Exhibition of the week<\/p>\n
Tschabalala Self<\/a> Also showing<\/p>\n Beryl Cook and Friends Peter Howson Liz Larner Monika Sosnowska Image of the week Photograph: Josema Cutillas<\/p>\n The theme for this year\u2019s biennial European Prize for Urban Public Space is architectural projects that repurpose infrastructure built for cars. Among the five finalists is Round About Baths, a true urban oasis for which Swiss architect Leopold Banchini has turned an obsolete roundabout in Logro\u00f1o, northern Spain, into a public pool. Read more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n What we learned<\/p>\n Star Wars director George Lucas has opened a spaceship-sized art museum<\/a><\/p>\n Argentina must return to the owner\u2019s heir an 18th-century painting stolen by Nazis<\/a><\/p>\n Veteran Califiornia sculptor Liz Larner has been making ceramics based on asteroids<\/a><\/p>\n Along with flowers and deserts, Georgia O\u2019Keeffe also painted stunning urban scenes<\/a><\/p>\n Our critic wondered why French thieves bothered stealing Renoir paintings<\/a><\/p>\n Masterpiece of the week<\/p>\n Saint Paul and a Donatrix by followers of Gerard David, 1515<\/p>\n Photograph: Vidimages\/Alamy<\/p>\n In late medieval and Renaissance Europe, one of the most popular ways to spend money was on an altarpiece for a chapel in your local church. And if you were paying, why not have yourself painted into everyone\u2019s grateful prayers? This is a wing of a folding multi-panelled painting on wood: the woman it shows is not known by name but she was one half of a well-off couple who probably lived in Bruges. We can feel close to her as she kneels piously with none other than Saint Paul himself behind her. For the painting\u2019s first beholders, she may have been someone they often saw and spoke to in the street or at market, but here she\u2019s enfolded in a holy, supernatural reality that\u2019s one breath away from the visible. Paul is placing a supportive hand on her back \u2013 a direct contact between the donatrix \u2013 the donor \u2013 and the divine. Donor portraits come from a world that is very alien to our attitudes yet also very human: this woman\u2019s confident portrayal as someone who communes with the saints in heaven seems narcissistic and naive yet it is a moving attempt to connect everyday experience with something beyond. Sign up to the Art Weekly newsletter<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t already receive our regular roundup of art and design news via email, please sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Get in Touch<\/p>\n
A rollicking triumph of a statue that spreads good feelings and smiles in the heart of the capital. Saucy genius.
Fourth plinth, Trafalgar Square, London<\/a><\/p>\n
Some may see similarities between Tschabalala Self\u2019s Trafalgar Square statue and Cook\u2019s vibrant fun.
House of Voltaire, Bicester Village<\/a>, until 25 October<\/p>\n
Gnarly, bloody, and bloody-minded paintings of Christ\u2019s Passion.
Flowers Gallery, London<\/a>, until 10 October<\/p>\n
Sculptures that meditate on myth, metamorphoses and our fragile earth.
Camden Art Centre, London<\/a>, until 17 January<\/p>\n
The sadness of Polish history haunts Sosnowska\u2019s abstract sculptures and installations.
South London Gallery<\/a> until 22 November<\/p>\n
National Gallery, London<\/a><\/p>\n