The best art exhibitions of 2012

Ordinary Things | Philip Guston | Alfred Kubin | Kafou: Haiti, Art And Voudou | Jeremy Deller | Tino Sehgal | Bauhaus: Art As Life | Hanne Darboven | Ed Atkins

Up North

Thankfully, funding cuts don't appear to have compromised creative mischief. The best exhibitions of 2012 exposed a wealth of eccentric daring. Sarah Lucas's Ordinary Things at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds jettisoned none of her characteristic double-entendre filth, and her work celebrated physical imperfections with an unprecedented sculptural finesse.

In contrast to the pastel-tinted tastefulness of his early abstracts, The Late Paintings, Philip Guston's exhibiton at Inverleith House in Edinburgh, ended up producing some of the strangest, funniest, most innovative and moving paintings of the 20th century. Nowadays the proto-surreal weirdness of Alfred Kubin's early 20th-century animal-human hybrids wouldn't look out of place on the bedsit walls of any teenage goth dreamer.Despite their age his improvised graphic nightmares seemed still capable of catalysing a distinct frisson of unease at Nottingham Contemporary, which was the most inspiring gallery of the year. Its Kafou: Haiti, Art And Voudou (which is on to 6 Jan) was a survey that brought to light unseen things from the back of beyond and a true eye-opener of a show.

Robert Clark

Down South

In a year dominated by the Olympics and Anish Kapoor's twisted red metal tower, a number of artists stood out by challenging the drive to be big and brash. Jeremy Deller's touring Stonehenge bouncy castle was an ingenious spin on our best-known national monument, offering an alternative to public art with a flag-waving agenda. Tino Sehgal took anti-monumental even further, filling Tate Modern's lofty central space with nothing more than performers in everyday dress stopping visitors for a chat or running in formation.

If 2012 felt a little short of must-see blockbusters, it made up for it with more slow-burning fare. The Barbican's Bauhaus: Art As Life brought the legendary modernist art school's pioneering public and giddy private world brilliantly to life, and there were plenty of surprise hits too, like the late German artist, Hanne Darboven, whose show at Camden Arts Centre featured diaries and calendars filled with meticulous scribbles, day after day, year upon year.

Video artist Ed Atkins deservedly emerged as this year's rising star, winning the prestigious Paul Hamlyn award after shows to make your stomach churn and your brain tingle.

Skye Sherwin

Contributors

Robert Clark & Skye Sherwin

The GuardianTramp

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