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Exhibition of the week
The Moon
To mark the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, this exhibition surveys our fascination with the alien world closest to us.
• National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, 19 July to 5 January.
Also showing
Helene Schjerfbeck
A Finnish national treasure, little known in Britain, gets a show that may change our minds.
• Royal Academy of Arts, London, 20 July to 27 October.
Sweet Harmony: Rave | Today
A cultural history of rave music and its impact, from the 1980s to now.
• Saatchi Gallery, London, until 14 September.
Paolo Scheggi: In Depth
Survey of a short-lived 1960s artist whose pierced canvases are full of experimental mayhem.
• Estorick Collection, London, until 15 September.
The Real: Three Propositions
German artists Konrad Klapheck and Peter Dreher and Britain’s Des Lawrence all paint everyday things with disconcerting clarity.
• White Cube Bermondsey, London, until 25 August.
Masterpiece of the week
An Astronomer, 1652, by Ferdinand Bol
This astronomer looks a bit bookish. Why isn’t he outside stargazing through a telescope? Galileo used a telescope to do astronomy for the first time in 1609, but more than 40 years later this guy is posed like a Renaissance sage, poring over a dense tome while a celestial and a planetary globe inform his mystical ruminations. For this is a portrait of the inner life, an emotional study of the scholar’s solitude. With his chin resting on his hand, the astronomer adopts a gesture of melancholy that dates from the early middle ages when the queen in the Lewis chess set expressed her sadness in the same way. With its soft browns and reds and the rich costume of the scientist, this painting is visibly influenced by Rembrandt, who taught Bols – but couldn’t teach him true genius.
• National Gallery, London.
Image of the week
Melania Trump statue, Sevnica, Slovenia
The US first lady’s home town now has a commemorative statue of its most famous former resident. Carved in wood with a chainsaw by Slovenian artist Ales Zupevc, the monument is the brainchild of American conceptual artist Brad Downey. Read our report to find out the locals’ reaction.
What we learned
David Chipperfield unveiled Berlin’s new temple to culture
Ireland is giving artists a year’s financial support
The World illustration awards drew from a colourful field
Olafur Eliasson filled Tate Modern with moss and fog
Sydney’s Bondi could lose its flagship Sculpture by the Sea event in a row over accessibility
Assemble’s Liverpool garden has bloomed …
… while Peter Carney paints the town red with his football banners
Helene Schjerfbeck is to Finland what Munch is to Norway …
… and Félix Vallotton flies the flag for Switzerland
Britain’s Twentieth Century Society published its latest survey of buildings at risk
Egypt is building new cities in the sand …
… and future architects can learn from past visions
The gig economy may be behind the resignation of the National Gallery chair …
… while the V&A’s Tristram Hunt defended sponsorship from the Sackler family
The BP boss says protests against its sponsorship are odd
Turner’s Walton Bridges will remain in the UK
Wong Ping’s outrageous animations are a subversive delight
… and fellow Hong Kongers are putting their writing on the wall
Adrian Steirn took the last portrait of Nelson Mandela
Zackary Drucker examines everyday trans life
Terence Donovan made 60s photography sharp
Church architecture in the past 100 years has been eclectic
The Rijksmuseum began an epic restoration of Rembrandt’s The Night Watch
A new film inspired by the early life of Gerhard Richter is an artistic journey
Latin American photography covers a lot of ground
One of Stubbs’s favourite horses is racing to Milton Keynes
We remembered the photographer Tony Prime
Don’t forget
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