Exhibition of the week
Stubbs: Portrait of a Horse
George Stubbs’s emotional, sublime equine portrait Whistlejacket is rightly one of the best loved paintings in the National Gallery. This exhibition takes a closer look at what makes his paintings of horses unforgettable.
National Gallery, London, from 12 March to 31 May
Also showing
David Hockney
Pictures from his time living in Normandy, reflecting on the Bayeux tapestry and more.
Serpentine North Gallery, London, from 12 March to 23 August
Sir John Vanbrugh
A look at the stunning imagination of the architect of Brideshead, sorry, Castle Howard.
Sir John Soane’s Museum, London, until 28 June
Deutsche Börse photography prize
What makes a powerful photograph, and is the criteria changing in the AI age? See this year’s shortlisted artists including Rene Matić who recently missed out on the Turner prize.
Photographers’ Gallery, London, until 7 June
Sarah Morris: Snow Leopards and Skyscrapers
Abstract art that comes more from the brain than the heart, marking Morris’s three decades with this gallery.
White Cube Mason’s Yard, London, from 11 March to 9 May
Image of the week
Famed for having a child’s drawing of a family carved into her back, the US photographer Catherine Opie has devoted her life to queer America, from endurance swimmers to drag artists to her son in a tutu. As a major retrospective opens in the UK, she told the Guardian why she’s “dying for the day heterosexuals have to come out”. Read the full article
What we learned
The 19th-century painter Félicien Rops’ wild demimondaines still shock
Gordon Parks used his camera as a “weapon” to fight for US civil rights
Disabled creatives channelled their frustrations into a bracingly bad-tempered show
Ramses II was like the Donald Trump of ancient Egypt, our critic says
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has unveiled a newly authenticated Rembrandt
Beyond that heist, the Louvre is wrangling strikes, a €1bn renovation and water leaks
The Adelaide Biennial showcases Australian art that takes in both politics and piss
The pathbreaking Hungarian avant-gardist Dóra Maurer has died aged 88
Masterpiece of the week
The Procession of the Trojan Horse Into Troy by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, about 1760
To end their epic war with Troy, says Virgil in the Aeneid, the ancient Greeks built a horse out of wood and hid some of their mightiest warriors in its hollow body. They left the horse as a gift – but that night, after it was taken into the walls, the Greek warriors emerged to massacre the Trojans. The magical touch in Tiepolo’s painting is that he makes the horse appear real: the Greeks have not only made an accurate equine model but one that seems to be alive. How did they create the flowing tail and mane? How did they get such expression in its face and such an uncanny sculptural illusion of movement? In fact this giant horse resembles the equine colossus Leonardo da Vinci spent years trying to create in 15th-century Milan. The crowd pulling it with their softly sketched bodies also look as if they come from a Leonardo drawing. This Leonardesque painting turns the Trojan horse into a fairytale image of dream becoming reality.
National Gallery, London
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