Titian doesn't actually need sexing up – the week in art

Exhibition of the week: Metamorphosis: Titian 2012 This is a first for the National Gallery. It has invited contemporary artists to respond to its collection before, but with Chris Ofili and Mark Wallinger involved in a collaboration with the Royal Ballet to celebrate the 16th-century painter Titian, this is a bit of a glamour injection for a gallery that has sometimes seemed to revel in an old-fashioned image. I am in two minds. Titian does not actually need to be compared with or spruced up by any living artist to be made "relevant" because in any sense that matters he is a living artist, right now. His colours, brushstrokes, stories, characters – for he is a dramatist in paint – blaze with urgency and excitement . Who can be bored by Titian? The first time I visited the National Gallery, when I was 19, his painting The Death of Actaeon leapt out at something sensual and real I could relate to. In all honesty, I would rather see a big exhibition about him than a clever modern take. But this is London 2012 . It's a flash place, and the National Gallery cannot always be putting on exhibitions of Paul Delaroche . This exhibition is free and fun. Go and enjoy what Ofili (especially) has done. Then look at the Titians at the heart of the show and fall in love. • National Gallery , London WC2, from 11 July until 23 September Other exhibitions this week Simon Patterson New art from the man who reinvented the Tube map. • Haunch of Venison, London W1, from 13 July until 1 September Graham Gussin A thoughtful, engaging artist responds to an English parkland. • New Art Centre, Salisbury, until 9 September We Face Forward Art from West Africa now. • Whitworth Gallery and other venues , Manchester, until 16 September Mud Wrestling Annual show by members of this Glasgow art hub. • Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, until 28 July Masterpiece of the week Rubens, The Death of Hippolytus This little painting is a roaring, shining, blood-curdling masterpiece of violence and terror. Rubens reveals his obsession with Leonardo da Vinci's lost Battle of Anghiari as he replicates and riffs off its explosion of staring eyes and whirling weapons in his depiction of a sea monster. • Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge Image of the week What we learned this week Art has started to magically come alive in China That performance art is officially in takeover mode That artist Richard Wilson took the ultimate inspiration from Michael Caine – by leaving a bus dangling off the roof of a gallery What the tomb of a hippie, a man lost at sea and a tent up in flames have in common That a new impressionist show exposes how strange Renoir, Manet et al could be What the Old Master stroke of the week was That important artists' documents have been found in the most unlikely places – from a scrapyard to a castle And finally You can upload your images to the Guardian Art and Design Flickr You can also share your art about this horrendous weather we're having Or check out our Tumblr And follow us on Twitter Are you in the industry? Sign up to the Guardian Culture Professionals Network for free to get news or move on your career Do you dream of becoming a curator? Here's your chance