Christmas joy for gallery goers

Many of the more interesting and talked-about shows of this year will be coming down along with the nation's Christmas trees , so with 2003 hoving into view, and with London comparatively empty, the Christmas holiday is the last moment to catch them:

Running until Sun 26 Jan is the V&A's exhilarating 100 Photographs: A Collection By Bruce Bernard, the star picture editor who trawled galleries, art fairs and auction houses at the behest of a wealthy private collector, assembling these timeless images spanning the medium's history and recapturing its ghostly magic. Works by the likes of Brassai, Eve Arnold and Man Ray are all included, but some of the most haunting pictures are anonymous, like the early studio portrait of a crumpled Waterloo veteran posed beside his wife.

Elsewhere in the museum, the vast Gianni Versace retrospective runs until Sun 12 Jan, showcasing the gaudy glamour that made his one of the most lusted-after labels in the world. From catwalk chic to more lavish ballroom numbers, this is essential viewing for all would-be fashionistas, although many of the exhibits need the lithe limbs of a Naomi or a Cindy to bring them to life.

If there is anyone who can rival the opulence of the house of Versace, it is master jeweller Joel Arthur Rubinstein, a.k.a. JAR, whose shamelessly glitzy objets d'art will be brightening up the stately surrounds of Somerset House (closed only on Christmas Day) until Sun 26 Jan. Likened to the work of Faberge and Lalique, The Jewels Of JAR range from butterflies and beasts to more abstracts pieces, their every surface encrusted with rare gems. Aesthetically, they teeter on the boundaries of good taste (in fact, the sheer weight of precious stones ought to be enough to haul them over the edge), but the skill and craftsmanship involved is unmistakeable, and some of the 400 pieces on show here represent the work of years. Stepping into the show's semiobscurity, each visitor is handed a torch to set this Aladdin's cave of rubies, sapphires and amethysts a-twinkling.

JAR's coterie of clients is notoriously select, but Madame de Pompadour would no doubt have been ushered in well ahead of the celebs, A-list or otherwise. On display until Sun 12 Jan, the National Gallery's show paints an intriguing portrait of Louis XV's premier royal mistress and patron of the arts, drawing on the many images that she commissioned of herself, and countless decorative objects, all illustrating a very modern understanding of the fame game.

You can almost hear the heavy rustle of taffeta down at Tate Britain, where the Season continues until Sun 19 Jan for Gainsborough's debs and landed lovelies. The largest selection of works by the 18th-century master ever assembled, it unites these strikingly scaled society portraits with landscapes and lesser known works.

If Christmas brings out the aesthete in you, head for bleak, wintry Bankside and Tate Modern, where the eloquent presence of Barnett Newman's modernist canvases ought to soothe frayed festive nerves until Sun 5 Jan.

Hauling yourself off the sofa and away from a repeat-packed telly schedule to visit the Hayward Gallery might prove disorientating, however, since so much of Douglas Gordon's What Have I Done (until Sun 5 Jan) draws on footage from vintage thrillers such as Psycho and The Exorcist. Using a variety of visual tricks he has transformed the space into a dark Hitchcockian grotto, filling its air with sobs and whimpers and mulling on themes such as good and evil, life and death, and guilt and innocence - all good Christmassy fare.

Judging art will always be a spurious business, but now that the final verdict has been delivered on this year's Turner Prize contenders, there is a post-party feel to the show at the Tate - it's as if the lights have been turned up, the music turned off, and the person you've spent the evening flirting with is suddenly revealed in warts-and-all clarity. Still, plough on through to the very end for this year's most controversial element, the comment board - and who knows, the last word on the 2002 Prize could yet be yours.