Rachel Whiteread's ghostly triumphs and resplendent Reni – the week in art

Frank Bowling’s abstract masterworks hit the capital, Corbyn makes fashion history and Reni provides a divine revelation – all in your weekly dispatch

Exhibition of the week

Rachel Whiteread
The ghostly casts of everyday things and places that Whiteread makes are wonders of our time.
• Tate Britain, London, from 12 September to 21 January.

Also this week

Scythians
One of the most fascinating and enigmatic peoples of the ancient world gets the blockbuster treatment.
• British Museum, London, from 14 September to 14 January.

Frank Bowling
One of the stars of Tate Modern’s Soul of a Nation shows his latest absorbing, abstract paintings.
• Hales Gallery, London, from 8 September to 21 October.

Robert Longo
Huge, haunting charcoal drawings with a political edge by this major American artist.
• Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, London, from 15 September 11 November.

Christopher Bucklow
This imaginative, intelligent artist, known for his painting and photography, shows a stimulating range of works, both old and new.
• Southampton City Art Gallery, from 15 September to 13 January.

Masterpiece of the week

The Rape of Europa, by Guido Reni (1637-9)

The god Jupiter takes the form of a bull to carry Europa across the sea in this highly unusual depiction of a famous myth. In other paintings of the story, such as Titian’s, it is full of sexual tension. Reni, however, portrays a fully-clad Europa sitting comfortably on her gentle beast. She looks up to heaven in the manner of a Catholic saint. This is emphatically an image of divine revelation and as such typical of the high baroque age it was created in. It might look absurd, were it not for the subtle genius of Reni’s colouring. His grey sea is sublimely different from the traditional blue or green oceans of earlier art. The bull is also a stony grey, like a floating statue. Against this he sets the brilliant pink, blue and gold of Europa’s gowns to create a perfumed chromatic beauty. Reni is a painter worth spending time with.
• National Gallery, London

Image of the week

Jeremy Corbyn has made it into fashion history after a T-shirt bearing his name and an altered Nike swoosh was acquired by the Victoria & Albert Museum for one of its galleries. The museum will display the garment in its collection charting how moments of political and social change have a bearing on design trends.

What we learned this week

Graphic design can save your life

A Spanish fortune teller is not the daughter of Salvador Dalí

A billionaire Trump donor has given £5m to the V&A

… which splashed out on a Jeremy Corbyn T-shirt

Richard Allenby-Pratt sees a wild future for Dubai

… while patterns are everywhere in Barcelona

Devon artists are welcoming tourists

Public housing in Sydney is all aglow

New Riba chief Ben Derbyshire wants architects to take back control of design

Axel Scheffler’s notebooks are bursting with little creatures

Craft beer labels can be works of art

Bunny Christie makes mindbending stage designs

The Taylor Wessing prize shortlist has been announced

Protesters are everywhere at the Whitney

Artist Tim Shaw is in the dark about his next exhibition

Public spaces across the UK are exploring a Portrait of Britain

Banksy is setting up a Palestinian Gift Shop

Valentino’s cursed ring is going on sale

Monet’s family is selling some of his artifacts

Get involved

On 24 September, art scholar Edgar Tijhuis will lead a full-day course on how to write about art and make money from it at Kings Place, London. Book now to secure your place.

Our A-Z of Art series continues – share your art with the theme W for women.

And check out the entries we selected for the theme V for value.

Don’t forget

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