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Jonathan Jones's top shows this week
David Mach: Precious Light
In the 1980s one of Britain's most controversial contemporary artists was David Mach, who used found materials to create politicised and provocative exhibits such as a submarine made of tyres, a comment on the Falklands war. Here he takes on the King James Bible and Christian heritage.
? At City Art Centre, Edinburgh, 30 July until 16 October
Jameel prize
Islam created some of the world's most original and fascinating art, but how can the heritage of Granada and Isfahan ? that love of mathematics, abstraction and intricate surfaces ? inspire art today? This exhibition of new art inspired by Islamic tradition features 10 artists including Noor Ali Chagani, Babak Golkar, Hadieh Shafie and Aisha Khalid.
? At the V&A, London, until 25 September
The Queen: Art and Image
Lucian Freud's powerful study of the uneasy head that wears the crown has been one of his most keenly discussed works in the wake of the painter's death. Here is a chance to see one of his most provocative portraits up close, among other images of the Queen by artists from Cecil Beaton to Andy Warhol.
? At Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, 25 June until 18 September
Art for the Nation
This summer the National Gallery explores its own history and celebrates its great Victorian director Sir Charles Eastlake (1793-1865) who did so much to shape the museum. Paintings by Bellini, Pisanello and others are shown in an unfamiliar context of Victorian art collecting and debates over what a national gallery should be.
? At National Gallery, London, 27 July until 30 October
Ed Ruscha
Time was that an exhibition by cooler-than-cool California art hero Ruscha at one of Britain's regional art galleries would have looked like a utopian fantasy. But the Artist Rooms national collection and its continuing Art Fund tour have changed all that. Thanks to art dealer Anthony d'Offay, we now have a British public collection of contemporary art to match German and American cities ? and galleries such as Wolverhampton whose recent refurbishments make them ideal homes for such work.
? At Wolverhampton Art Gallery until 29 October
Up close: artworks in detail
Lucian Freud, Interior at Paddington, 1951
Sixty years ago this was among the paintings that first made Lucian Freud famous. London after the war is sombre and chilled. Harry Diamond, the man portrayed, is seedy and solitary. The angles are raked and bizarre, the effect claustrophobic. Here are the precise drawing skills and bold perspectives in which the genius of Freud first became apparent.
? At Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Francis Danby, Boys Sailing a Little Boat, c1822
Bristol produced its own highly original art movement in the early 19th century, and the greatest of these west-country Romantic painters was Francis Danby. In many of his pictures ? which can be seen at Tate Britain, the Soane Museum and other collections, as well as in Bristol ? potent natural forces roar and rage in sublime visions of catastrophe. But in this sweet painting of childhood pleasures, he dwells in a lyrical rustic dreamscape.
? At Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery
Annibale Carracci, The Butcher's Shop, 1580s
Before Caravaggio turned his cinematic light on the prostitutes and street fighters of baroque Rome, the Bolognese Annibale Carracci painted this powerful homage to the strength and vitality of real life. Butchers work among hanging flesh in a shop scene that majestically mixes energy and grace.
? At Christ Church Picture Gallery, Oxford
Peter Paul Rubens, The Union of Earth and Water, c1618
It is hard for a modern viewer to see this as anything but a sensual, dreamlike encounter between a man and woman in a rich natural setting. But it is at once an intense evocation of real flesh and natural abundance, and an allegory of the cosmos. In 1618 the ancient idea of the elements ? earth, fire, air and water ? had not yet been displaced by science. Here is a view of the hidden forces of the universe, enfleshed.
? At the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Avebury stone circle, c2600BC
The purpose and meaning of Britain's neolithic stone circles will never be fully understood. Are they temples, meeting places, monuments? What is certain is that we experience them as vast enigmatic works of art. Modern artists such as Robert Smithson have tried to create monuments of this scale and mystery but nothing can be more inspiring than Avebury, with its medieval village spookily located among giant gnarled rocks that seem like petrified bodies.
? At Avebury, Wiltshire
What we learned this week
Why the National's Leonardo show will be the ultimate blockbuster after a swap scheme
Why modern art could help us get to the bottom of the Higgs boson
Why street artists are throwing people off a cliff in Eastbourne
How we've become a post-canvas world
How Picasso's French home has been put back on the culture map
Image of the week
Your art weekly
Have you been to any of these shows? What have you enjoyed this week? Give your review in the comments below or tweet us your verdict using #artweekly and we'll publish the best ones next week.
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