Exhibition of the week
Comrades in Art: Artists Against Fascism
In the 1930s Europe was descending into extremism. Artists as well as poets and intellectuals tried to fight the fascists, reveals this exhibition based on a recent book about the AIA (Artists International Association).
Towner Eastbourne, until 18 October
Also showing
Hidden: Photography and Displacement Under the Khmer Rouge
A photographic story of survival and the preservation of memory under the Khmer Rouge, told by Charles Fox and Prum Sisaphantha (Pantha).
The Wiener Holocaust Library, London, until 15 May
Early Netherlandish Drawings
Newly attributed drawings from the workshop of the great 15th-century artist Rogier van der Weyden are among the northern Renaissance wonders here.
British Museum, London, until 20 September
Katharina Grosse: I Set Out, I Walked Fast
Sprawling Technicolor installations and paintings by this German artist.
White Cube, London, until 31 May
Handpicked: Painting Flowers from 1900 to Today
Vanessa Bell, Henri Rousseau and more in a celebration of the flower in modern art.
Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, until 6 September
Image of the week
Sylvia Sleigh painted friends, critics, strangers – anyone she found interesting and attractive. A new show of the Welsh artist brings together seven of her beautiful people, including this mesmerising portrait of Johanna Lawrenson, the elegant brunette with enviably long legs inspired by Sleeping Venus.
What we learned
From a new pier to 1.3 tonnes of hotel bed linen Lydia Ourahmane’s work speaks of Venice itself
Ukraine’s defiant origami deer has made it to the Venice Biennale
The mystery sitter in a Holbein portrait might be Anne Boleyn
Gagosian London will create a lost “cloud” by Christo
Multisensory installations could make original artworks less exciting for childen
“Politics of hate” should exclude the US from Venice Biennale, says Anish Kapoor
A stained-glass treasure by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris has been restored
An anarchist illustrator drew Spain’s civil war from the frontline
One of the last residents of Gaudí’s masterwork Casa Milà is “used to all the visitors”
Venice Biennale artist Lubaina Himid is not feeling very establishment
Photographer Eric Lusito has been on a scientific journey through space and time
Masterpiece of the week
Christ carried to the Tomb by Sisto Badalocchio, after 1609
The dead body of Christ has a silvery shine like the full moon, a terrible pallor that dominates this tiny painting and makes you focus, like it or not, on mortality. It’s a small scene painted on copper, not canvas. This hard metal surface doesn’t absorb the paint but lets it stand brightly on the polished surface in a way that intensifies the stark narrative: Christ’s followers, in despair after seeing him crucified, carry his corpse to be buried by dead of night. We see the moonlit sky peeping through shady nocturnal trees. Clearly this not a church altarpiece but an image someone might study at home, contemplating its dismal concentrated vision of the passing of all flesh with feelings of pity and love.
National Gallery, London
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