The Independent Recommends: The Five Best Shows

Jackson Pollock

(Tate Gallery)

Revelatory retrospective for the wild hero of Abstract Expressionism going-on Old Master: legendary for his great drip paintings, but widely unshown here for 40 years. To 6 Jun

Portraits by Ingres (National Gallery)

Some of the most intense portraiture ever. Exquisite melanges of flesh and fabric, dreams of sex and money. To 25 Apr

Monet in the 20th Century (Royal Academy)

The gardens and lily ponds at Giverny dissolve into fiery lights, liquid reflections, depths and voids. To 18 Apr

Disasters of War (Wolverhampton Art Gallery)

Three ages of European war through the etchings of Jacques Callot, Goya and Otto Dix. Black-and-white visions from the blackest of times (above). To 20 Mar

Richard Deacon (Tate Gallery, Liverpool)

"New World Order": more curvaceous assemblages of wood, metal, glass and plastic - some gigantic, some humble - by the Eighties sculptor. To 16 May