The schoolboy pretended he was a Russian gangster. In London Falling, Patrick Radden Keefe documents how that fantasy came up against brutal reality

Founded 125 years ago to bring great art to the East End, the gallery plays it safe with an opaque solo show that seems determined to keep you guessing

The painters and stonemasons of ancient Egypt have been erased from history, but a new exhibition brings them fully to life

The National Gallery show Radical Harmony: Helene Kröller-Müller’s Neo-Impressionists presents a pan-European movement with extraordinary aims and variations

A magnificent exhibition at the V&A tries to capture the woman behind the possessions

The centre has long drawn parallels with the Tate Modern. But its current offering sets it apart as a civic-minded hub of creativity

Bethlem Museum of the Mind’s show of works by hospital patients captures the weird, wild fantasies that occur in the hours between sleeping and waking

The painter’s much-debated work The Angelus is at the heart of a luminous show at the National Gallery. But what did he really believe?

A half-century retrospective of the artist’s transient works of the natural world ensures they will endure in our cultural consciousness

The pioneering Scot documented the wildernesses of the young nation through the embryonic medium of photography. But it was in the studio that his true genius came to life

What can and cannot be seen in a face is the crux of a singular show exploring obsession, revolving around a Géricault painting more mysterious than the Mona Lisa

The self-taught Australian artist only took up painting in her seventies. The results are astonishing

Wellcome Collection’s enthralling show explores man’s search for water, capturing the precious resource’s terrible lack and ruinous abundance

A new show puts the two titans side by side. It is astonishing

The Courtauld’s Abstract Erotic is an exhilarating exhibition full of curious, teasing forms. Plus, bigger is not always better in Jenny Saville’s outsize show

Plus, Yoshitomo Nara is a rare dud at the Hayward

There is death and danger lurking in Hamad Butt’s quietly shocking work ­– as visitors wearing safety glasses discover. And two art stars find a natural home among Freud’s curious treasury of objects

Undergoing surgery to hide her Asian roots, 30s Hollywood star Merle Oberon is the subject of an absorbing film installation. And sass meets silk as American wives of British aristocrats sit for John Singer Sargent

From Eric Ravilious to Lucian Freud, Bridget Riley, David Hockney and Lubaina Himid, artists depict each other with love, admiration and occasionally loathing in a relay through 120 years of British art that enthrals at every turn

It is an extraordinary image: the leaders of America and Ukraine facing each other, locked in conversation before the funeral of Pope Francis. Laura Cumming wonders who chose such a telling spot for this momentous encounter