Daggers, dervishes, rego, and the most expensive egg in the world – The Week in Art | Art and design

Exhibition of the week

The lost dagger of Henry VIII
A curious search for the Tudor tyrant’s lost dagger, with its large phallus, in the house where the modern Gothic style began.
Strawberry Hill House, London, until 15 February

also appear

Sufi life and art
From images of dervishes and saints to modern abstract art with a Sufi spirit, see how this fascinating religious tradition has inspired creativity for centuries.
British Museum, London, until 26 July

Paula Rego
This show explores the period when Rego revamped her art with custom drawings, inspired in part by the writings of Martin McDonagh.
Christia Roberts Gallery, London, until 17 January

Cristina Iglesias
Huge sculptures inspired by geology, resembling rugged rock formations by the sea.
Hauser & Wirth, London, until 20 December

Self and attitudes
Robert Mapplethorpe and Gillian Wearing are among the artists here who question what the “self” actually is.
Modern One, Edinburgh, until 25 January

Picture of the week

From ASMR prophets to Soviet hypnotists and mountaintop rituals, Uzbek artist and director Sudat Ismayilova invites you into a strange and unforgettable psychedelic dream space in this first UK solo exhibition where there is scene after scene of stunning beauty, elemental atmosphere and disorienting anxiety. Read the review.

What we learned

A Fabergé egg made for the mother of Russia’s last tsar has sold for £23 million

A new exhibition seriously captures the silly side of photography

The Empire State Building was built by daredevils

Norman Foster’s skyscraper in New York is obscenely large

French artist JR has plans for Pont Neuf

The long-lost Robbins went under the hammer

The Grateful Dead’s psychedelic artwork has long told their story

Ghanaian Ibrahim Mahama, who covered the Barbican with purple cloth, is the first African to top the annual artistic power list.

Masterpiece of the week

Portrait of a Man by Gerrit Douc.1635-40

He looks at you with disarming openness, as if you were relaxing together on a tube in a Dutch bar, talking about the price of tulips. The long locks, colorful hat, and sloppy clothing mark him as more loose and bohemian than the sombre merchants who appear in many 17th-century Dutch portraits. Is he an artist? Certainly this is suggested by the careful but careful way in which he holds his pipe, as if it were a brush. The more you look, the more you replicate exactly how the artist of that time used a fine brush. I think this is a gift. Gerrit Dou, a student of the great self-portrait painter Rembrandt, was in his early twenties when he painted this, just like the man in the painting. It is certainly a self-portrait in which Doe welcomes us as a friend.
National Gallery, London

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