Art shows you simply mustn't miss in 2014

One of the great treats of the exhibiting year will undoubtedly be Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs (17 April to 7 September) at Tate Modern. The last phase of Matisse’s productive career was devoted to making extraordinarily vivid images from painted paper cut with scissors, as the physical effort of wielding a paintbrush became too much for him. Matisse’s greatest strengths were as draughtsman and colourist, and the cut-outs combine these skills in abundant measure, releasing a new sense of joyous celebration almost unmatched in the history of art. The largest ever exhibition of the cut-outs, the Tate’s show will feature 120 works, many seen together for the first time. Unmissable.

Of course the Tate, with its two London venues and branches in St Ives and Liverpool, has many other exhibitions and displays on offer in 2014, but I only have room to mention a few. I’m most looking forward to Tate Britain’s survey of the life and work of Kenneth Clark, art historian, public servant, broadcaster, writer, patron and collector (20 May to 10 August). He has been terribly out of fashion in recent years, but played a crucial role in the artistic life of the nation, and in many individual artists’ lives, especially such major 20th-century figures as Graham Sutherland and Victor Pasmore. I’ve just bought the boxed set of his great TV series Civilisation and can’t wait to see it again. Another trio of shows at Tate Britain to watch out for: Richard Deacon (5 February to 27 April), sculptor par excellence of the open organic form; Ruin Lust (4 March to 18 May) on the appetite for and use of ruins, from the 17th century to today; and the first major survey of British Folk Art (10 June to 7 September). At Tate Modern, less interesting things generally, though the Kasimir Malevich show (16 July to 26 October) could prove as uplifting as late Rembrandt.