Exhibition of the week
Anish Kapoor
Explosions of colour and intimations of horror: the paintings of a great sculptor who’s not afraid to try something totally new.
Modern Art Oxford until 13 Feb
Also showing
Louis Wain
This witty cartoonist who loved cats also adored Christmas. The exhibition at the hospital where he spent much of his later life is a moving seasonal treat.
Bethlem Museum of the Mind, Beckenham, until 14 April
More! Oliver Twist, Dickens and Stories of the City
The atmosphere of Charles Dickens’s world, including his love of Christmas, is well preserved at this museum whose current exhibition celebrates one of his most enduring heroes.
Dickens Museum, London, until 14 March
Sickert
A Christmas ghost story of sorts - the spooky Edwardian music halls of this brilliantly uneasy painter chill you nicely on a dark day.
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, until 27 February
Anicka Yi
Kids in the holidays may be diverted by Yi’s floating alien entities wafting curious perfumes in the Tate Turbine Hall.
Tate Modern,London, until 6 February
Image of the week
A rare photograph of the Rossetti family, including poet Christina and painter Dante Gabriel, taken by Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll, came to auction at Bonhams.
What we learned
New York’s Met museum is to remove the Sackler family’s name from its galleries
The digital artist behind Instagram’s @metaverse has the account unfrozen by Facebook
Banksy has designed T-shirts to support alleged slaver-topplers the Colston Four
Bridget Riley at 90 is still fresh and vital
A Robert Capa photo of the Spanish civil war now hangs alongside Picasso’s Guernica in Madrid
The Portrait of Britain award winners showed off the changing faces of Britain
Renaissance Tuscany is back on the map at Florence’s Uffizi gallery
Furniture design meets film noir with Martin Reznik
The craze for NFTs, turning digital images into tradable assets, now adds up to a $22bn market
Masterpiece of the week
Studio of Bernardo Daddi: The Nativity, c 1340-80
The relationship between mother and child is central to this medieval Nativity, not the various gangs of men whose visits to the stable dominate so many seasonal paintings. Mary stands, her statuesque nobility striking, as she raises the infant towards her. Tiny angels pray beneath her and loyal beasts attend the newborn. This powerfully intimate scene is surrounded by glitter and gold. It marks a new age in art when Italian painters, inspired by Giotto, were dramatising human relationships with unprecedented intensity. Earlier depictions of the Nativity in Byzantium and Europe show Mary lying down. Here she gets up to play her starring role in the story.
Wallace Collection, London
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