bari chucks gold balls into the house of an impoverished gentleman at night, while the whole family are asleep: now his daughters will get dowries and be spared having to become sex workers, according to the story. Macchietti captures the sleepiness of the whole household, but also suggests the anxiety that stops these people sleeping comfortably. They sit in their clothes as if they’ve been talking and worrying until they finally fell asleep in the small hours – and that’s when Saint Nicholas delivers his gifts. I’m not going to mention how this saint became Santa Claus – it’s still August.
National Gallery, London
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