Apollo

Bound for Versailles: The Jayne Wrightsman Bookbindings Collection

Prières du matin et du soir (detail; 1748), written and bound for Louis-Joseph de Bourbon, prince de Condé, by Louis Pierre Vallain.

An outstanding collection of French volumes from the 18th century goes on display at the Morgan Library

Ben Nicholson: From the Studio

June 16-47 (still life) (detail; 1947), Ben Nicholson. Private collection.

This show at Pallant House explores the British artist’s interest in still life – showing paintings alongside the studio objects that inspired them

The path to self-improvement, according to Marina Abramovic

1 Comment
Star gazing: still from the Abramovic Method by Marina Abramovic, designed by WeTransfer

The artist has partnered up with WeTransfer to create a digital version of the Abramovic Method, a series of exercises that will test your patience to its limit

The Met ought to have returned two stolen Benin Bronzes years ago

Detail of a 17th-century plaque depicting a junior court official in the Kingdom of Benin – one of two to be returned to Nigeria by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The museum has agreed to give back two plaques in its collection that were taken illegally from Nigeria after 1960. Why now?

Bloomsbury’s gooseberry? ‘Clive Bell and the Making of Modernism’, reviewed

Clive Bell (detail; c. 1924), Roger Fry. National Portrait Gallery, London

Clive Bell is now best known as Vanessa’s husband – but a new biography replenishes his role in promoting modernism in Britain

What do US museums mean when they talk about folk art?

Peacock weather vane (c. 1860–75), unidentified artist. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Collectors, curators and artists have been debating the category of American folk art since the early 20th century – as a display at the MFA Boston makes clear

In the studio with… Mandy El-Sayegh

Mandy El-Sayegh photographed in her studio in 2020.

The unlikeliest objects in the London-based artist’s studio? Either the sex toys or the taxidermy collection, she says

The king of collage – an interview with Peter Blake

Peter Blake photographed at home in 2015.

The artist talks to Martin Gayford about a life spent pushing the possibilities of collage, from his Sgt. Pepper cover to recent digital experiments

Picasso’s Guernica, as you’ve never seen it before

Picasso working on Guernica in his Grands-Augustins studio, Paris (detail; 1937), Dora Maar. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid.

The ‘Rethinking Guernica’ website allows us to scrutinise Picasso’s anti-war masterpiece in greater detail than ever

The fine art (of sorts) of Euro 2020 football kits

Renaissance lads: Puma’s FIGC home kit

The Italians have opted for a ‘Renaissance design’ – although the floral patterning looks more William Morris than Michelangelo

The week in art news – staff accuse Barbican Centre of being institutionally racist

The Barbican Centre in London.

Plus: the Met returns two Benin Bronzes, Donald Judd’s office in Marfa severely damaged in fire, and more stories

Nikolai Astrup: Visions of Norway

Marsh Marigold Night (before 1915; detail), Nikolai Astrup. Savings Bank Foundation DNB / KODE Art Museums and Composer Homes, Bergen

Paintings and woodblocks inspired by Nordic folklore get their first US showing at the Clark Art Institute

Helsinki Biennial

Shutter Splinter (2021) Katharina Grosse. Commissioned by HAM/Helsinki Biennial 2021.

The city’s inaugural biennial takes place both on the mainland and a nearby island – plus, of course, online

Mamma Andersson

About a Girl (2005), Mamma Andersson.

The Swedish artist’s strange compositions, culled from a range of sources, travel to Louisiana in Denmark

Gustave Moreau: The Fables

Allegory of Fable (1879; detail), Gustave Moreau. Private Collection.

The French Symbolist’s colourful illustrations go on display at Waddesdon – for the first time in more than a century

Michael Ayrton was a maker of minotaurs – and is himself a forgotten giant

Self-portrait with mirror (1966), Michael Ayrton. Private collection.

The British artist’s scope and influence have long been neglected – but at the centenary of his birth, will a pair of exhibitions turn the tide?

The frozen dinners of Daniel Spoerri

Tableau piège – Sevilla Serie Nr. 16 (1991), Daniel Spoerri. MOCAK the Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow.

The Swiss artist’s tableaux of tables capture the joys of dining in good company

2 Tone was never just about the music – as this show in Coventry makes clear

1 Comment
The Specials photographed in 1980.

2 Tone began as a ska-inspired record label, but swiftly became a look and a political stance – and a defining moment in British cultural history

The clay’s the thing – Ceramic: Art and Civilisation, reviewed

Paul Greenhalgh’s ambitious survey takes us from the ancient Greeks to Picasso and beyond

For Kurdish artists in Turkey, simply making work is a political act

Detail of a work by Fatoş İrwen in ‘Exceptional Times’

Works produced in prison by the artist Fatos Irwen speak to the increasingly repressive climate for Kurds in Turkey

In the studio with… Chantal Joffe

Chantal Joffe in the studio.

The painter offers a glimpse of her canalside studio in London, where she works alone save for her portrait sitters – and a stuffed toy camel on wheels

Scents and sensibility: why smell counts in art

Ellen Terry (‘Choosing’) (detail; 1864), George Frederic Watts. National Portrait Gallery, London

The visual arts have often toyed with odours and smells, however challenging they are to represent

The week in art news – frustrated Belgian experts issue their own restitution guidelines

Plus: The Whitney has voluntarily recognised a union and Hobby Lobby is suing Dirk Obbink over alleged papyrus theft

A home for empathy and artists, in a former socialist-realist district of Cracow

Utopia Home – International Empathy Centre will provide a place of interaction, exchange and community for the artists and residents of Cracow in Poland