From the Royal Academy to the White Cube via the new Design Museum: London’s art scene is buzzing this November

FEAST LIKE PICASSO WITH ARTY COOKBOOK

For those who want to hunker down at home and hygge — the Danish word for the latest cocooning lifestyle trend — we’ve found The Modern Art Cookbook, with recipes inspired by great artists and in some cases rustled up by them.

Illustrations range from Manet’s Asparagus to Warhol’s Five Views of an Onion, while recipes include Alice B Toklas’s sea bass prepared for Picasso and Lee Miller’s sesame chicken made for Miró.

If you can’t paint like an artist, at least you can eat like one. Available from the Royal Academy bookshop, £25.

ICONS ARE UP FOR ADOPTION

As if moving from Shad Thames to the site of the former Commonwealth Institute in Kensington wasn’t enough, the Design Museum, set to reopen on November 24, has created a new way to engage with its audience.

Adopt an Object, with donations from £5, is a great way to get children involved with the museum. Donors receive a film of the object being moved from the old building at SE1 to the west London site, plus a credit on the website and a chance to help build something new.

Among the 12 objects to be “adopted” are Richard Sapper’s 9091 kettle for Alessi, the 1946 Vespa Clubman (pictured top) and My First Sony tapedeck (above), all iconic design items from the modern age.

The good-looking new museum restaurant, overlooking Holland Park, is being launched by London chef-restaurateur Rowley Leigh of Le Café Anglais fame, and there will later be a series of guest chefs including Jeremy Lee, Valentine Warner and MasterChef finalist Marianne Lumb.

FIFTY SHADES OF BLUE

A new show at photographer Andrea Hamilton’s private studio features nine female artists exploring aspects of the colour blue — from its connection to sea and sky, through to our increasing dependence on the blue of the computer screen.

The shade has inspired artists down the centuries and this new show, The Blue Edition, curated by Nico Kos Earle, provides a modern take on an ancient obsession.

Viewing is by appointment only, but there’s a private view for Homes & Property readers on Wednesday December 7 — email nkos@artbastion.com for info.

Nov 23-Dec 12, Andrea Hamilton Studio, 68 Kinnerton Street, SW1

THE MAGIC OF MAPPLETHORPE

Juergen Teller, like the late Robert Mapplethorpe, has worked both as an artist and in commercial fashion photography — one of the few.

According to gallerist Alison Jacques, that makes Teller the only one to curate a new show re-working some of Mapplethorpe’s best-known images.

With the permission of The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Teller has enlarged two images, each over 13ft in scale. Pasted directly on to the walls of Alison Jacques Gallery, they will provide a backdrop to the whole space.

As well as the sexually explicit images Mapplethorpe was best known for, expect to see a more romantic side to his oeuvre, including flowers and still-life fruit.

The show will include 58 images that were shot throughout his career.

Nov 18-Jan 7 at Alison Jacques Gallery, 16-18 Berners Street, W1

THINK BIG. MAJESTY MEETS MYTHOLOGY WITH KIEFER’S WALHALLA AT WHITE CUBE

There are many ways to display art, from graffiti to open days at artists’ studios. In fact, the “white cube” gallery space is a fairly new phenomenon.

From the 18th century onwards paintings for display were crammed on to the walls of smaller rooms in museums and stately homes.

The change came in the Nineties with the arrival of über-dealers such as Jay Jopling, who brought us Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin. Now Jopling is changing the landscape again. He’s making great use of the White Cube gallery at 144-152 Bermondsey Street in SE1 with an exhibition dedicated to the work of German artist Anselm Kiefer.

There’s a majesty and drama to Kiefer’s work — the show includes vast canvases and, at the entrance, a 30ft sculpture.

The exhibition is called Walhalla, a homage to the paradise in Norse mythology for those slain in battle. No wonder Kiefer is called “a colossus of the contemporary art world”.

Nov 23-Feb 12 at White Cube