The Paradox of Mezzotint. Exhibition showing the development of this remarkable often beautiful print technique from the 1660s to its glory days in the late 18th century.
University College London: The Strang Print Room, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT. Tel. +44 (0)20 7679 2540. (Open PM only Mon - Fri) 2 July - 31 October.

*Wyndham Lewis Portraits. Comprising 58 paintings and drawings, this fascinating exhibition has been both enthusiastically as well as skillfully selected by Paul Edwards and Richard Humphreys: the former a Professor of English and the latter a Tate Curator.

By all accounts, and as his self-portraits suggest, Wyndham Lewis was a complicated man: unsurprising perhaps for the founder in 1914 of the Vorticist movement which had its roots in early 20th century Cubism but embracing both literature and art. Politically extreme and by turns admirable yet cantankerous and so self-centred as to bite the hands of those that fed him, Lewis nonetheless made discerning modernist portraits of rare quality. Those of T. S. Eliot and Edith Sitwell are proof of this, as are two tender and quite stunning "red" portraits of his wife Froanna.

There are many very fine drawings including several of Ezra Pound and others of G. K. Chesterton, Rebecca West, Naomi Mitchison and James Joyce as well as the Schneider Trophy winner Wing Commander Orlebar. In fact as the co-curators suggest Lewis's portraits provide "a special, heightened and irreplaceable record... a matchless achievement in British art of its time."

Sadly yet somehow inevitably, Lewis died in 1957 penurious and blind. The exhibition catalogue is exemplary - both in its content and design.
Supported by Christie's.
National Portrait Gallery, St. Martin's Place, London WC2H 0HE. Tel. +44 (0)20 7306 0055. (Open daily; late Thur & Fri) 3 July - 19 October.

*The Simon Sainsbury Bequest. This display of all 18 paintings from the stupendous bequest to the nation by Simon Sainsbury (1930 - 2006) is doubly revealing. In the first place the works show a highly refined and individual taste characteristic it seems of the collector, and secondly each painting is a masterpiece worthy of the national collection. Especially impressive, for example, are the two paintings by Monet one an early snow scene and the other a later impression of water-lilies.

An early portrait by Gainsborough bears comparison with Zoffany's mature portrait of an English family in Bengal painted 40 years later. Bacon's study for a portrait could hardly be more different than Freud's of a boy smoking or Henri Rousseau's of his young patron; while Balthus, Bonnard and Degas all reveal individual visions of female sensuality. Gauguin's still life and Passmore's early landscape are separately serene in a gallery dominated by Wootton's life-size steed. Following this rare opportunity to revel in a display of one man's exceptional taste, the paintings will join the permanent collections of Tate and The National Gallery.
Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG. Tel. +44 (0)20 7887 8008. (Open daily) 8 July - 5 October.

*Painting Family: The De Brays, Master Painters of 17th Century Holland. Charles II not only had an eye for a picture but as keen an appreciation of the best in contemporary art - as one gorgeous painting in this fascinating exhibition loaned from Britain's Royal Collection confirms. The Banquet of Mark Antony and Cleopatra was painted by Jan de Bray in 1652; it portrays his father Salomon as Mark Anthony transfixed by an imperiously seductive Cleopatra modelled by his wife, Jan's mother, Anna Westerbaen. Others of their children add an enchanting domestic feeling to the whole.

Saloman de Bray and his three sons were the most important painters working in Haarlam in the second half of the 17th century. Today, for some reason they have been largely forgotten despite the fact that Jan succeded Frans Hals as the portrait artist of preference. A series of quite masterly official group portraits shows why, as does a delightful double portrait of the newspaper publisher Abraham Casteleijn and his wife Margarieta van Bancken. This has been loaned by the Rijksmuseum.

Saloman's own originality in composition are shown, for example, in Eliezer and Rebecca at the well and in a predominantly architectural view The Queen of Sheba before the Temple of King Solomon. Jan's brothers Joseph and Dirck painted still lifes equivalently original in their conception: Flowers around a porcelain bottle on a marble plinth by the former, and Flowers including Guelder roses in a white vase by the latter, are as beautiful as any of the best by their presently more famous Dutch 17th century peers.
Dulwich Picture Gallery, Gallery Road, London SE21 7AD. Tel. +44 (0)20 8693 5254. (Open Tues - Sun) 9 July - 5 October.

Frank Gehry: Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2008. This, the ninth annual commission for a temporary structure has been designed by Frank Gehry collaborating for the first time with his son Samuel - advised by engineers Arup and Peter Rogers of Stanhope.
Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, London W2 3XA. Tel. +44 (0)20 7402 6075. (Open daily) 20 July - 19 October.

*Hadrian: Empire and Conflict. Both the British Museum's Director Neil Macgregor and Thorsten Opper the Curator responsible for this very fine exhibition have every reason to feel happy with the result which, in terms of loans alone, confirms the uniquely high yet still burgeoning international reputation of the Museum. Not only have the Turkish authorities been persuaded to show a colossal and recently excavated marble head of Hadrian (not so far exhibited in their own country) but precious objects associated with the Bar Kokhba revolt in Judaea are seen here for the first time anywhere. It is not surprising therefore that this exhibition will not be travelling.

Hadrian's ruthless suppression of revolts, the political and military shrewdness he showed in the building of the wall in northern England that still bears his name, belie other aspects of his character. Such are suggested by the sculpture of his beautiful young Greek homosexual lover Antinous set before the Museum's Round Reading Room within its domed Great Court - both echoing the Emperor's architectural legacy of which the Pantheon in Rome is the supreme example.

The Roman Emperor Hadrian ruled from AD 117 - 138. His empire extended across France and Spain to Britain, and included Central Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East. As well as building a huge and beautiful country retreat at Tivoli bear Rome, he also constructed a mausoleum within the City (the site know today as the Castel Sant'Angelo) whose decoration once included two spectacular gilt bronze peacocks. Rather more quietly noteworthy are several Latin inscriptions: each a minor masterpiece of carved lettering.

"Each generation makes their own Hadrian," the curator remarked. "I've never heard of him before," said a young hijab-clad museum attendant. The Emperor's most famous image - his familiar bearded head over a powerful body carved not with the expected roman toga, but with a himation or mantle representing his support for Greek civilisation, turns out to have been a Victorian philhellene assemblage.
Supported by BP.
British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG. Tel. +44 (0)20 7323 8000. (Open daily) 24 July - 26 October.

Black is beautiful: Rubens to Dumas. International loan exhibition of some 135 paintings, drawings and manuscripts showing how black people have been increasingly important in Dutch culture and history, and how their images have been attractive for artists in the Low Countries, from the 17th century to the present day. Memorial paintings by Iris Kensmil "pay homage to her predecessors in black emancipation."
The Nieuwe Kerk, Dam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Tel. +31 20 6386909 (Open daily; late Thurs). 26 July - 26 October.

The Art of Italy in the Royal Collection: The Renaissance. Exhibition of paintings and drawings by some of the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance, celebrating too the collecting legacies of the Stuart kings Charles I and his son Charles II.
The Queen's Gallery, The Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh. For advance tickets: Tel. +44 (0)131 556 5100. (Open daily) 25 April - 26 October.

*The Courtauld Cezannes. London's Courtauld Institute of Art holds the largest collection of works by Paul Cezanne in the UK. Comprising major oils, watercolours, drawings, prints and a series of handwritten letters (to the poet Emile Bernard) everything is now on show for the first time - as the culmination of the Courtauld's 75th anniversary celebrations.

To see all these together in a single gallery is an almost overwhelming physical, emotional and intellectual experience. Here are concentrated marvellous works from the major periods of Cezanne's working life ranging from his now iconic painting of Montagne Sainte-Victoire done about 1887, to one of his last The Turning Road painted about 1904 - two years before his death. Also outstanding are Cezanne's late watercolour Apples, Bottles and Chairback and a much earlier pencil portrait of his future wife Hortense Fiquet busy sewing.

Most of the pictures on show were purchased by Samuel Courtauld who in the 1920s went against the grain of official expert opinion to make a collection of Cezanne's works for the nation. His response was challenging and intuitive, by contrast with the scrupulous scholarship of Count Antoine Seilern whose own later bequest materially added to the range of the founder's collection.

This essential exhibition also reveals the results of lengthy technical examination by the Courtauld Institute's Department of Conservation of Cezanne's oils and watercolours, which show how he used both colour and line in mutual exploration to achieve the painterly effects he sought. These discoveries serve perhaps to explain in part the force of the impact on the viewer of individual works?
The Courtauld Gallery, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN. Tel. +44 (0)20 7848 2526. (Open daily) 26 June - 5 October.

China Landscape. Since their separate foundations in the middle years of the 18th century, both the British Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew have sought to enlighten the public through their international collections. Now experts from both have come together to create a China landscape in the forecourt of the museum.

Trees, shrubs and flowers, native to China but sourced from British nurseries have been planted to emphasize the intermingling of culture and natural habitat. The maidenhair tree has medicinal value; bamboo is used for making wine, paper and scaffolding; roses and peonies have inspired the decoration of countless objects (seen in the museum). Wisteria twines round a trellis beside a traditional scholar's rock, and a rare handkerchief tree reminds us that the species has been preserved largely because of the interest of professional botanists and amateur horticulturists. Within the museum, a sizeable and glittering rock sculpture by the contemporary Chinese artist Zhan Wang is a symbol of cultural continuity.
Sponsored by Bank of Beijing.
British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG. Tel. +44 (0)20 7323 8000. (Open daily) 3 May - 27 October.
Subsequently, Camden Council plans to relocate many plants to Brunswick Square nearby, so making permanent the exhibition's aim of promoting "international biodiversity and cultural understanding."

The Story of the Supremes. Performance costumes from the Mary Wilson Collection plus television clips, photographs and magazine covers celebrate the importance of The Supremes, Motown Records stars and one of the most successful, as well as racially influential groups, of the 1960s.
Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL. Tel. +44 (0)20 7942 2000. (Open daily; late Wed) 13 May - 26 October.

The Young Lion: Early Drawings by John Frederick Lewis RA (1804 - 1876). Best known for his amazingingly detailed watercolours of the exotic orient, J. F. Lewis first showed his extraordinary talent in drawings and sketches of wild, domestic and farm animals. Examples from an album in the R.A.'s collection complemented by loans from public and private collections are on show: the culmination of a project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, which includes the creation of a virtual album, to make these drawings publicly visible for the first time.
Royal Academy of Arts, Piccadilly, London WIV 0DS. Tel. +44 (0)20 7300 8000. (Open daily; late Fri) 30 May - 26 October.

*Keep Smiling Through: Black Londoners on the Home Front 1939 - 1945. Between September 1940 and May 1941 the people of London were subject to intense enemy bombing - more than 43,000 civilians were killed and more than one million houses were destroyed or damaged. Ken Johnson and his well-known West Indian dance orchestra were in residence at "London's Safest Restaurant" the fashionable Cafe de Paris underground near Piccadilly in the heart of the city. During a raid in 1941 two bombs crashed through the roof onto the dance floor killing Ken aged only 26 and about 30 others.

This relatively small exhibition has an importance beyond its scale telling the stories of many black Londoners each of whom contributed in essential ways to the war effort. Esther Bruce was a fire-watcher; E. I. Ekpenyon an air raid warden, as was Una Marson, a BBC Radio presenter; Dr Harold Moody was a community leader with five children in the forces; and the jazz singer Adelaide Hall toured and broadcast tirelessly: "We didn't worry too much about the terrible risks we were taking because we wanted to keep up the morale of the forces and the public."

Cuming Museum has two roles: combining Southwark's history museum with the utterly unique and idiosyncratic international collections of the Cuming Family.
Cuming Museum, Old Town Hall, 151 Walworth Road, London SE17 1RY. Tel. +44 (0)20 7525 2000. (Open Tues - Sat) 1 April - 1 November.

Thomas Hope: Regency Designer. Thomas Hope (1769 - 1831) was extraordinariy influential as a designer, patron, collector and author. Immensely rich, he travelled extensively as a young man in Europe and the Middle East, after his marriage creating two houses, one in London and the other in Surrey which he opened to the public. This exhibition is organized in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
The Bard Graduate Center, 18 West 86th Street, New York, NY 10024. Tel. +1 212 501 3000. (Open Tues - Sun; late Thurs) 17 July - 16 November.

*Martin Creed: Work No. 850. The Duveens Commission 2008. Living proof that contemporary art doesn't have to be pretentious and can indeed be witty, as well as provoking, is provided all day every day, at 30 second intervals, by athletes hurtling down the mighty yet spare and now empty neo-classical Duveen Galleries at Tate Britain.

"I like running," says Martin Creed, "running fast is like the exact opposite of death: its an example of aliveness." Stephen Deuchar, Tate Britain's Director puts it another way by describing Martin Creed's project as upsetting "any preconceived ideas of how to move appropriately through an art space."

Undoubtedly it is very enjoyable both to watch and ponder on. In fact, from the 1st century BC the great Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius suggests an antique perspective: "in a short while the generations of living creatures are changed and like runners relay the torch of life."

Puma have provided the running gear and Sotheby's the sponsorship; the latter have also generously enabled the Duveens Commissions to be annual events for the next three years, they've been biennial only since the first in 2000.
Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG. Tel. +44 (0)20 7887 8008. (Open daily) 1 July - 16 November.

Fashion V Sport. The relationship between, and the impact on each other, of contemporary fashion and sport.
Sponsored by ECCO Shoes.
Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL. Tel. +44 (0)20 7942 2000. (Open daily; late Wed) 5 August - 23 November.