Exhibition of the Week
Legion: Life in the Roman Army
A celebration of the all-conquering Roman army that made its mark on ancient history and has haunted the ages. But what was life as a legionary really like?
British Museum, London, from 1 February to 23 June
Also showing
Barbara Kruger
The wordy star of conceptual art still has plenty to say, in big letters and montages.
Serpentine Gallery, London, from 1 February to 17 March
The Glass Heart
An exploration of glass in British art and industrial design since the Victorian age. Clearly interesting, or transparently pointless?
Two Temple Place, London, from 27 January to 21 April
For the Curious and Interested
The remarkable 18th-century natural history collector Hans Sloane and his controversial connections with slavery.
Down County Museum, Downpatrick, until 13 April
Douglas Gordon: All I Need Is a Little Bit of Everything
A survey of new and older work by the Scottish video art pioneer.
Gagosian Grosvenor Hill, London, from 1 February to 15 March
Image of the week
Carl Andre, the minimalist sculptor whose life’s work was overshadowed by accusations that he had murdered his third wife Ana Mendieta, died aged 88. The Guardian’s art critic Adrian Searle considered how “the ideas and idealisms of minimal art” that made his name were blotted by his reputation as “the OJ of the art world”. Read the full article
What we learned
A nude artist sued New York’s MoMA over sexual assault claims
David Shrigley has opened his Tennis Ball Exchange in Melbourne
Italian artist Pasquarosa Marcelli painted every day life in joyous colour
Thousands of British artists’ work was used to train AI software, it is alleged
Daniel Libeskind’s new Maggie’s cancer centre in north London could be subtler
Fine art plays a telling part in many TV shows, not least Logan Roy’s Rubens
Arctic artist Shuvinai Ashoona took up painting for ‘cigarette money’
Immersive shows based on artists such as Van Gogh have been called a ‘money grab’
A new exhibition showcases the unsettling power of cuteness
Masterpiece of the week
View of the Forum in Rome by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, 1814
This is a Romantic view of the heart of the Roman empire. The scene this Danish artist painted during a three-year stay in Rome in the age of Napoleon is still instantly recognisable to anyone who visits the Forum. There are more structures visible today, because modern excavations have dug every bit of ground where carts and pedestrians could wander back in 1814. But the grand hulk of the Capitoline hill still looks as it did then, and the columns and triumphal arch we see here remain. This was the main public space of the ruling imperial city. Eckersberg precisely captures its eerie, majestic atmosphere, and like so many other visitors reflects on the decline of empires. Did he, painting in the year Napoleon was exiled to Elba, see parallels between one fall and another?
National Gallery, London
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