Feathered frolics, webcam landscapes and The Hay Wain – the week in art
Tate Modern hosts a major exhibition of Ana Mendieta, Constable turns 250 and the accidental beauty captured by unattended online cameras – all in your weekly dispatch
Exhibition of the week
Ana Mendieta
Neolithic monuments inspired this Cuban-born American artist to create her ephemeral, raw, poetic works that embrace nature in a truly original way.
• Tate Modern, London, from 15 July to 17 January
Also showing
The Hay Wain
John Constable’s pastoral masterpiece comes home to Suffolk in his 250th birthday year and looks more magical than ever.
• Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich, until 4 October
Madelon Vriesendorp
Surreal, playful art that should fit perfectly in Soane’s mind-bending collection and hall of mirrors of a home.
• Sir John Soane’s Museum, London, 15 July to 20 September
John Kay
Caricatures by this Georgian artist of geologists, booksellers and more bring Enlightenment Edinburgh to life.
• Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, until 6 December
Jasper Marsalis
Images taken by unattended internet cameras at global beauty spots offer a contemporary update of the picturesque.
• Chisenhale Gallery, London, until 6 September
Image of the week
When he wasn’t throwing cats or melting clocks, Salvador Dalí took time out in 1922 to pronounce: “The future of architecture will be soft and hairy.” In 1994, his prediction came to fruition in Tokyo with the soft curves and garden hairdo of this, the Soft and Hairy House, one of a series of startlingly expressive dwellings designed by the talented Scottish-Japanese architectural partnership of Kathryn Findlay and Eisaku Ushida. A new exhibition at V&A Dundee, until 28 August, explores the arc of Findlay’s career.
What we learned
Misan Harriman went from City headhunter to protest photographer – to social media controversy
Space travel has inspired out-of-this-world art by Norman Rockwell, Alma Thomas and more
The photography of Armet Francis celebrated the African diaspora
Masterpiece of the week
Young Satyr Gathering Grapes by Annibale Carracci, 1597-1600
Need refreshment in the heat? Just reach for a grape. That’s what it’s like in the golden age pastoral world this painting conjures up. A satyr – half human, half goat, with his animal features discreetly represented here by pointy ears and a tail rather than the full furry goat legs often favoured – climbs a tree to grab a whole bunch of sweet yellow grapes. It was a popular image of sensuality and gratification in Rome at the end of the 16th century, where Caravaggio, too, was painting lush grapes and their consumers. This may seem a gentler vision than his, but that is illusory. This is a decorated panel from a harpsichord or similar musical instrument and was probably painted for the librarian of the Farnese Palace. Another panel from the instrument portrays the head satyr Silenus also grabbing grapes as two helpers hold up his portly body. These are amoral pagan images of pleasure that make you suspect those musical evenings in the Farnese Palace must have been a lot of fun. Where Caravaggio’s grapes are full of darkness and sin, Carracci’s carry no hint of retribution.
• National Gallery, London
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