London
The Land of Light and Promise: Ludwig Blum (1891-1974), a 20th-century Orientalist
The works of the classically trained Czech-born Israeli topographical artist Ludwig Blum, perhaps the finest of his generation working in the Levant, have not been seen in London since the 1930s. This exhibition at the Ben Uri Gallery at the London Jewish Museum of Art (until 24 April) brings together 35 of his paintings for the first European museum survey. The works include 10 remarkable views of Jerusalem, a city whose architecture, holy places, markets and extraordinary changes of light and shadow fascinated Blum, as well as rare views of building sites in what would become Tel Aviv. Other subjects include pioneering kibbutz settlements and scenes from Blum's travels in Iran and Iraq.
London
Translated By
Visitors to this audio installation at the Architectural Association School of Architecture (15 January-9 February) enter an empty, silent room. Handed headphones attached to a small electronic device and what looks like a black pamphlet listing album tracks, they pick a number between 1 and 11. Each represents the voice of a well-known writer, an image on the wall and a particular seat. So they sit down, turn on, listen in and are transported to different places, from Brixton to Brooklyn, from Ramallah to Sofia and Tripoli, even to the Sheraton Hotel in the Doha desert. Eventually they end up in Vancouver as the world seems to be coming to an end ... Curated by Charles Arsène-Henry and Shumon Basar Translated By offers a unique compilation tape of space and time.
Boston
Modernist Photography 1910-1950
This exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts (until 3 July) brings together more than 40 photographs, many from the museum's own collection, to illustrate the story of how US artists used the camera as a tool for modernist experimentation over a period of four decades. Many of the most celebrated figures of the era are featured, including Ansel Adams, Walker Evans, Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston, along with lesser-known but equally inventive photographers. The exhibition is divided into four sections exploring US vernacular modernism; portraits and nudes; still life and close-up; and still life and abstraction. Also on display until 1 May is Nicholas Nixon: Family Album, which charts the lives of the photographer's wife, children and sisters-in-law over the course of several decades.
London
Faiz Ahmed Faiz
This event at King's Place on 17 January marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Faiz Ahmed Faiz (1911-84), one of the most renowned poets of the Indian subcontinent, who wrote of love, respect and resistance to injustice in both Urdu and Punjabi. Those taking part in the discussion will include Faiz's daughter Salima Hashmi and the historian, novelist and campaigner Tariq Ali. The event is the first in this year's Words on Monday series. Other scheduled events include a lecture on literary translation by novelist Ali Smith (31 January); a debate entitled "Iconoclasts and Sacred Cows: Exploring the boundaries of taste and self-censorship in the arts" (7 February), featuring journalist Kate Adie, sculptor Grayson Perry and Frank Furedi, professor of sociology at the University of Kent; and a celebration of "Edmund Spenser and The Faerie Queene" (7 March).
Cambridge
Mischief: Sculptures and Drawings by Lucia Nogueira
A wooden chair has lost its seat, and one of its legs traps a white bridal train that turns out to be an unrolled strip of plastic carrier bags. Watercolour blotches slowly reveal themselves to be an elephant on wheels. During the last decade of her life, the Brazilian-born British sculptor Lucia Nogueira (1950-98) became famous for a series of highly individual works, both mysterious and menacing, often using discarded furniture and other everyday objects. This exhibition at Kettle's Yard (15 January-13 March) is the first in the UK to offer a survey of the whole of her brief career.