Emeka Ogboh’s Brexit lawsuit, the brilliant Joan Eardley and a Viking treasure – the week of art | art

Exhibition of the week

Emeka Ogboh: Song of the Union
A sound installation by Robert Burns’ Auld Lang Syne, sung in the languages ​​of the EU to protest and mourn the UK’s exit.
Burns Monument, Edinburgh, through August 29th

Also shows

Joan Eardley and Catterline
The rugged, soulful landscapes of this powerful painter in and around the fishing village of Catterline in Aberdeenshire are masterpieces of modern Scottish art.
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, through January 9th

pleasure
David Shrigley, Harold Offeh and Amalia Pica contribute installations to this contemporary exhibition on happiness.
Wellcome Collection, London, through February 27th

The Galloway hoard
One of the most amazing Viking discoveries in the British Isles, a collection of treasure found by a detector in 2014 that sheds light on the true nature of these robbers and traders.
National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, through September 12th

Ben Nicholson: Out of the studio
Abstract paintings from the 1920s and 30s by an artist are viewed somewhat optimistically by some as Britain’s answer to Mondrian.
Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, through October 24th

Picture of the week

Today it is a nature reserve, but for much of the 20th century Orford Ness in Suffolk was prohibited territory, cordoned off for military purposes from the village, whose picture-perfect church and castle can be seen from its secluded pebble beach. Three of the youngest artists to be attracted there Рin a collaboration between Artangel and the National Trust, which bought the site from the Department of Defense in 1993 Рhave filled its creepy abandoned buildings with installations. Tatiana Trouv̩ imagined the remains of a survival community that is rotting in the puddles of a roofless laboratory. Read more here.

What we learned

The US will return to Iraq 17,000 ancient artifacts smuggled out after the 2003 invasion

Bryan Adams photographed Cher, Grimes and Iggy Pop for the Pirelli 2022 calendar

The Observer’s art critic called Orford Ness the creepiest headland in England

England’s cathedrals are home to art from Sheffield steel to a model moon

Brian Clarke’s inspirational watercolors provided a visual diary of the pandemic

Neanderthals painted stalagmites in Spain 60,000 years ago …

… while relics from the prehistoric Doggerland are exhibited in the Netherlands

East Londoners have concerns about a planned luminous architectural sphere

The Edinburgh Art Festival revived Frederick Douglass, dealing with the trauma of the 21st century.

Historic England is restoring nine sites to mark the 70th anniversary of the Festival of Britain

Calls for the closure of Thomas Heatherwick’s ship in New York have grown after a fourth death

The Gallery of Miracles and Madness explores the fate of Hitler’s “degenerate” artists

An exhibition in Exeter reacted to the worldwide efforts for a sustainable nature with the humble seed

The US national parks inspired glorious poster art

Dutch photographer Bertien van Manen has been taking intimate snapshots around the world for five decades …

… while Hannah Bailey captured the movements of female and non-binary skateboarders

Portraits of Holocaust survivors can be seen in the Imperial War Museum

Alessio Mamo photographed the crumbling brutalist mansions of the Mafia in southern Italy

More than 100 Hemingway doppelgangers came to Key West

Young photographers are reinventing “Englishness” at various cultural heritage sites

Photographer Rankin has provided new covers for Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials books

Five giant paintings by Canaletto’s nephew Bernardo Bellotto are reunited at the National Gallery in London

Rhik Samadder tried his hand at painting mindfully

Minimalist photography finds a lot of feeling in the smallest things

The autodidact John Alnder has taken impressive portraits of his Swedish neighbors

A bride with a flag was a powerful symbol in Beirut

An underwater sculpture park in Cyprus explored our relationship with nature

We remembered the painter and etcher Bernard Kay …

… as well as the revolutionary 1960s sculptor Phillip King

Masterpiece of the week

Richard Parkes Bonington, A Sea Piece, probably 1824
This airy painting of sailboats in the English Channel is alive with spray, gray waves, misty clouds and blue light. It’s a spontaneous response to the choppy play of sea and weather that looks like it’s painted on a boat – it puts you so right there you can smell salt and hear seagulls. Richard Parkes Bonington lived and worked between two European art traditions. Born in Britain, he moved to France at the age of 14 and shook French art with his robust, spontaneous eye, just like that of his contemporaries Constable and Turner. By popularizing this British freshness in France, he helped pave the way for Impressionism. But four years after making this painting, he died of tuberculosis at the age of 25. This tiny seascape is part of the tiny, immortal legacy of a doomed romantic.
Wallace Collection, London

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