Exhibition of the week
Turner prize
Ingrid Pollard, Sin Wai Kin, Veronica Ryan and Heather Phillipson duke it out for the title and prize money.
• Tate Liverpool from 20 October-19 March.
Also showing
Henry Fuseli
Intense and fascinating erotic art by the man who painted The Nightmare.
• Courtauld Gallery, London from 14 October-8 January.
Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design
Exhilarating and hardcore trip into the surrealist brain.
• Design Museum, London from 14 October-19 February.
Reena Kallat
Mumbai artist Reena Saini Kallat works across media to reflect on the history of India and Pakistan.
• Compton Verney, Warwickshire from 20 October-22 January.
The Legend of King Arthur
How the pre-Raphaelites created our modern love of the (probably) mythic king.
• William Morris Gallery, London from 14 October-22 January.
Image of the week
Painting was back in vogue at the Frieze art fair, but two giant vegetables stole the show with visitors invited to “pose with the pumpkins!” Anthea Hamilton’s sculptures – bold, orange, funny and meaningless dominated Thomas Dane Gallery’s stand and, no doubt, many people’s Instagram accounts.
What we learned
Cecilia Vicuña produced the most moving Tate Turbine Hall installation for years
A book-lovers’ paradise is Britain’s best new building
David Hockney took centre stage in his new digital artwork
Lucian Freud was fascinated with plants
Cerith Wyn Evans returned home
Jimmy Carr might destroy a painting by Hitler
Rachel Whiteread’s Covid-inspired art is to be displayed in government buildings
Sudanese painter Kamala Ibrahim Ishag took inspiration from William Blake and Francis Bacon
Masterpiece of the week
Bouquet in a Clay Vase by Jan Brueghel the Elder, about 1609
The soft yet vibrant colours of this melting still life calm and please you, like living flowers might in a real vase. Delicate blues, pinks, yellows and whites are painted with a misty suggestiveness that was hugely original in its time. But then Brueghel came from a brilliant family. His father, Pieter, was the greatest painter in late Renaissance Europe. But he died when Jan was little, and according to the 17th-century art writer Karel van Mander, Jan and his brother got their first training from their grandmother Mayken Verhulst. She was an accomplished miniaturist. You can surely see something of her influence in the precision and love with which Brueghel paints these flowers. He was one of the very first north European still life painters, inspiring cohorts of artists to follow in his floral footsteps.
• National Gallery, London.
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