Art: The Five Best Shows In London

1

Jackson Pollock Tate Gallery

Big, revelatory retrospective for the wild hero of Abstract Expressionism going on Old Master. The build-up is slow and the end uncertain, but the brief "drip" period deserves every superlative. To 6 Jun

2

Portraits by Ingres National Gallery

Some of the smartest, most intense portraits ever. Men as icons of power; women as exquisite fabrications, embodiments of luxury. To 25 Apr

3

Monet in the 20th Century Royal Academy

Fast approaching last chance to see the gardens and lily ponds at Giverny dissolving into fiery lights, haze, liquid reflections, depths and voids. To 8 Apr

4

Thinking Aloud Camden Arts Centre

Idiosyncratic exploration of creativity in art and life: an assortment of rough drafts, doodles, try-outs, prototypes, and makeshift solutions. To 30 May

5

Henri Michaux Whitechapel Gallery

He travelled. He wrote. He took drugs. And inspired by grief and mescalin, he created amazing, wobbly bobbly wibbly scribbly fine-grain line drawings. To 25 Apr

... AND BEYOND

Antony Gormley's `Field' firstsite at Culver St, Colchester

One the hits of the decade: a sea of 40,000 pint-sized clay men - obedient, expectant, menacing, and stopping dead in a line at your feet. To 3 May

2

Andreas Gursky Dean Gallery, Edinburgh

Photographs 994-98: huge, panoramic, high-finish, micro-detailed, digitally manipulated images of our world - stock exchange floor, city- scape, hotel foyer. Vistas of more than the eye can see. To 6 May

3

Bob Law Kettle's Yard, Cambridge

Law was once known for his completely black minimalist pictures. Here's a wider view of his work: Cornish landscape beginnings, colour, and tiny, toy-like constructions. To 25 Apr

4

Richard Deacon Tate, Liverpool

Chunky, curvaceous assemblages of wood, metal, and plastic, some gigantic, some humble, by the noted Eighties sculptor. To 6 May

5

Dutch Paintings Southampton City Art Gallery

Twenty masterpieces of the Golden Age begin a tour of the country. Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, Ruisdale and Hobbema star. Fri to 3 Jun