Exhibition of the week
Takis
Feel the good vibrations of the electromagnetic field in the art of Takis, whose scientific sculptures probe the realities uncovered by modern physics.
• Tate Modern, London, 3 July–27 October
Also showing
Manchester International festival
Yoko Ono kicks off this year’s celebrations on 4 July with Bells For Peace – gathering a people’s orchestra of bell ringers in the city’s Cathedral Gardens to send a message to the world. Other art highlights include Tania Bruguera’s School of Integration, Ibrahim Mahama’s Parliament of Ghosts and a trip to the moon with Laurie Anderson.
• Manchester International festival, various venues, 4-21 July
Cut and Paste: 400 Years of Collage
Thought Picasso invented collage? Think again in this exhibition that surveys a radical art form from the 17th century to punk and beyond.
• Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two), Edinburgh, 29 June–27 October
Félix Vallotton
The eerily beautiful prints and paintings of a fin-de-siècle visionary.
• Royal Academy, London, 30 June–9 September
AR Penck
The sci-fi cybernetic musings of this German postwar artist flow freely across media, mixing the futuristic and primeval.
• Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, until 3 November
Wong Ping
Pop-art animation saturated with emoji and game imagery from the first recipient of Camden Arts Centre’s emerging artist prize.
• Camden Arts Centre, London, 5 July – 15 September
Masterpiece of the week
Susanna at her Bath, 1850, by Francesco Hayez
The Biblical story of Susanna and the Elders has inspired some weird and wonderful art. Its theme of creepy voyeurism, with two old men spying on a young woman as she bathes, has both licensed nudity and allowed painters to express ambivalence about it.
The baroque feminist painter Artemisia Gentileschi identified with Susanna, while some men, including Tintoretto and Rembrandt, also side with Susanna against her sleazy persecutors. This painting puts the onlooker in the position of an elder, apparently using the theme as a blatant excuse for an exhibition of naked flesh. But is it as simple as that? Susanna knows you are looking. She looks back, darkly.
Hayez was a star in Milan when Gustave Courbet was pioneering realism in Paris. This painting has a modern, provocative matter-of-factness that makes it the Italian version of Manet’s Olympia.
• National Gallery, London
Image of the week
Hymn by Damien Hirst, Leeds city centre
Yorkshire launched a new art festival, Yorkshire Sculpture International, which features a six-metre-high sculpture by the Leeds-raised YBA Damien Hirst. The festival is a joint initiative between Wakefield’s Hepworth gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Leeds City Art Gallery and the Henry Moore Institute.
What we learned
Penny Slinger’s surreal works of feminism are reappraised in a new documentary
London’s hotel scene is rising to LA’s Standard
Cindy Sherman is a shapeshifting enigma
Ernie Barnes was an American football player who turned to art
Patrick Staff spins a tale about the exhausting quest for gender freedom
Julie Gough illuminates colonial violence against Indigenous Australians in Tasmania
The woman behind a lost Velázquez was unveiled
The story behind one of Basquiat’s most personal paintings is retold at New York’s Guggenheim
LensCulture is scouring the streets for new stars of photography
Indonesia’s artists have a world of contrasts to navigate
… while one Australian company sold Indonesian-made art as Aboriginal
Japan’s “female writing” is making a comeback
Women photographers added spice to Life
The Dutch are graphic about their love of bicycles
Brazil’s queer artists are fighting back against censure
British artists gave lino a cutting edge
The internet is failing to outsell the auction houses
… while fake ads are doing a roaring trade in Berlin
Jeremy Deller, Olafur Eliasson and Helen Cammock took on a Guardian climate crisis commission
The Earth Photo awards shortlist was announced
Chinese wedding photography is big business
Wild Daughter is having a wicked night in at the ICA
Terry Newman tried to pin down artists’ fashion sense
Glastonbury clubbers have a new sculpture to rave about
We took another look at Francesca Woodman’s signature work
Susanna Bauer has the intricate art of crocheting with leaves all sewn up
Don’t forget
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