Caravaggio's dark genius and Sargent's sensual watercolours – the week in art

Inter-war art from Germany, the fight against Thatcher in the 80s, and dazzling Turkish abstraction – all in your weekly dispatch

Exhibition of the week

Beyond Caravaggio
This rapturously enjoyable detour through the candlelight and shadows of 17th-century art is one of the most beautiful exhibitions of recent years. Caravaggio’s paintings are shining daggers of profundity and truth. The works of his much less famous followers, from Artemisia Gentileschi to Georges de La Tour, are fascinating and moving. Don’t miss this.
• Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, 17 June – 24 September

Also showing

Portraying a Nation
An unflinching look at Germany between the end of the first world war and Hitler’s rise to power, through the disabused eyes of two great modern artists, Otto Dix and August Sander.
• Tate Liverpool, 23 June – 15 October

The Place is Here
Black British artists of the 1980s including Sonia Boyce, the Black Audio Film Collective, Turner-nominated Lubaina Himid, Isaac Julien and Mona Hatoum fight Thatcherism with film, video and a surprising amount of paint.
• South London Gallery, 22 June – 10 September

Fahrelnissa Zeid
Dazzling kaleidoscopic abstract art, shaped as much by Islamic and Byzantine tradition as by Parisian ideas, made Zeid one of Turkey’s best modern painters.
• Tate Modern, London, until 8 October

Sargent: The Watercolours
The genius of John Singer Sargent is best seen in his strange and powerful portraits, but his watercolours reveal his affinity for impressionism.
• Dulwich Picture Gallery, 21 June – 8 October

Masterpiece of the week

Landscape with Mercury and the Dishonest Woodman by Salvator Rosa (c 1663)
The landscape paintings of Salvator Rosa have faded into the background of art history, but the reason there are lots of them in British collections is that in the 18th century he was seen as a dark and sublime artist to thrill the soul with horror. Gothic novelists only had to mention his name to conjure up images of bandits and murder. His reputation compared with that of Caravaggio today. This painting is a melancholic vision of southern Italy that turns landscape into poetry. Under the shady trees a countryman is conning a god into giving him a golden axe.
• National Gallery, London

Image of the week

Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait (1963-64)
An image of the pivotal pop artist, derived from a photograph taken a New York dime-store photo booth, is coming up for auction for the first time. The image, which marks the beginning of his creation of a persona cultivated through his own art, is seen as a key moment in the development of modern celebrity and is expected to fetch £7m at auction at Sotheby’s in London later this month.

What we learned this week

Penguin poo is no respecter of Antarctic explorers’ artistic work

The English country house is reborn in Kent

Top architects are accused of designing a ‘future slum’ for Cambridge

Fabrice Monteiro turns African pollution into art

Neequaye Dreph Dsane is celebrating London’s African Caribbean women in a big way

Kehinde Wiley paints other artists

Reine Paradis is an orange woman in a blue world

The history of pigments is a colourful one

Walthamstow art school was a riot in the 60s

London’s National Portrait Gallery is expanding

Australia’s Art Gallery of New South Wales also thinks big …

… while Tasmania celebrates the little things of beauty …

… and Dark Mofo triumphs in the small hours

Get involved

Guardian members can book now for an exclusive private view: True Faith, a group show exploring the impact of Joy Division and New Order on the art world, part of Manchester international festival.

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