Arts and Design

The Turner prize kicks in and Rembrandt goes dark – the week in art


Exhibition of the week

Rembrandt’s Light

This is the closest thing to a Rembrandt blockbuster in Britain for his 350th anniversary – an ambitious exploration of his radical and profound use of darkness and illumination.

Also showing

Kara Walker

This promises to be the most artistically impressive intervention in the Turbine Hall in ages.

Turner prize

Helen Cammock, Oscar Murillo, Lawrence Abu Hamdan and Tai Shani compete to be judged the most politically radical artist and therefore, naturally, the best.

Art Beyond Limits

The artists in this exhibition – including Simon Adams, Susan Ezekiel and Dr Peter Scott-Morgan – are all living with motor neurone disease and battle huge obstacles to create images of beauty and power.

Cy Twombly

The painted wooden assemblages of the last great abstract expressionist are sensually redolent of history and myth.

Masterpiece of the week

Bust portrait of a young man with an inscription, c.1560, by Giovanni Battista Moroni



Photograph: National Gallery, London

Bust portrait of a young man with an inscription, c.1560, by Giovanni Battista Moroni

He compels you to look at him. Passing by this small painting in London’s National Gallery, you just have to stop and engage with the anonymous young north Italian from four and a half centuries ago whose eyes so clearly and passionately gaze across time. He looks vulnerable and love-smitten. On the parapet at the bottom of the picture is a Latin declaration of undying devotion from Virgil’s Aeneid that means “so long as breath controls my being”. It’s been a long time since breath ceased to control this man’s being, but still: his sensitive presence commands attention, respect and sympathy.

Image of the week

Zaha Hadid's Daxing airport



Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images

China opened a new $50bn airport designed by Zaha Hadid in Beijing this week – the terminal, which will handle 72 million passengers a year by 2025, is said to be the world’s largest. Daxing is undeniably impressive – but some critics have questioned the need for a second airport in the capital. Read the full story

What we learned

Readers made their suggestions for best artworks of the 21st century

… and their favourite buildings

This year’s Turner prize show is gripping

A Frenchwoman nearly chucked out a rare Cimabue during a house move

… but is it all it seems?

Stage designer Es Devlin has created an extraordinary diorama of history

The mafia kidnapped a church’s Caravaggio and held it for ransom

The Wallace Collection is now open to loans

Anna Maria Maiolino is holding a sausage party

Mark Leckey is still obsessed with fairies

The Jarman award nominees have gone on tour

New York has a stunning new library

… and so does one Oxford college

Actor Russell Tovey is turning curator in Margate

Comedian Steve Martin will explore art history in a radio series

SL Shanth Kumar was crowned environmental photographer of the year

Contemporary art is thriving in Harare, Zimbabwe

Dennis Stock’s California Trip was a dark ride through hippy counterculture

Klaus Enrique made a Trump mask out of a piglet

British councils are investing in quality social housing

Floor ‘selfeets’ are a thing

Fashion is as hard as painting, says Zandra Rhodes

There’s a new generation of black fashion photographers

Australia’s emerging photographers were celebrated

Unseen Amsterdam showcased exciting international photographic talent

Hassan Hajjaj offers an eye-popping twist of Moroccan culture

Don’t forget

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