July Talk: Kettle's Yard

 For our July talk, we invited a speaker from Kettle's Yard to talk about this beautiful place, Eliza Spindel, Curatorial Assistant for Kettle's Yard, gave us a wealth of information about the history, and showed us photos of some of the beautiful  pieces in the house. I took  notes during the talk and also photos from the screen, I also have a blog post written when I last visited in 2019: Kettle's Yard House (kasmaty.blogspot.com) which you might also like to look at.

Jim and Helen Ede were co curators of Kettle's Yard from the 1960s. Jim had been a curator at the Tate in the 1930, subsequently moving to Tangier, then France in the 1950s and moving back to the UK in the early 60s when he and Helen bought the dilapidated cottages, due for demolition and set about converting them to make them habitable again. One of the things they did was to  add large octagonal bay windows to allow natural light into the rooms. The place became an experiment in how to live with art in a domestic setting. The rooms are small, there is natural light and no captions or labels, and since the rooms are as Jim planned them to be, we can feel the balance and harmony he intended us to feel. The first photo I have added is my favourite, it shows some of the recurring themes, such as circles and spirals of pebbles here seen in descending size order. These were picked up in the 1950s on a Norfolk beach

Here is a photo of Jim and Helen Ede

There's so much to see from the photos of the rooms, the one below shows one of the main living rooms with a small table where people could eat on the right hand side, and shows more rooms in the background. On the left is a bay window and you can just see that paintings are hung beneath the bay

If we get a little nearer, you can see below, there's a broom head with no bristles, a ceramic jar and a Christopher Wood painting on board from the 1930s

Here's a close up of the painting which fits in well with the flower theme, where freshly cut flowers are placed in every room.

Another of their core artists was Alfred Wallis, this one is Five Ships : Mount's Bay 1928. Jim Ede has the largest collection of Alfred Wallis paintings. He would ask Alfred Wallis to send him all his latest paintings and buy the ones he liked best.

Below amidst the plants is a rotating disc made by Gregorio Vardenega in 1960 which refracts light

This sculpture of a dancer is by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska who died in WW1 aged 23. 

Below is a painting by Winifred Nicholson 'Roman Road acquired in 1926

The photo below shows some of the Alfred Wallis paintings on display together

There was so much more to the talk, but I think you'll have to visit Cambridge and experience the magic for yourself

I'll end with another painting by Winifred Nicholson, Cyclamen and Primula painted in 1923, and say thank you again to Eliza Spindel and all at Kettle's Yard who make it possible for us to view and experience this fantastic collection.