Cheeky monkeys, gored matadors and trompe l’oeil masks – the week in art

Alison Watt pays homage to John Soane, Ella Kruglyanskaya honours Manet, and chaos comes for civilisation – all in your weekly dispatch

Exhibition of the week

Alison Watt
New paintings inspired by the sublime, poetic architecture of Georgian visionary Sir John Soane.
• Pitzhanger Manor, London, 5 March to 15 June

Also showing

William S Burroughs
Artworks by the beat author whose best novel, Queer, was recently released as a film.
• October Gallery, London, 6 March to 5 April

Ella Kruglyanskaya
Sensual, haunting figurative paintings that pay homage to Manet’s depiction of a dead matador.
• Thomas Dane Gallery, London, until 3 May

Rhea Storr
A film that documents Caribbean community groups in Wolverhampton and Sheffield.
• Site Gallery, Sheffield, until 25 May

Tim Stoner
New abstract paintings with verve, complexity and beauty.
• Pace gallery, London, 5 March to 12 April

Image of the week

Forty-five years after it was bought for a then record price, doubt has been cast over the authenticity of this painting, Samson and Delilah by Peter Paul Rubens. In a new book, art historian Euphrosyne Doxiadis argues that “the flowing, twisting brushstrokes that are so characteristic of Rubens are nowhere to be seen”, and that what the National Gallery has on its wall is actually a 20th-century copy of a now lost painting by the 17th-century Flemish master. Read the full story

What we learned

Siena was a dazzling centre of the medieval art world

Lubaina Himid will represent Britain at the 2026 Venice Biennale

Leeds-based photographerPeter Mitchell had a correspondence with Nasa

Crime-obsessed photographer Weegee still shocks today

The arts sector may be breaking the law with its use of interns

Leigh Bowery was the ultimate exhibitionist, and also Lucian Freud’s muse

Women are outperforming men in Africa’s art market

Photography is therapy for Martin Parr

Masterpiece of the week

Still Life with Fruit and Vegetables with Two Monkeys by Jan Roos, circa 1620

Grapes glisten and apples shine in this depiction of a cornucopian mass of beautifully luscious fruit. It’s a still life to make you slaver, yet the luxurious assembly of refreshing edibles is being stolen by two naughty monkeys who are portrayed with the same keen eye as the fruits. One is howling its excitement to the other as it holds delicious loot in each hand. Whichever human aristocrat or merchant was planning to gorge on these treats is due to be disappointed. It is an image of entropy undermining order; chaos coming for civilisation. Such intimations of decay and ultimately of mortality are common in 17th-century still life paintings, which sometimes swarm with insects or even reptiles, not to mention the odd human skull among the luxuries. But Roos takes a novel, comic line with his acute portrayal of mischievous monkeys.
• National Gallery, London

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