1 Towards Night
This exhibition takes a long day’s journey into night as it has been painted or experienced by artists as diverse as Caspar David Friedrich and Peter Doig, William Blake and Louise Bourgeois. Doig’s painting Echo Lake is a David Lynch-like image of the nocturnal menace of the great outdoors; Bourgeois drew all night because she had insomnia; while Blake, long before the surrealists, drew his dreams.
Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, to 22 January
2 Beyond Caravaggio
The formidable genius of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio cut like a knife through the pieties of Italian art at the end of the 16th century. In an age of sentimental religious pomp, he painted raw reality. This exhibition sets masterpieces by Caravaggio alongside the works of 17th-century artists who imitated him, from the great female painter Artemisia Gentileschi to French master of candlelight Georges de La Tour.
National Gallery, WC2, 12 to 15 January
3 Turner prize
The most famous modern art prize in the world is back in London and – by general consensus – back on form, with intriguing displays by shortlisted artists Michael Dean, Anthea Hamilton, Helen Marten and Josephine Pryde. But is it still the radical event it was, or a genteel way of adding a few more names to your art knowledge? The bar on artists over 50 and reluctance to shortlist previous contenders make it more a snapshot of fashion than an authoritative test of quality. It needs some old farts to lend it weight.
Tate Britain, SW1, to 2 January
4 Joseph Beuys
This great German artist and visionary, who locked himself in a cage with a coyote, planted trees for the future and talked to a dead hare was not only the most charismatic of performers but a master draughtsman. This exhibition reveals drawing is at the heart of everything Beuys did. His works, with their blood-like, brownish-red stains, mythological scenes and sensual nudes, reveal a fermenting imagination that saw the world through primeval eyes. This is a joyous feat of creativity.
Scottish National Gallery Of Modern Art, Edinburgh, to 30 October
5 Opus Anglicanum
Medieval English embroidery was fashionable all over 14th-century Europe, and this exhibition brings together masterpieces made in Britain. Sadly, most secular medieval fabrics vanished long ago. That makes this something of a holy fashion show, yet there are some extraordinary images of Christ’s passion in among the gold thread.
