Art World Roundup: Whistler's Mother, Gender-Bending Hockney, and Mud Masterpieces

Exhibition of the Week: James McNeill Whistler

The brilliant American who took Victorian Britain by storm and brought avant-garde ideas from Paris and Japan gets a stonking big show, Mother included.

📍 Tate Britain, London, from 21 May until 27 September

Also Showing

Gender Stories

The concept of gender explored through art by David Hockney, Grayson Perry, Rene Matić, and more. 📍 Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, from 16 May until 31 August

Delcy Morelos

Spectacular earthy sculpture set against the rugged architecture of London’s Barbican… should be brutal! 📍 Sculpture Court, Barbican Centre, London, until 31 July

Henry Moore

Moore’s abstract yet absolutely unthreatening sculptures have been spaced through the green and glorious vistas of Kew. 📍 Kew Gardens, London, until 31 January 2027

Nomenclature for the Time Being

A group exhibition about… well, the title is self-explanatory. With artists including Hannah Black, Atiéna R Kilfa, and Zanele Muholi. 📍 Raven Row, London, from 21 May until 6 September

Image of the Week

The Franco-Algerian artist Zineb Sedira’s When Words Fall Silent, Cinema Speaks, unveiled this week at Tate Britain, is an ode to revolutionary cinema in the 1960s and 70s. Read the full review

What We Learned

• A portrait looted by Nazis was found in home of Dutch SS leader’s family
• Several Venice Biennale pavilions shut in protest over inclusion of Israel
• Amid protests, the Biennale’s organisers pretended all was fine
• Venice’s German pavilion artist Sung Tieu shared a single bed with her mother for three years
• A London car-park art space has redrawn the map for how to present art
• The Smithsonian in Washington DC is celebrating America in 250 objects
• The V&A’s survey of Indigenous art across three continents is a bit cramped
• Es Devlin is creating a ‘national portrait’ of the UK using selfies submitted by viewers

Masterpiece of the Week: The Dice Players by Georges de la Tour, c 1650

The sultry atmosphere of candlelight reveals a suspicious nocturnal gambling session. The glint of steel breastplates and a helmet imply the dice players are soldiers, but would soldiers wear armour for an evening game? There is a sense of masquerade that alerts us to the painting’s other ambiguities: for perhaps some of these people are fake soldiers, and perhaps some are fake men. Gender itself is uncertain here, as the players include people who may be women in “male” garb. The figure at the far right clearly seems female and the gambler with long hair leaning over the table is also very feminised. Georges de la Tour depicts women in other candlelit gaming scenes, too, including his famous The Cardsharp with the Ace of Diamonds in the Louvre. This haunting painter was one of the many artists across 17th-century Europe who took their lead from Caravaggio’s raw realism and cinematic lighting, and this painting with its teasing mysteries reveals the subversive nature of that Caravaggesque twist in early modern art.

📍 Preston Park Museum, Stockton-on-Tees

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