1 Giacometti
There are two Alberto Giacomettis. One is the revered, perhaps even over-revered, visionary whose tall, thin figures and heavily expressive portraits helped to define the anguished culture of postwar Europe. Yet before he became an existentialist, Giacometti was a surrealist. His sculptures from the 1930s are sensual, violent and often shocking. How did Giacometti evolve from a young sensationalist into a mature artist of the human condition? And does he still have lessons to teach the art of our century?
Tate Modern, SE1, 10 May to 10 September
2 Richard Long
Once, artists painted landscapes. Richard Long walks through them, creating works of art whose radiating circles of stone or mud capture his sense of being in and moving across open space. This pioneering ecological artist fits well into the shaped English landscape of a stately home built for the great 18th-century politician Sir Robert Walpole. Deer wander the estate while Long’s contemplative works offer the modern equivalent of Georgian landscape art.
Houghton Hall, nr King’s Lynn, to 26 October
3 Syria: A Conflict Explored
A war that continues to cause so much suffering and displacement is examined through images, objects, talks and discussions. Photographer Sergey Ponomarev documents the violence, destruction and human odysseys of survival; the development of the conflict is analysed in an accompanying display. This increasingly valuable museum brings its history of modern warfare distressingly up to date.
Imperial War Museum, SE1, to 3 September
4 William Mackrell
Surrealism is reborn in the work of this young artist who dwells on the human body in eerie, unsettling ways. His photographs and sculptures draw on the history of modern art as they turn the everyday into the abstract and back again. Dreamlike transformations and glimpses of the utter strangeness of reality make his work well worth a visit to this east London project space.
The Ryder Projects, E2, to 27 May
5 Russian Revolution: Hope, Tragedy, Myths
There is no shortage of exhibitions marking the centenary of the Russian Revolution but perhaps this is the truly needed one. The British Library ransacks its archives to get closer to the historical reality of this epochal, much mythified event. Among the resonant documents of those days that changed the world is Lenin’s application for a reader’s pass at the British Library itself.
British Library, NW1, to 29 August
