Ralph Rugoff is the director of the Hayward Gallery in the Southbank Centre. Since his appointment in 2006, he has organised a number of acclaimed exhibitions, including “The Painting of Modern Life”, “Jeremy Deller: Joy in People” and this summer’s “Alternative Guide to the Universe”.
Katharina Fritsch's blue cock for London's Fourth Plinth
Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square until March 2014 Cock, 2013, by Katharina Fritsch
This is a brilliant wake-up call for the city and a witty send-up of Trafalgar Square’s phallic monuments. Fritsch’s Cock is an extraordinary and exemplary public sculpture.
Sir John Soane’s Museum William Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress, 1733
A precursor to graphic novels, this wickedly satirical series of eight paintings, depicts the gradual downfall of an heir who squanders his money while living large, seems as relevant today as when he made it in 1732.
Michael Landy: Saints Alive”, National Gallery until 24 November
Mind-boggling, haunting and outrageous slapstick sculptures, reimagining the iconography of Christian saints with a nod to Jean Tinguely and a house of horrors.
Tacita Dean, Frith Street Gallery until 26 October Tacita Dean’s JG, 2013
A 35mm film installation which uses voiceover texts from stories and correspondence with JG Ballard that ruminate on motifs of entropy and time while also reflecting on Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, 1970. This densely layered conceptual and visual collage shows an artist brilliantly expanding the language of film.
Highgate Cemetery Monday-Friday 10am-5pm, weekend 11am-5pm
The best possible antidote to the frenzy of contemporaneity at Frieze, this eerily beautiful cemetery includes the graves of Karl Marx, 1818-83 (which has endured two bombing attempts), as well as those of more recent London luminaries, such as Patrick Caulfield, 1936-2005, and Malcolm McLaren, 1946-2010.
Taken from The Art Newspaper’s daily paper at Frieze – download today’s edition here
