Chisenhale Gallery, London, 27 November until 1 February 2015
Caragh Thuring’s paintings are about the process of looking and understanding what one sees. Representing the everyday world, her work either omits elements – unprimed canvas left unpainted – or abstracts them, areas reduced to gestural strokes or self-sufficient shapes. In her show at Chisenhale, a well-deserved first exhibition in a UK public gallery, a new series explicitly riffs on these optical themes by picturing windows.

National Gallery, London, 26 November until 15 February 2015
As a companion to the National Gallery’s show of the Scandinavian seascapist Peder Balke (1804-1887), mentioned in last week’s RA Recommends, an exhibition of Maggi Hambling’s highly expressive paintings of waves goes on display this week. The British artist’s large-scale works are rich in pathos, the flux of water speaking of the human spirit.

Tate Modern, London, 26 November until 15 March 2015
The centenary of the First World War has precipitated multiple perspectives on the art of war – in RA Magazine, for instance, Hughie O’Donoghue RA discussed the connections between painting and memory. The Tate now turns our attention to war photography with a broad exhibition, encompassing work from Don McCullin’s famous reportage of Vietnam to Jerzy Lewinski’s evocative images of Hitler’s headquarters, made 15 years after the Second World War.

Serpentine Gallery, 25 November until 15 February 2015
Reiner Ruthenbeck was a participant in the legendary 1969 exhibition When Attitudes Become Form, which brought together at the Bern Kunsthalle different generations of conceptually minded post-war artists, from Joseph Beuys to Richard Long RA. But unlike many presented in that exhibition, Ruthenbeck’s work is not well-known in this country: his survey show at the Serpentine will help address that, demonstrating how the German sculptor assembles conventional materials into textural, geometric sculptures.

Guy Peppiatt Fine Art, 24 November until 19 December 2015
Great artists of the past can be bought today without drawing on an oligarch’s bank balance, for those who peruse the watercolours and drawings on sale in galleries close to the RA. Guy Peppiatt’s gallery in Masons Yard opens its annual winter exhibition of 100 such works this week, with artists ranging from Pissarro, Vuillard and Signac back to British figures such as Thomas Rowlandson, whose lovely coach and horses scene has caught my eye.

Sam Phillips (@SamP_London) is Editor of RA Magazine.