Royal Academy Braque: The Late Works January 23-April 6. Braque’s status alongside Picasso in the creation of Cubism is internat-ionally acknowledged but very few people, least of all the young, are familiar with the work that followed. This exhibition of the great series of still-lifes, studios and interiors done during the last 20 years of the artist’s life will come as a revelation, reaffirming his position as a major 20th-century painter.

Gillian Ayres February 6-March 2. Arguably the most exuberant and certainly one of the finest British abstract painters of the last few decades, Gillian Ayres’ recent work is not to be missed.

Denys Lasdun February 6-March 16. Videos, four-metre-high photographs and innumerable models will be used in this retrospective survey of one of our most controversial architects, praised and blamed for such buildings as the Royal National Theatre. For details of all these exhibitions, telephone 0171 439 7438.

National Gallery Young Gainsborough January 29-March 3. Exploring Dutch and French influences on Thomas Gainsborough’s early development of an individual way of forming landscape and conversation pieces, the National Gallery has greatly amplified its own outstanding collection of all three with very many loans from elsewhere.

The exhibition tours after its London run, visiting the Castle Museum, Norwich (April l9-June 15) and the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle (June 21-August 17).

Discovering the Italian Baroque February 26-May 18. A unique opportunity to see the entire collection of paintings by the eminent art historian, Sir Denis Mahon. Important works by all the big names are included, particularly those by Il Guercino on whom Mahon is an authority. For details of both exhibitions, telephone 0171 747 2885.

National Portrait Gallery August Sander February 28-June 8. A major retrospective of one of Germany’s greatest photographers from his early pictorial compositions to his comprehensive survey of almost every section of German society between the two world wars. For details telephone 0171 306 0055 ext 216.

Barbican Art Gallery Modern Art in Britain 1910-l914 February 20-May 26. A re-examination of the impact of early modernism on British art through works shown in a series of celebrated post-world war one exhibitions, from Roger Fry’s Manet and The Post-Impressionists to Frank Rutter’s Post-Impressionists and Futurists. For details telephone 0171 588 9023) Whitechapel Art Gallery Tony Cragg: Sculpture until March 9. New work by Turner Prize winning British sculptor and creator of such monumental pieces as World Events for the Atlanta Olympics. For details telephone 0171 522 7888.

Hayward Gallery, South Bank Centre Material Culture in British Art of the 80s and 90s Apri1 3-May 18. A thematic survey of three-dimensional work by the well-established (Anish Kapoor, Richard Deacon), recently established (Damien Hirst, Rachel Whiteread) and the no doubt soon-to-be established (Cornelia Parker, Simon Patterson). For details telephone 0171 921 0600.

South Bank Touring Goya: The Disparates The Spanish master’s last series of etchings robustly satirising the social and political follies of the post-Napoleonic era. The exhibition is at Wakefield Art Gallery (January 25-February 23) then Brighton Museum (March 1-April 13).

Victoria and Albert Museum, London The Cutting Edge March 6-July 27. Arranged around four themes - Romantic, Tailoring, Bohemian and Country - this survey of British high fashion from 1947 to 1997, embracing Zandra Rhodes kaftans and Hackett shooting suits between royal gowns by Hartnell and their subversion by Vivienne Westwood, is all set to delight young and old, traditionalists, and non-conformists alike. For details telephone 0171 938 8500.

Tate Gallery, London Lovis Corinth February 20-May 4. A key figure in German Impressionism and a contributor to its more celebrated Expressionist art, in recent years Corinth has been a source of inspiration to a generation of post- modernist painters. This first British retrospective promises to be an eye- opener. For details telephone 0l71 887 8725.

Tate Gallery, Liverpool Paula Rego February 8-April 13. A retrospective of paintings, collages and drawings by this already popular Portuguese-born story-teller is certain to be a sure-fire success. For details telephone 0151 709 0507.

Design Museum Charlotte Periand: Modernist Pioneer until April. With so much of her most original work long-concealed by the Le Corbusier studio label, Perriand at last emerges as the major furniture and interior designer she is, in a survey spanning 60 years of activity. For details telephone 0171 378 6055.

St Ives Christopher Wood: A Painter Between Two Cornwalls until April 20. An important figure in British inter-war art, as much at home in the Paris of Pablo Picasso as the London of Harold Nicholson, he reached the peak of his all-too-brief career in these pictures of 1928-29 done in Cornwall and Cornouailles, Brittany. For details telephone 01736 796543.