Highlights of 2009: Art

Lily Allen's second album, Jude Law as Hamlet, Michael Sheen as Brian Clough, Martin Amis on feminism – 2009 promises a variety of treats in the arts. Our critics predict what will make waves in the coming months

By Tom Lubbock

Friday, 2 January 2009

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Laurent LECAT

You can see the French mistress of the pathos of soft toys Annette Messager (whose 'Casino' is pictured here), at the Hayward Gallery.

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We'd all like to see it now, though hardly anyone went then. Two hundred years ago William Blake held a one-man show at his brother's shop in Soho. He got a single contemptuous review. In April, Tate Britain will restage Blake's bid for public recognition, whose failure – luckily for us? – pushed the artist deeper into his private visions.

Other anniversary shows follow in the summer. The Fitzwilliam in Cambridge marks 150 years since the publication of On the Origin of Species with an exploration of connections, Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts. Meanwhile, at Tate Modern, Futurism commemorates the first Futurist Manifesto, and the birth in Italy 100 years ago one of the most violent modern art movements.

Full-dress Old Master solo shows are increasingly rare. But in spring there's an epochal style statement at the V&A, in the form of Baroque 1620-1800, celebrating visual extravagance across the arts and crafts. And in autumn, the National Gallery presents The Sacred Made Real, focusing on the religious art of 17th-century Spain.

Modern masters get more individual treatment. The husband and wife Russian Constructivists, Rodchenko and Popova, are soon to be surveyed at Tate Modern, their art designing a revolutionary, collective world. At the National Gallery there's art with the most personal drive. Picasso: Challenging the Past pits Pablo against all-comers from the great tradition.

Some brief mentions for the distinguished living. You can see Annette Messager, French mistress of the pathos of soft toys, and Ed Ruscha, US painter of words in landscapes, both at the Hayward Gallery. Richard Long, the walker and stone-gatherer, puts down at Tate Britain. Anish Kapoor and his optical illusions appear at the Royal Academy.

It's a Venice Biennale year. Britain's rep is Steve McQueen, now best known for his recent crossover into cinema (Hunger). At Tate Liverpool, there's one of the cleverest contemporary painters, Glenn Brown.

First treat of the year: The Russian Linesman at the Hayward. The latest in a series of artist-curated shows, it's an art-anthology assembled by Mark Wallinger, and named after the man whose dubious decision at the 1966 World Cup Final gave the match to England. The theme guiding the miscellany is lines and borderlines, both literal and metaphorical. Connect it if you can.