Subversive design, radical Germans, and cultured holidays – the week in art

This article titled “Subversive design, radical Germans, and cultured holidays – the week in art” was written by Jonathan Jones, for theguardian.com on Friday 18th July 2014 13.14 UTC

Exhibition of the week

Disobedient Objects
You know what it’s like: the computer won’t work, the toaster burns the toast and your watch is slow. And that’s just this morning. But this exhibition is not about the frustration of technology. Instead, it shows how design has been used to promote subversion and dissent, from the suffragettes to today.
• Victoria and Albert Museum, London SW7 from 26 July until 1 February

Other exhibitions this week

Carol Rama
The erotic, introspective drawings of this major modern Italian artist draw you into her intense psychological world.
• Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham NG1 until 28 September

Isa Genzken
This daring Berlin based artist invades Edinburgh’s sleepy Botanical Gardens.
• Inverleith House, Edinburgh EH3 until 28 September

The Art of Golf
Yes, this really is an exhibition of paintings about Scotland’s national game. Is this a foretaste of art in an independent Scotland? Or a piss-take of parochialism?
• Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh EH2 until 26 October

Simon Bill
This public artwork displays Bill’s paintings among the arches of a former tram depot.
• Leadmill Archways, Sheffield S1 until 31 March 2015

Masterpiece of the Week

Georges Seurat – Study for La Grande Jatte (1884-85)
This is a painted sketch for one of the greatest of all modern paintings, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, that graceful yet machine-like vista of bourgeois pleasure. Even this small study for Seurat’s masterpiece is a wildly provocative image of people as characterless components of some grand social mechanism. Seurat anticipates all the most disturbing ideas of the 20th century avant garde.
• National Gallery, London WC2N