1 Giacometti
This outstanding presentation of one of the true greats of modern art manages to combine an exquisite layout with abundant in-depth selections from all periods of the Swiss-born sculptor’s evolution to create a genuine blockbuster. It starts with an entrancing display of the human face, from Giacometti’s earliest realistic busts to the elongated caricatures of his late years, leading on to his experiments in surrealism and the second world war, when he rethought the role of the modern artist.
Tate Modern, SE1, to 10 September
2 Beyond Caravaggio
The art of Caravaggio refuses to be merely “art”. It is living truth. As Christ is arrested by armoured men, the face of a follower holding up a lamp to this violence is illuminated – it is Caravaggio himself. Out of another inky scene, the dark eyes of John the Baptist glower. He inspired many followers, from 17th-century feminist painter Artemisia Gentileschi to French mystic Georges de la Tour.
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, to 24 September
3 Raphael
The artistic inventions of the Renaissance reached their zenith in Rome in the early 1500s when the young Raphael rivalled Michelangelo to paint frescoes for the Pope. Raphael brought the classical ideal to a perfection not seen since the age of Pericles in ancient Athens. For a long time, he was revered as the supreme genius of western art. Today he’s much less popular, but this exhibition of his scintillating drawings reveals a magician.
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, to 3 September
4 Dreamers Awake
Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas and Mona Hatoum are among the artists of today whose work is linked with the surrealist movement of the 1920s and 30s by this exhibition; one of the first modern art movements to involve a significant number of women. This exhibition shows how the surrealist themes of sexuality, dreams and the uncanny loom large in art by women in the 21st century.
White Cube Bermondsey, SE1, to 17 September
5 Rashid Johnson
An intellectually ambitious exhibition partly inspired by James Baldwin’s essay Stranger in the Village, in which Baldwin described his experience as a black American living in a small Swiss village. For his show in the heart of the English countryside, New York artist Johnson meditates on similar themes of alienation, irony and anxiety, with drawings that explore stressed emotional states and locally sourced tropical plants.
Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Bruton, to 10 September
