JMW Turner faces off against fellow observers of nature, Constable is contextualised, and the Romani community are represented in textiles – all in your weekly dispatch
Jonathan JonesFri 18 Oct 2024 07.00 EDTLast modified on Fri 18 Oct 2024 07.02 EDTShareExhibition of the weekVanessa Bell: A World of Form and ColourThe subtle and sensitive paintings of this Bloomsbury Group stalwart prove modernist art doesn’t have to be explosive to be interesting. MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, from 19 October until 23 February
Also showingLand Sea Sky: Ingrid Pollard, JMW Turner and Vija CelminsAn intriguing encounter between three contrasting artists of landscape that pits JMW Turner against Ingrid Pollard, with Vija Celmins as referee. The Box, Plymouth, from 19 October until 12 January
Discover Constable & The Hay WainIf you think The Hay Wain is just a Tory view of quaint rural England … shame on you, it’s a masterpiece that paved the way for impressionism. National Gallery, London, until 2 February
View image in fullscreenVisitors at the Małgorzata Mirga-Tas show at Tate St Ives. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PAMałgorzata Mirga-TasPainterly group portraits that are actually textile collages by this Romani artist, who works in her village in Poland as a community activist as well as artist. Tate St Ives, from 19 October until 5 January
Pass Shadow, Whisper ShadeGroup show that takes its poetic title from an Irish proverb. Hannan Jones, Emelia Kerr Beale, Josie KO, Katherine Fay Allan, Clarinda Tse and Rowan Markson feature. Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, until 22 December
Image of the week
View image in fullscreenTunnel vision … London’s Elizabeth Line has won the 2024 RIBA Stirling prize. Photograph: RIBA/PAThe Elizabeth Line was announced as the winner of the 2024 RIBA Stirling prize for the best architecture in the UK. With its futuristic panels, airy tunnels and elegantly unified design, the 73-mile Lizzie line provides a dazzling demonstration that Britain is still capable of pulling off gargantuan transport infrastructure projects with style and panache. Read more here.
What we learnedThe National Gallery in London has tightened security after activist art attacks
It’s not all cobblestones and whippets – Yorkshire is becoming the UK’s cultural powerhouse
Buying new masterpieces at Frieze art fair is stressful stuff
Hew Locke’s British Museum looting exposé is ‘inescapably shocking’
Photographer Letizia Battaglia chronicled life on Palermo’s blood stained mafia-ridden streets
Photographer Frank Habicht captured the ‘heart and restlessness’ of 1960s London
Australia’s National Gallery has plans for seven new sculpture gardens
A new film brings the late Scottish artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham’s work to life
Masterpiece of the weekStill Life With a Bowl of Strawberries, a Spray of Gooseberries, Asparagus and a Plum by Adriaen Coorte, 1703
View image in fullscreen Photograph: National GalleryPaintings like this one, depicting humble, everyday foods, fruits or flowers, were dismissed for a long time as minor works, yet they were radically reclaimed by the modernist movement as precursors of a more truthful way of seeing, anticipating the likes of Cézanne and Vanessa Bell. Adriaen Coorte is a perfect example of how the neglected still life appealed to eyes schooled by such artists: he was practically unknown in his lifetime, forgotten afterwards, but rediscovered in the early 20th century. The precise way he depicts a simple arrangement of glistening red strawberries, pale-stemmed purple-tipped asparagus, white-veined gooseberries and a black plum does in fact look precociously modern. There’s no hint of allegory, just a quiet wonder at nature’s variety. National Gallery
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