The best exhibitions to visit this Christmas

London's galleries are at their best over Christmas, firstly as escapes from the shopping madness and then, between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, when half of London has cleared out and there's room to actually have a glimpse of a painting or two.

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Here are the must-visits over the holiday period.

TURNER & CONSTABLE: RIVALS & ORIGINALS
Tate Britain

Born within a year of each other (Turner in 1775, Constable in 1776), the two great painters were always rivals but very different men. Turner was the prodigy from Covent Garden who took the art world by storm with his wild, swaggering romanticism, while Constable was the temperate son of a wealthy Suffolk merchant, slowly building his reputation with his realist landscapes of England. Yet, as this brilliant exhibition shows, with paintings presented in a gripping “dialogue” with each other, the pair stirred each other to greater heights. Who “wins”? It ends up too close to call.

KERRY JAMES MARSHALL: THE HISTORIES
Royal Academy

The Standard has been banging on about this show for months now, but it truly is a gift to have it in London right now. Marshall grew up in Watts in Los Angeles and came of age in the thick of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, and this exhibition represents an alternative history of America shown through a Black lens. It is powerful, spectacular, moving and fun too — there are puzzles within these paintings, right, and you'll find you have spent an entire afternoon within the rooms. Just brilliant work.

WES ANDERSON: THE ARCHIVES
Design Museum