[ad_1]
Exhibition of the week
Cézanne at the Whitworth
This exhibition celebrates a gift from the late gallerist Karsten Schubert of works by the unrivalled godfather of modern art.
• Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, 24 August until 1 March.
Also showing
The Many Faces of Tudor England
This exhibition reveals the surprising diversity of English society 500 years ago, including a man of African descent who died on the Mary Rose and a west African free-diver who helped salvage items from it.
• Mary Rose, Portsmouth, until 31 December.
Lis Rhodes
Last chance to see this retrospective of the pioneering feminist film-maker.
• Nottingham Contemporary until 1 September.
Claudette Johnson
Portraits that aim to tell a more inclusive and egalitarian story of modern British life.
• Modern Art Oxford until 8 September.
John Akomfrah
This retrospective of the radical film artist includes a new work that explores the life of jazz pioneer Charles “Buddy” Bolden.
• Baltic, Gateshead, until 27 October.
Masterpiece of the week
An Old Woman With a Rosary, circa 1895-96, by Paul Cézanne
The woman in this painting seems to have been hewn out of wood. Her time-carved features look as ancient as a worn sculpture in a gothic cathedral. As she looks downward in devotion, her face is a stark mask of sun-hardened skin. It was said that the sitter was a nun who left her convent and wandered in the Provence countryside until Cézanne took her in as a servant. That helps to account for her broken attitude and bark-like flesh. But it is easy to miss the revolutionary nature of this portrait. A decade later, Picasso would give Gertrude Stein a stone mask for a face in his portrait of her. This was a sensational move in a painting that is a flamboyant manifesto for modernism. Yet Cezanne had already done it – with so much more feeling – in this compassionate masterpiece.
• National Gallery, London.
Image of the week
Haymaking in Transylvania
“I spent three weeks in the northern Carpathian mountains, exploring life in six hamlets,” says Rena Effendi. “It was August, the height of the haymaking season. Families worked in the fields from dawn to dusk. I saw these women and their haystacks from the road as my translator and I drove past. I shouted “stop!” and ran out of the car towards them. They smiled at me, but we didn’t talk, they just carried on with what they were doing. It was late in the day, and they were getting ready to go home. The women wear trousers to make hay because the wind blows their skirts up. Here, they were putting their headscarves and their traditional skirts back on.” Read the interview.
What we learned
Danish artist Olafur Eliasson has taken over Tate Modern’s gallery and its restaurant
We remember Alvin Baltrop, New York’s forgotten queer photographer
… and a photo series is livening up New York bus shelters
The search for a perfect selfie is doomed
BBC Four spent a night in the Bauhaus – and it was so much fun
How Brisbane’s Trace is taking art out of the galleries
Magdalene Odundo explains why the art world is taking ceramics seriously
A new exhibition in Hull is an embarrassment of riches
British Museum has launched its first show co-curated with regional galleries
Why mas design is the heart of Notting Hill carnival
Forget the Louvre here’s our loo: some people are turning their homes into galleries
Posters amassed by “London’s greatest film fan” are to be auctioned
A documentary series will take viewers behind the scenes at the V&A
A sculpture of a hand has terrified New Zealand
Prince Albert’s private passions are now online, to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth
The National Portrait Gallery has acquired a portrait of Henry VIII’s wife Jane Seymour by Holbein
Australia is to get its first gallery showing only female artists
Don’t forget
To follow us on Twitter: @GdnArtandDesign.
Sign up to the Art Weekly newsletter
If you’d like to receive our regular roundup of art and design news via email, please sign up here.
[ad_2]
READ SOURCE
