Exhibition of the week
Iconic: Portraiture from Francis Bacon to Andy Warhol
An excellent visual essay on painting, photography and fame in the 1960s that makes you see pop art with fresh eyes. Read the five-star review here.
• Holburne museum, Bath, until 5 May
Also showing
Julia Chiang
Abstract paintings that twinkle with starry specks, like a 21st-century answer to Whistler’s Nocturnes.
• The Modern Institute, Aird’s Lane, Glasgow, until 3 May
Lives Less Ordinary: Working Class Britain Re-Seen
This ornate, plutocratic house makes a surprising setting for a survey of proletarian life in modern Britain, with artists from Joan Eardley to Mark Leckey.
• Two Temple Place, London, 25 January-20 April
Brasil! Brasil! The Birth of Modernism
A look at how Brazilian artists embraced modern art that frustratingly ends just as they were making it their own. Read the full review here.
• Royal Academy, London, 28 January-21 April
Citra Sasmita: Into Eternal Land
A feminist reclamation of 15th-century Indonesian artistic tradition takes apart history and myth.
• The Curve, Barbican, 30 January-20 April
Image of the week
The LA wildfires incinerated thousands of homes and priceless cultural heritage, marking the worst natural disaster in LA history. A global cultural capital – home to a rich contemporary art scene as well as Hollywood – may never be the same again. More than a week on, the LA arts community is still taking stock of the losses. Altadena, a middle-class residential neighbourhood that is home to many artists, was particularly devastated by the Eaton fire. According to artist Andrea Bowers, 190 artists have lost or suffered significant damage to their homes, studios, and work. Read the full story
What we learned
Van Gogh fans raved at an all-nighter in London
A Benedictine monk made extraordinary art on a typewriter
Australia opened the album of its most photographed man
Indigenous critics said Sebastião Salgado’s art portrays their culture in too primitive a way
Cartoonist Jules Feiffer was a big influence on America’s visual storytelling
A photography show by Zoë Law ignited a nepotism row at the National Portrait Gallery
There will be shindigs across the UK to mark JMW Turner’s 250th birthday
Masterpiece of the week
Mrs Siddons, 1785, by Thomas Gainsborough
Celebrity fascinated artists long before the age of Andy Warhol, as this portrait of 18th-century stage star Sarah Siddons proves. Siddons, born in Wales in 1755, was famous for her grand, emotive performances in Georgian London’s popular commercial theatres, especially her tragic roles such as Lady Macbeth. Sir Joshua Reynolds portrayed her as the Muse of Tragedy, in a painting that’s more heroic than alive. It sums up the contrast between Reynolds and Gainsborough, the two most successful portraitists of their age, that while the former used classical references and historical pomp to pay homage, Gainsborough paints her with casual yet impassioned intimacy, focusing on the person rather than her fame. She holds a pose that’s sociable and elegant and not at all tragic: in fact she looks like she’s holding back laughter. Gainsborough’s supple, sensual genius makes you feel you are meeting the real Sarah Siddons, up close and personal.
• National Gallery, London
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