Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Tate Modern review - a creative talent that knew no bounds

Jack of all trades and master of every one

Sophie Taeuber-Arp gave her work titles like Movement of Lines, yet there’s nothing dull about her drawings and paintings. In her hands, the simplest compositions sizzle with tension and dance with implied motion. Animated Circles 1934 (main picture), consists of blue, grey and black circles on a white ground. The off-kilter design makes them appear to shuffle, nudge, float or bounce; you feel light-hearted and light-headed just looking at them.

Paula Rego, Tate Britain review - the artist's inner landscape like never before

★★★★ PAULA REGO, TATE BRITAIN The artist's inner landscape like never before

A magnificent retrospective celebrates one of the outstanding artists of her generation

It is conventional for artists to reflect their surroundings, experiences and inspirations, whether this be in a subliminal manner or overtly. But Paula Rego is by no means conventional. She is a rebel, a nonconformist, a freethinker. Rego doesn’t simply reflect the world around her, but soaks it in like an emotional sponge, before squeezing every last feeling out onto the canvas with passion and vigour.

Karla Black, Fruitmarket, Edinburgh review - airy free-for-all

★★★ KARLA BLACK, FRUITMARKET, EDINBURGH Airy free-for-all

A retrospective of the abstract sculptor highlights her idiosyncracies

As Karla Black’s first retrospective opens to the public, the institution she has paired with, Fruitmarket, also reopens with a new £4.3 million extension. In lockdown, the Edinburgh gallery has had the builders in. And from the fragile yet powerful works in this new show, it would appear, despite peaking covid rates in the Scottish capital, that the art scene might have survived the worst.

Ben Nicholson: From the Studio, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester review - domestic bliss

★★★★ BEN NICHOLSON: FROM THE STUDIO, PALLANT HOUSE GALLERY, CHICHESTER Domestic bliss

Still life takes the foreground in a long-awaited survey of the painter's career

The domestic realm has moved to the forefront of our lives in recent times. It’s been doing service as our place of work and our place of entertainment. Eating in has replaced eating out. Our hopes and dreams have been largely limited to what’s attainable within our four walls.

Afterness, Orford Ness review - a breath of fresh air, literally

★★★★ AFTERNESS, ORFORD NESS Art on the island of secrets

Art on the island of secrets

The boat ride lasts only a few minutes, but it takes you to another world. Orford Ness is an island of salt marsh and shingle banks off the Suffolk coast inhabited by birds, rabbits, hares and a few small deer.

But the landscape is dotted with evidence of human activity – dangerous activity. “Prohibited Area. Photography and Sketching Forbidden” reads a notice in the Information Centre and, as you wander past the pink sea campions and delicate, yellow-horned poppies, signs reading “Danger Unexploded Ordnance” encourage you to keep to the designated pathways.

Pre-Raphaelites: Drawings & Watercolours, Ashmolean Museum review - a rich array

★★★★ PRE-RAPHAELITES: DRAWINGS & WATERCOLOURS, ASHMOLEAN A rich array

Some of Britain's most popular artists highlight the importance and beauty of drawing

Drawing is the cornerstone of artistic practice, but is often overshadowed by "higher" forms of visual art, such as painting and sculpture. When we walk into an art gallery, we find ourselves gravitating towards the large, impressive oil paintings. They are considered the "main event", the best representation of art and its history – but is this really the case?

Dark Days, Luminous Nights, Manchester Collective, The White Hotel, Salford review - a sense of Hades

★★★ DARK DAYS, LUMINOUS NIGHTS, MANCHESTER COLLECTIVE, THE WHITE HOTEL, SALFORD Musicians and artists find out where the bodies are buried

Musicians and artists find out where the bodies are buried

Did you wonder what all those creative musicians and artists did when they couldn’t perform in public last winter? Some of them started making films. Putting film of yourself online was, after all, a way of communicating with an audience, and had the bonus of being a potential promotional shop window for your work once people were allowed back in venues again.

The Making of Rodin, Tate Modern review - surrealist tendencies

★★★★ THE MAKING OF RODIN, TATE MODERN Sculptor recast as a proto-modernist

The sculptor is recast as a proto-modernist in a show focused on works in plaster

Undoubtedly the strangest thing in this exhibition dedicated to Rodin’s works in plaster is a rendition of Balzac’s dressing gown, visibly hollow, but filled out nevertheless by the ghostly contours of an ample male form.

Matthew Barney: Redoubt, Hayward Gallery review - the wild west revisited

★★★ MATTHEW BARNEY: REDOUBT, HAYWARD GALLERY The wild west revisited

A fusion of classical and modern mythology

The focal point of Matthew Barney’s Hayward exhibition is Redoubt, a two-and-a-quarter-hour film projected on a giant screen that invites you to immerse yourself in the rugged terrain of the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho, where he grew up.

David Hockney / Michael Armitage, Royal Academy review - painting with an iPad vs brushes and paint

★★★★ DAVID HOCKNEY / MICHAEL ARMITAGE, ROYAL ACADEMY Painting with an iPad vs brushes and paint

Scenes from France and Kenya - an old dog learns new digital tricks, glorious paintings on bark

David Hockney has a new toy, an app designed specially for him that allows him to work on an iPad with fine brushes. He spent the first five months of lockdown In Normandy making daily records of the coming of spring; the results are displayed in a large show at the Royal Academy (★★). Seamless animation turns his still images into a continuum.