The best art exhibitions to see this January

Saving A Century: Celebrating 50 years of Victorian Society. An exhibition of photographs of the progress made within the nineteenth century. At Kew Bridge Steam Museum, Green Dragon Lane, Brentford from 3rd Jan 2012 – 19th Feb 2012. 020 8568 4757

Dickens and London, marking the bicentenary of Dickens’s death, at the Museum of London, London Wall, London EC2 until 10 June.  

Graham Sutherland: An Unfinished World, focusing on Sutherland’s watercolours and drawings, at Modern Art Oxford, Pembroke St, Oxford until 18 March.

Damien Hirst: The Complete Spot Paintings 1986-2011 at Gagosian Gallery, 6-24 Britannia Street, London and 17-19 Davies Street, London and Gagosian’s 11 other international Galleries. 12 Jan to 18 Feb. www.gagosian.com

Sean Scully – Change and Horizontals at Timothy Taylor Gallery, 15 Carlos Place, London W1 from 13 Jan to 11 Feb. 020 7409 3344

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Breon O’Casey – a major show of paintings, prints, sculptures, weavings and jewellery by the artist who died last year. The work has been selected from his Cornish studio by his daughter Duibhne Gough and covers his output from the 1950s to 2011, including notebooks, photos and other artifacts. Prints and works on paper will be available for sale. At Newlyn Art Gallery, The Exchange, Princes Street, Penzance from 14 Jan to 28 Apr. 01736 363715

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: A Scottish Artist in St Ives, at the Fleming Collection, 13 Berkeley Street, London W1 from 10 Jan to 5 Apr. See preview in Country Life, 11 Jan 2012. 2020 7409 5730

Exorcising the Fear: British Sculpture in the 1950s and 60s, at Pangolin, Kings Cross, London N1 from 11 Jan to 3 Mar. www.pangolinlondon.com

Turner and his Contemporaries: The Hickman Bacon Watercolour Collection, with over 40 works by some of the greatest watercolourists of the mid-18th to mid-19th centuries. At Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal from 12 Jan to 14 Apr. wwwlakelandartstrust.org.uk

Landscape: Imprint, The Somerset Levels. New Paintings by Richard Pomeroy at the Brewhouse Gallery, The Brewhouse Theatre & Arts Centre, Coal Orchard, Taunton from 14 Jan to 18 Feb. 01823 273810

The Whole Earth – works by Emma Biggs and Matthew Collings at Vigo Gallery, First Floor, 22 Old Bond Street, London W1 from 12 Jan to 10 Feb. www.vigogallery.com

Ten Drawings by Leonardo da Vinci: A Diamond Jubilee Celebration, at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, from 13 Jan to 25 Mar. www.royalcollection.org.uk

Form and Matter: Alberto Burri (1915-1995) – works by a master of Post-War Abstraction, at the Estorick Collection, 39a Canonbury Square, London N1 from 13 Jan to 8 Apr. www.estorickcollection.com

Enid Marx: The Breuning-Eve Gift – an exhibition of the designer, illustrator and printmaker who died in 1998. At Pallant House Gallery, 9 North Pallant, Chichester from 10 Jan to 26 Feb. www.pallant.org

The Mystery of Appearance
– an exhibition of 10 postwar British painters arranged as conversations around the nude, artist and sitter, nature and engagement with Old Masters, with well known works by artists such as Francis Bacon, David Hockney, Michael Andrews and Patrick Caulfield. At Haunch of Venison, London W1 until Feb 18. www.haunchofvenison.com

Jerwood Makers Open
– an exhibition of newly commissioned pieces by jeweler Farah Bandookwala, ceramic artist Emmanuel Boos, glass maker Heike Brachlow and installation artist Keith Harrison, who were selected from over 200 entries. At Dovecot Studios, 10 Infirmary Street, Edinburgh EH1 from 13 Jan to 25 Feb. www.dovecotstudios.com

CLOSING SOON

Vermeer’s Women – Secrets & Silence – at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Trumpington Street, Cambridge from 5 Oct to 13 Jan 2012. www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk (see preview in Country Life Oct 5 2012)

The Spanish Line: Drawings from Ribera to Picasso, at the Courtauld Gallery, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2 to 15 Jan 2012. www.courtauld.ac.uk

The Queen: Art and Image – exhibition to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012, which is being shown in Edinburgh, Belfast, Cardiff and London, bringing together remarkable images of The Queen, spanning 60 years of her reign, some on public display for the first time. At National Museums, Belfast, Northern Ireland until 15 Jan 2012

Ivan Green: “The London Series”
. This collection of mixed media printmaking takes a closer look at our capital.
Goldmark Gallery, 14 Orange St.,Uppingham, Rutland, LE15 9SQ
15th Dec 2011- 14th Jan 2012.
www.ivangreen.com  

Jock McFadyen: Fragments of Scotland
. McFadyen’s work makes anything but a diminutive statement. With eyesores depicted as though they were architectural gems, he inescapably represents society eschewed. At Bourne Fine Art, 6 Dundas Street, Edinburgh, EH3 6HZ from 25th Nov-14th Jan.
www.bournefineart.com

Women and Art
– works by Vaness Bell, Sandra Blow, Sonia Delaunay, Jenny Franklin, Elizabeth Frink, Barbara Hepworth, Yayoi Kusama, Gwen John, Jacqueline Marval, Louise Nevelson, Mary Newcomb, Tessa Newcomb, Winifred Nicholson, Mary Potter, Dariel Raven, Bridget Riley, Jenny Saville and Jennifer Wood in support of Ovarian Cancer Action. At Crane Kalman Gallery, 178 Brompton Road, London SW3 until 14 Jan. www.cranekalman.com

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Caroline McNairn: One foot in Eden. A small group o works on paper from 2010 at Bourne Fine Art, 6 Dundas Street, Edinburgh, EH3 6HZ from 25th Nov to 14th Jan.
www.bournefineart.com

Spencer’s War: The Art of Shipbuilding on the Clyde – featuring Spencer’s Shipbuilding on the Clyde series, one of the most remarkable artistic records of the Second World War. At Stanley Spencer Gallery, High Street, Cookham, Berks until 15 Jan 2012. www.stanleyspencer.org.uk

The Northern Renaissance: Durer to Holbein
, at the Queen’s Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh to 15 Jan 2012. www.royalcollection.org.uk

Building the Revolution: Soviet Art and Architecture 1915-1935, at the RA, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1 to 22 Jan 2012.  www.royalacademy.org.uk         

Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990 – the first in-depth survey of art, design and architecture of the 1970s and 1980s, examining one of the most contentious phenomena in recent art and design history. At the V & A, South Kensington, London from 24 Sep to 15 Jan 2012. www.vam.ac.uk. See preview in Country Life 19 Oct 2011.

Atkinson Grimshaw: Painter of Moonlight
This is the first exhibition of Grimshaw’s work in over three decades, reflecting the rehabilitation of his reputation in recent years. From 19 September until 15 January 2012 at Guildhall Art Gallery, Guildhall Yard, London EC2P 2EJ. www.guildhallartgallery.cityoflondon.gov.uk

John Martin: Apocalypse, at Tate Britain, 5 Atterbury Street, Westminster, London SW1 to 15 Jan 2012. www.tate.org.uk See preview in Country Life Sept 7th

Josef Herman: Warsaw, Brussels, Glasgow, London, 1938-44. Bringing together for the first time much of Herman’s surviving work from this formative period as he fled across Warsaw, Brussels, Glasgow and London, when his art was at its most experimental and his use of colour strikingly imaginative. Also included are works by some of his contemporaries in Glasgow and North London, including David Bomberg, Jacob Epstein, J D Fergusson and Ludwig Meidner. At the Ben Uri Gallery, 108A Boundary Road, St John’s Wood, London NW8 until 15 Jan. 202 7604 3991