If you have not been to the Gagosian gallery near Kings Cross now is the time to go as the current exhibition about Picasso and the Mediterranean years should not be missed.

The range and quality of the objects is exceptional: they are a must see for anyone with a passing interest in Picasso. The series of 10 paintings where a traditional bull morphs into just a single line drawing alone is worthwhile.

However added to that are some lovely paintings of the town of Vallauris; charming paintings of his children, funny cardboard cut-outs and great sculptures.

Go enjoy the Gagosian!

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I have written before about Le Corbusier and not being so keen on influence on later architects therefore I could not pass up the chance while in Marseille to visit one of his most famous buildings the Cite Radieuse.

Seen from the front my previous thoughts were confirmed as the building looks drab and ran down. However going round to the back revealed that the building is being refurbished and gives a clearer impression of the original intention.

The pictures of the refurbishment work show the cleaned up the Cite Radieuse has some good points its still not an excuse for brutalism.

I was not sure about going to the Serpentine Gallery to see Jeff Koons Popeye series: nice to be proved wrong.

He certainly knows how to produce very garish objects – that’s pop art for you – but also includes absolutely stunning deceptive illusion in way items are produced – hard to understand it. How can a chain of blow-up monkeys hanging from the ceiling support a chair?

While you are there you can also visit the Serpentine Pavilion for this year – an annual event – when a architect is invited to build a semi-permanent structure. Great, very shiny and mirrored.

Picture of the Serpentine Pavilion 2009

The Futurism exhibition at Tate Modern is worth seeing you are interested in art movements of the early 20th century.

The Futurists (Marinetti, Carra, Boccioni etc) keen to be radical and destroy traditional art took a very traditional route of writing a manifesto of their thinking. War was good, peace bad, fast noisy cars and movement were desirable: they tried to represent movement with some striking results.

The concept is of some interest particularly the links to Cubism (Cubo-Futurism) and Vorticism – and some great paintings by Nevinson.

Standout painting pan-pan by Severini – view from the distance.

See also Estorick Collection