Nicole Eisenman Opens at Turner Contemporary in a Crowded Art Week

Nicole Eisenman arrives at Turner Contemporary in Margate on 14 November. The free seaside display runs until 11 April and presents the witty, imaginative, sort-of-figurative artist to a coastal audience.

The week's exhibition calendar is unusually crowded. Five shows compete for attention across Britain, spanning contemporary romance, Roman archaeology, street art and modernist dialogue.

What is opening this week?

• Nicole Eisenman, Turner Contemporary, Margate, 14 November to 11 April. A free display beside the seaside from the witty and imaginative sort-of-figurative artist.
• The Last Human Kiss, Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, until 11 April. Snogging galore by Wolfgang Tillmans, Tracey Emin and other contemporary romantics.
• Roman Scotland, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, 14 November to 18 April. Images of classical gods, tombs of fallen legionaries and mysterious relics of Pictish life in a journey to the edge of the Roman empire and beyond.
• Beyond the Streets, Saatchi Gallery, London, until 5 May. In spite of the title, this is very much a celebration of street art and culture starring Shepard Fairey, Goldie, Jenny Holzer and many, many more.
• Dialogues: Wilhelmina Barns-Graham x Haroun Hayward, Hales Gallery, London, until 18 December. A contemporary artist goes head-to-head with the noted modernist who died in 2004.

What did the reviews say?

Tate Britain's new exhibition, Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant: Inside Bloomsbury, drew a scathing verdict. Our critic called it an "epic yet flaccid roam through the complicated lives and desperately mediocre paintings" of the co-habiting modernists.

The week also produced several stories beyond the gallery walls:

• The artist Ryan Gander, described as brilliantly bolshie, lambasted practically everyone.
• Jill Posener's cheeky, feminist photography served as a rebuttal to 80s misogyny.
• Epstein survivors were overwhelmed by messages of support at a pop-up art exhibition.
• The Vatican houses a collection of Indigenous treasures questionably "gifted" to it.

Which masterpiece deserves attention?

Head of Christ Crucified by the Master of Liesborn (Johann von Soest?), probably early 1480s-1490, hangs in the National Gallery, London. The blood streams over Christ's deathly white face in a vivid, almost Hammer horror contrast between gore and pallor. It flows in thick rivulets from the crown of thorns that has been mockingly forced on to his head.

The initials INRI on a piece of paper fixed to the cross stand for "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" in Latin, and the cruel crown rams home the barb. Christ bears the laughter and the physical pain with patience and dignity, lowering his eyes in sorrow as he waits for his earthly body to die.

The stark, simple shock of this image comes from an age in which Europeans were encouraged to identify with Christ, to imagine themselves suffering alongside him. The artist's explicit focus on flowing blood may serve a theological function: the central moment of the medieval Mass was the miraculous transformation of bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Christ.

According to the philosopher Thomas Aquinas this took place literally. The bread and wine kept their "accidental" appearance while changing their "essential" nature. The painting is part of an altarpiece from Germany, but not all Germans were convinced by such ideas. In the early 1500s Martin Luther would rebel against the miracle of transubstantiation, and against art like this which he regarded as idolatry.

What does this week change for gallerygoers? It sets the winter season's agenda: Eisenman in Margate and Roman Scotland in Edinburgh both open on 14 November, giving Britain two major reasons to travel beyond London before the year ends.