Syria, sculptural surrealism and Lenin's library pass – the week in art

Ed Ruscha’s urban surrealism heads to Edinburgh, while Norfolk welcomes Richard Long’s contemplative landscape art – all in your weekly dispatch

Pool #2 (1968). Photograph: Ed Ruscha

Exhibition of the week

Ed Ruscha
The master of cool irony and urban surrealism gets a mini-retrospective courtesy of the Artist Rooms collection.
Modern One, Edinburgh, from 29 April

Also showing

Richard Long
The open spaces of an 18th-century estate, with deer herd, are perfect for Long’s contemplative works.
Houghton Hall, Norfolk, until 26th October

Syria: A Conflict Explored
Photographs by Sergey Ponomarev, and a display examining the politics of the most tragic conflict of our time, bring this excellent museum’s history of warfare disturbingly up to date.
Imperial War Museum, London, until 3 September

William Mackrell
Surrealism is reborn in this artist’s provocative photographic and sculptural works.
The Ryder, London, until 27th May

Russian Revolution
Lenin’s application for a reading pass to the British Library is among the exhibits in an archival history of the event that shook the modern world.
British Library, London, until 29 August

Masterpiece of the week

Christ Mocked (The Crowning With Thorns), 1490-1500, by Hieronymus Bosch. Photograph: National Gallery

Hieronymus Bosch’s Christ Mocked
The suffering, passive face of Christ looks back at you from the ring of cut-throats and grotesques who are vilifying him. Is this how the mysterious Bosch felt about the world? His genius can be seen in every detail of this macabre meditation on human callousness, from a thug’s spiky dog collar to the sheen of the steel gauntlet that holds the crown of thorns.
National Gallery, London.

Image of the week

Nigeria (1937-1939). Photograph: Ludwig Jindra

A portrait of a Nigerian man with tribal markings by Ludwig Jindra, whose work was auctioned this week – he was a photographer tasked by the Czech government in the 1930s with an ethnographic study of the world. See more of his work in this gallery.

What we learned this week

The nominations for museum of the year are out …

… and Rory Bremner, Fiona Shaw, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Martin Parr and Alice Roberts made their cases for each of them

Chris Ofili’s new tapestry – starring Mario Balotelli as a cosmic bartender – is a five-star triumph

London mayor Sadiq Khan is scrapping the garden bridge project...

… and is to subsidise super-minimal “naked” homes to fight the housing crisis

A new exhibition at London’s Gagosian Gallery explores Picasso’s fascination with bulls …

… and Adrian Searle loved it

Lara Feigel examines Giacometti’s obsessions

John Downing told us about his best shot: Mujahideen posing in an Afghanistan safe house

Cornelia Parker’s new exhibition is a current affairs lesson devoid of empathy

Grayson Perry discusses masculinity and Brexit over a game platter

Laura Cumming reviews Annette Messager and Geta Brătescu

How luxury flat owners are trying to shut down Tate Modern’s public viewing gallery

Meet Dennis Dinneen, whose photos in the backroom of an Irish pub are lost classics

Oliver Wainwright spoke to Turner-nominated artists Langlands and Bell, whose new work recreates Silicon Valley offices

Rowan Moore interviews proudly unfashionable neoclassical architect Francis Terry

Outrage surrounds a 17th-century Dutch old master painting stolen by the Nazis, which is to be auctioned in Vienna

Foster + Partners plans redundancies after Brexit uncertainty

Rebecca Warren will have the inaugural show at Tate St Ives’ extension

A new US exhibition charts the controversial history of black dolls

We looked at the best of your photos on the theme of endurance

Get involved

Our A-Z of Readers’ Art series continues – please submit your artworks on the theme of S Is for Spray Paint.

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.

Don’t forget

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