Tracey Emin’s lust for life, the gaudy Egyptian treasure, and Don McCullin at 90 – The Week in Art | Art and design

Exhibition of the week

Tracey Emin: A second life
The most serious, intelligent and passionate artist of her generation proves that art can still touch us all and express the meaning of life.
Tate Modern, London, until 31 August

also appear

Ramses and the Pharaoh’s gold
Egypt’s most ambitious pharaoh, Ramesses II, brings his positive Trump vision to London in a megalomania-filled wonderland show.

Rose Wylie: The picture comes first
This cheerful, frenetic, and sometimes convincing painter struts her stuff. But it gets a little silly sometimes.
Royal Academy, London, from February 28 to April 19

Making waves
The art of Japanese woodblock printing is highly regarded, from Edo’s entertainment district to Mount Fuji.
York Art Gallery until August 30

Don McCullen
A survey of the works of the famous war photographer on the occasion of his ninetieth birthday.
Hauser & Wirth, Somerset, until 12 April

Picture of the week

The PhotoVogue Festival, which coincides with Milan Fashion Week, covers a wide range of topics, but the main theme is “Women by Women”, which celebrates how women express and imagine themselves while confronting the increasing precarity of their rights and visibility. Here a South Indian bodybuilder challenges ideas of femininity, and the idea that strength and muscle are masculine. See a gallery of highlights from the show here.

What we learned

A new Bodmin Festival will attract art lovers to this less-visited corner of Cornwall

David Hockney’s first English landscape is on display for the first time in 30 years

Rose Wylie is still making her wild, clever and sometimes football-inspired art at the age of 91

Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia was completed after 144 years

Two artists appear in parallel and use used clothes to create huge art

Free entry to UK national museums and galleries may end

Artemisia Gentileschi brought the true truth of Mary Magdalene that has been so often distorted

Julia Kochetova’s stunning war photographs reflect her experiences as a Ukrainian

Masterpiece of the week

Birth of the Virgin by Master Osservanza, c.1440

The life of women in medieval Italy around a huge bed with a gold-colored bedspread is depicted in this painting from 15th-century Siena. In the large bed, a new mother rests, while female friends, relatives and assistants do their work: one holds the newborn, another fills the washing bowl, while the maid brings a jug at her head for a woman who heats food for the exhausted mother. In a world where there is no medicine to speak of, restorative snacks are essential postpartum. In this religious painting, such familiar details of everyday life make the Virgin’s story richly emotional and human, especially for a female audience.
National Gallery, London

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