Darkness from Serra, delights from Siena, and a polar bear sound asleep – the week in art

Richard Serra’s final works, phenomenal medieval art, Egypt for kids, Polish movie poster magic and nature photography at its finest – all in your weekly dispatch

Exhibition of the week

Richard Serra: The Final Works
Glimpses of night and nothingness in the last works by this formidable abstract artist.
• Cristea Roberts Gallery, London from 13 March to 26 April

Also showing

Siena: The Rise of Painting
Phenomenal exhibition that will make you fall in love with medieval art, full of ravishing works by Duccio, Simone Martini and more.
• National Gallery, London, from 8 March to 22 June

Deutsche Börse prize
This year’s shortlisted artists Cristina De Middel, Rahim Fortune, Tarrah Krajnak and Lindokuhle Sobekwa show their stuff.
• Photographers’ Gallery, London, until 15 June

Making Egypt
This exhibition of ancient Egyptian art and history is a blockbuster for children - what a great idea.
• Young V&A, London, until 2November

Format 25: Conflicted
Open call, international survey of how photographers are documenting conflicts of all kinds.
• Derby city centre venues from 13 to 30 March

Image of the week

Winners of the second annual Nature Photography Contest were announced this week, with the photography of the year award going to Polar Bear Amid Fireweed Blooms by Christopher Paetkau. See the rest of the winners here.

What we learned

A new exhibition shows how Polish film poster artists navigated communist censors
Artists must leave a Dalston street that nurtured Oscar winner Daniel Blumberg

‘Art always has a sensual aesthetic,’ says Martha Edelheit, 93, of her erotic exhibition

Designers are rethinking “human-centric” approach in favour of nature and animals

A Washington DC gallery been accused of caving in to Donald Trump’s anti-DEI drive

Les Misérables author Victor Hugo spent much of his time drawing

The late Australian performance artist Leigh Bowery had a singular artistic vision

Lubaina Himid says the British pavilion at the Venice Biennale is her dream venue

German expressionists’ works on paper are peculiarly well suited to our times

Wildly popular Scottish painter Jack Vettriano has died aged 73

A “spectacular” stolen Brueghel has been found in a provincial Dutch museum

Blind artist Bianca Raffaella explained how painting with her thumbs adds to the work

Seven hundred years ago, western art came alive in Siena, Italy

A portrait of Lady Jane Grey, England’s ‘nine-day queen’, may have been discovered

Masterpiece of the week

Portrait of Constantijn Huygens and his clerk by Thomas de Keyser, 1627

Constantijn Huygens, Lord of Zuilichem, looks as approachable and down to earth as he is important in this very likable portrait. Huygens was a towering political influence in the young Dutch Republic who had recently come back from diplomatic work in England. You can see the symbolic stuff of his public life surrounding him in his study, including two huge globes and a pen ready to write his next weighty missive. On his desk are architectural plans, and behind him a fine tapestry. A servant or clerk is handing him an urgent letter. Yet Huygens was also a cultured individual who spotted the genius of the young Rembrandt and his friend Jan Lievens. The real power of De Keyser’s portrait is in its sensitive capturing of Huygens’s pale, alert features and nonchalant pose. Wearing unshowy but expensive clothes, Huygens here is the epitome of style, civility and intellectual curiosity.
• National Gallery, London

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