Critic's choice: top 5 exhibitions

 Add your view

Phil Collins's Turner-nominated Shady Lane Productions, a working TV production company plonked in the middle of Tate Britain

Look here too

• Book tickets for events & exhibitions
• Search our art & exhibitions listings

This year's Turner is a cheeringly solid show, the National Portrait Gallery confirms David Hockney's status as a national treasure and the Royal Academy launches the first major UK celebration of Rodin's work in 20 years...

Turner Prize 2006
Tate Britain, SW1
It may not have the look-at-me controversy of previous prizes, but this year's Turner is a cheeringly solid show. Rebecca Warren's sculptures are rude and lusty, whether in clay or bronze, and they're flanked by vitrines filled with pom-poms and pink neon lights.

German-born Tomma Abts has created an installation of abstract canvases in a muted palette, and Phil Collins's canny films catch up with people whose lives have been ruined by reality TV. Mark Tichner is best known for his outsize text works, whose messages are borrowed from songs, adverts, and manifestos both corporate and political. Though his theme remains unchanged, he turns instead to wooden sculptures and film to express them. The winner will be announced on 4 December. (020 7887 8008). Until Sun 14 Jan.

David Hockney Portraits
National Portrait Gallery, WC2
Made up of over 150 works spanning five decades, this mammoth survey more than confirms David Hockney's status as a national treasure. It's also a reminder of just how daring his early career was. Back when Pop and Minimalism ruled, he devoted himself to realist painting, creating a solid body of full-figure portraits at once intimate and iconic, glamorous and poetic, and often incorporating openly gay themes. Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy is among the famous highlights here, but images of Hockney's parents or Andy Warhol are equally striking. Though some of the later work doesn't quite live up to his own exacting standards, it's a bravura show. (020 7306 0055). Until Sun 21 Jan.

Rodin
Royal Academy, W1
His name connotes kisses, or rather, The Kiss, those legendary lovers whose entwined limbs melt so sensuously into one another, defying the marble from which they're hewn. And then there's The Thinker, his tribute to more cerebral passions. Both are known the world over, yet this is the first major UK celebration of Rodin's work in 20 years. Made up of some 300 pieces, it features sketches and models as well as the finished pieces themselves, leading the viewer chronologically through the Frenchman's career. Inevitably, there's some patchiness, but the odd paw of a hand or vapid society commission throws into relief his magical talent for capturing thought, passion, and most of all action, in marble and bronze. (020 7300 8000). Ends Mon 1 Jan.

Power and Taboo: Sacred Objects from the Eastern Pacific
British Museum, WC1
The word taboo made its way into the OED via Captain Cook, who borrowed it from the Polynesians. In English, it means forbidden, but in its original it stands for something far more nuanced, as this intriguing exhibition reveals. British Museum curators have raided their collection of Polynesian artefacts dating back to the 18th and 19th century, before the arrival of missionaries spelt the end of indigenous gods. Wrapping sacred objects in barkcloth, feathers or coconut fibre was a trusted way of containing their capricious might, resulting in works that are as beautiful as they were once deemed potent. Unsurprisingly, they caught the eyes of modernists like Picasso and Henry Moore, and continue to inspire Polynesian artists today. (020 7323 8181). Until Sun 7 Jan.

LAST CHANCE: Modigliani and His Models
Royal Academy, W1
In contrast to the refined beauty of his paintings, Amedeo Modigliani's life story is a sad, squalid tale of self-destruction and ill health, exacerbated by drink, drugs and restlessness. It culminates in his death in Paris in 1920, aged just 35. With mixed results, this show seeks to refocus attention on the work itself, bringing together more than 50 nudes and portraits of friends and lovers. The influences of African sculpture, Cubism and Brancusi are all palpable while his hallmark long, oval faces and elegant necks seem to stem from his first love, sculpture. As the show progresses, however, artistic development might easily be seen as tragically squandered talent taking refuge in caricature. (020 7300 8000). Until Sun 15 Oct.

 

What's on today   What's on tomorrow

Receive our newsletter