The Independent Recommends: The Five Best Shows

Rembrandt by Himself (National Gallery, London)

The self-portraits (right). The first and most searching autobiography in paint. The great pictorial statements of honesty and mortality, of the human depths. To 5 Sept

Bridget Riley (Serpentine Gallery, London)

The classic "Op" period: paintings from the 1960s and 1970s, blazing and shifting in black, white and magically elusive and illusive shades of grey. To 30 Aug

Notorious (MoMA, Oxford)

One hundred years after his birth, Alfred Hitchcock lives. This group show looks at his legacy in art, with the likes of Douglas Gordon, Cindy Sherman and Atom Egoyan. To 3 Oct

Helen Chadwick (Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield)

Photographic pieces of nature, death and pleasure from Chadwick's short career - animal skins, flowers, embryos and unexpected fluids (she used chocolate and Windolene). To 28 Aug

As Dark as Light (Venues around Cornwall)

A countywide contemporary art festival, focusing on the solar eclipse. James Turrell's open-air "sky-dome", The Elliptic Ecliptic, is the sight to see. To 20 Nov