Art picture book of the week
Cabinets of Curiosities
With museums closed, a richly illustrated book of artistic wonders is the next best thing. This new extra-large volume is full of photographs of some of Europe’s most surreal collections. The cabinet of curiosities was a Renaissance ancestor of the modern museum that mingled natural and human rarities. Dive into a world of carved amber, magic coral and stuffed mermaids.
• Taschen, out now
Also showing
The Louvre: All the Paintings
The next best thing to visiting the Louvre itself – and you could never see all the art reproduced in full colour here in a single trip. A lifesaver for the museum-starved.
• Black Dog, out now
Artemisia
The keenly awaited National Gallery exhibition of this great female baroque artist has been postponed due to coronavirus but this sumptuous catalogue edited by curator Letizia Treves gives you a colourful taste of her genius.
• National Gallery, out now
The Essential Cy Twombly
The great American painter, sculptor and photographer created an epic body of sensual and thoughtful art in which you can immerse yourself with deepening pleasure and reward – and this lovely book lets you do just that.
• Thames and Hudson
Sebastião Salgado: Gold
This is a beautiful book but it punches your conscience. Salgado’s great monochrome photographs of a gold rush in Brazil are simply some of the greatest pictures ever taken – and the most unsettling.
• Taschen
Image of the week
Across the US, artists have been responding to the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. Dallas-based artist Jammie Holmes used Floyd’s last words on aeroplane banners flying over the cities of New York, Detroit, Miami, Dallas and Los Angeles.
Read more about how artists have responded to his death here.
What we learned
Nadav Kander unveiled new artworks about Covid-19 isolation
Christo, artist who wrapped the Reichstag, has died …
… his ‘gorgeous abstractions made you gawp with disbelief’, wrote Adrian Searle
… and his striking work spanned the globe
What it was really like to work on one of Christo’s mammoth projects
Everyone who was anyone in the early 20th century had their portrait done by Cecil Beaton
How David Hockney created a glowing, glorious picture of a lockdown sunrise …
… and we take in Rembrandt’s painting at the National Gallery during a virtual visit
Artist Tatiana Trouvé tells the story of lockdown through headlines …
… and here is her 40-day lockdown diary in pictures
Village halls are the beating heart of rural Britain …
… while Historic England is showcasing the public’s photos of lockdown life
The Portrait of Humanity prize shortlist showcases vibrant faces around the world
Mark Seliger’s best shot is of Kurt Cobain with dolls’ heads
A landmark 20th Century Fox building faces demolition in London …
… while Phnom Penh’s glorious architecture may be under threat from foreign investment
The great British art quiz visited Swindon, County Down, Anglesey, and a scientific corner of London
LS Lowry paintings of crowds are headed to auction
Peter Mitchell has captured Leeds through the decades
We remembered pop art pioneer Richard Anuszkiewicz
Masterpiece of the week
Sacrificial Knife, 1400-1521, Aztec empire, Mexico
No need to sensationalise it – this is simply a dagger used in the mass human sacrifices that were central to Aztec religion on the eve of the empire’s first encounter with, and instant destruction by, Renaissance Europe. The handle covered in turquoise, malachite and fragments of seashell portrays a warrior crouching like a lethal cat, his eagle helmet raised to reveal a skull-like face. Form expresses function in this masterpiece of beauty and horror. When objects like this reached 16th-century Europe they were often placed in cabinets of curiosities as mysterious marvels from afar.
• British Museum
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