Spooky spirits and pandemic portraits – the week in art

theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/sep/04/spooky-spirits-and-pandemic-portraits-the-week-in-art

Jonathan Jones September 4, 2020

Blue Oval Drawing, 1975, by Ann Churchill, part of Not Without My Ghosts.
Photograph: David Bebber/courtesy the artist

Chichester raises a pint to a London Underground poster designer, Danh Vo explores

where Catholicism and consumerism meet, and artists pay heartfelt tribute to Covid
sufferers – all in your weekly dispatch

Exhibition of the week

Not Without My Ghosts: The Artist As Medium

The Victorian medium Georgiana Houghton created swirling abstract artworks that record
her encounters in the spirit world. She and William Blake, who portrayed the spirit of
Milton from “life”, are among the artists past and present in this survey of spooky
inspiration, with Suzanne Treister, Louise Despont and more bringing the uncanny tale up
to date.

At the Drawing Room, London, from 10 September until 1 November.

Also showing

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 One of Barnett Freedman’s posters for London Underground in
1936. Photograph: © Barnett Freedman Estate

Barnett Freedman: Designs for Modern Britain

Freedman designed London Underground posters and illustrated books by Sassoon and
Dickens. Fans of Ravilious and Nash will delight in this nostalgic trip to Lyons tea houses
and pubs with Guinness prints.

Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, until 1 November.

Danh Vo: Chicxulub

“Can you help an old
altar boy, father?” These and other words from The Exorcist are
juxtaposed with a 17th-century carved Christ in one of Danh Vo’s conceptual artworks,
mixing autobiography with big historical themes.

White Cube Bermondsey, London, from 11 September until 2 November.

Image of the week

Artists’ heartfelt tributes to friends and relatives who battled through the Covid pandemic
make for a striking outdoor portrait show at London’s Southbank Centre, even as
hundreds of the arts centre’s own workers face redundancies.

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 Dr A Shahid With Ember, 2020, by Mahtab Hussain. Photograph:
Linda Nylind

What we learned
Starchitect Richard Rogers announced his retirement; we celebrated his thrilling work

Oxford’s ‘fake’ Rembrandt might be real after all

Syria’s blasted landmarks are rising again

The Whitney Museum sparked a fresh controversy

Sarah Cooper and Nina Gorfer photographed striking refugee women

Alex McBride captured how Britons are holidaying at home

A Frank Lloyd Wright desert home sold for more than $7m

Graphic scores explore what music looks like

A Francis Bacon work will get its first showing in UK

Ahoy! Donegal locals launch a campaign to turn a beached boat into work of art

This year’s LensCulture critics’ choice winners were announced

The best photojournalism is on show in Perpignan

Enda Bowe climbed a bonfire in Belfast

Picasso’s late works lay bare his decline

Christina Stohn headed deep into the Black Forest …

… while the Basque festival Getxophoto headed outdoors

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Guardian podcasts delved into the mystery of Salvator Mundi

Masterpiece of the week

Photograph: Art Collection 2/Alamy

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Henry VII and Henry VIII (Cartoon for the Whitehall Mural), 1536-37, by Hans Holbein
the Younger

Holbein’s employer Henry VIII stands like a great wall of power in this mesmerising
lifesize drawing, showing off his impressive codpiece and hunting dagger as he stares at
you with little piggy eyes. He is a royal monster reeking of tyranny. This design is all that
survives of a mural of the Tudor dynasty that Holbein painted in Whitehall Palace, most
important of London’s royal residences in the Tudor and Stuart age, now vanished
beneath government buildings. It was said the painting was so realistic it terrified people.
But who is that grey figure behind the wife-killing king? It is the ghost of his father, Henry
VII. In a Freudian act of triumph, the all-too-living Henry VIII relegates his father to a pale
spectre.

National Gallery, London (on loan from National Portrait Gallery).

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