Exhibition of the week<\/p>\n
Samurai<\/a> Also showing<\/p>\n Julia Phillips New Contemporaries Jenny Holzer Quentin Blake Image of the week Photograph: The Richard Avedon Foundation<\/p>\n From crying miners to birthday girls via a body therapist and a meat packer, portraits of working-class heroes from Richard Avedon\u2019s celebrated series In the American West are on show in a new exhibition curated by his granddaughter. Shown here is Petra, photographed on her birthday, posing with money given to her by family and friends to mark the occasion. See more pictures here<\/a>.<\/p>\n What we learned<\/p>\n Robert Crumb elevates sexual deviancy to an art form<\/a><\/p>\n Photographer Don McCullin has turned away from war towards the classical world<\/a><\/p>\n Sibylle Fendt captures the intimacy of caring and dying<\/a><\/p>\n Pierre Huyghe has added uncertainty to Berlin techno club Berghain<\/a><\/p>\n Former YBA Sue Webster celebrates her punk past in her latest paintings<\/a><\/p>\n N\u00edall McLaughlin is a deserved winner of architecture\u2019s top award<\/a><\/p>\n Artist Anne Imhof has released her first album<\/a><\/p>\n A new \u00a31.5m awards scheme has been launched to celebrate visual art education in the UK<\/a><\/p>\n Photographing nature can heal the soul<\/a><\/p>\n Masterpiece of the week<\/p>\n Erminia Takes Refuge With the Shepherds by Circle of Annibale Carracci<\/p>\n Photograph: Major Archive\/Alamy<\/p>\n This is a scene from a poem that had a huge impact in an age when the Catholic church was trying to revive the passions of the Crusades. Torquato Tasso\u2019s Jerusalem Delivered is a pseudo-medieval epic of chivalry and adventure with a strong religious theme as it portrays Christian knights battling Muslim enemies in the First Crusade. So far so simple, but this painting depicts Erminia, a Muslim woman who in Tasso\u2019s poem falls in love with the Christian Tancred. She also puts on male armour as she searches for him. This painter at the end of the classically obsessed Renaissance depicts her in ancient Roman-styled armour, instead of the chain mail Crusaders wore. She has taken off her plumed helmet to show her long hair and reveal that she is a woman. The shepherd offers her shelter. It looks like the landscape outside Rome with the Tiber flowing through it, in this moment of peace from an epic of war. 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 tremendous, awe-inspiring journey into Japan\u2019s past, with samurai armour so sublimely crafted it seems darkly alive, as well as exquisite landscapes, erotica and other arts that delighted the samurai between battles. Read the review here<\/a>.
The British Museum, London<\/a>, from 3 February to 4 May<\/p>\n
Uneasy conjunctions of metal and flesh in sculptures incorporating casts of the artist\u2019s body.
Barbican Curve, London<\/a>, until 19 April<\/p>\n
Kat Anderson, Hadas Auerbach, Deborah Lerner and other artists at the beginnings of their careers.
South London Gallery<\/a> until 12 April<\/p>\n
The pioneering political artist exhibits her glowing words and searing statements.
20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe<\/a>, from 31 January to 13 June<\/p>\n
Lovely portraits and whimsical images of flight from the beloved illustrator.
The Sherborne, Dorset<\/a>, until 12 April<\/p>\n
National Gallery, London<\/a><\/p>\n