1. House extension, downstairs Showing Italo Valenti’s collages (1964) and Lucie Rie’s bowl ‘The Wave’ (1971)

Looking at the origins of Kettle’s Yard in 1957, it is hard to imagine the legacy it has become. Although Jim Ede would have preferred a stately home, he was offered 4 tiny condemned slum dwellings from the president of the Cambridge Preservation Society.

The actual origins predate this. On first appearance it was his meeting Ben and Winifred Nicholson in about 1924 while he was an assistant at the Tate Gallery. In fact, it was a visit to the Louvre at 13 years of age and access to the Free Library at the Fitzwilliam at 15 where his love of early Italian painting began and started him on his collector’s journey.

This collection is also a personal journey of circumstance and chance meetings. It was Ben Nicholson who introduced Ede to contemporary art. He was able to purchase unsold Nicholson paintings for the price of the canvas and frame for the price of one to three pounds when he could afford it. Some, Nicholson gave him.

In 1926 his position at the Tate brought him into contact with Alfred Wallis. Again, he bought as many paintings as he could afford.

His collection of work from the estate Henri Gaudier-Brzeska was acquired “for a song” because nobody else wanted it.

Now the collection contains work by over 100 artists also including Joan Miró, Constantin Brancusi, Naum Gabo, Christopher Wood, Barbara Hepworth, David Jones, Henry Moore and Italo Valenti (one of my personal favourites).

I’m amazed at the forsight and humanity of Jim Ede. Ede describes Kettle’s Yard as “a continuing way of life from the last 50 years, in which stray objects, stones, glass, pictures, sculptures, in light and in space, have been used to make manifest the underlying stability which more and more we need to recognise if we are not to be swamped by all that is so rapidly opening up before us.” These words are as relevant today as when they were written. Maybe moreso.

The atmosphere of the house is exceptional through the mix of art and found objects. Through Ede’s nature collections we are reminded that this space is personal, home. The library is Ede’s actual library. All books are available to study. This in keeping with the open house tradition.

From 1957 to 1973 when the Ede’s lived there, their home was open to visitors every afternoon. Kettle’s Yard, today, continues in this spirit. It is a place to spend hours of discovery and well worth visiting again and again. A wonderful place to use and be.

In the new gallery Antony Gormley SUBJECT uses the space and architecture to show 5 works into which we are drawn, become participants or maybe even the subject (?).

It’s well worth watching the BBC documentary, imagine … Anthony Gormley: Being Human to gain tremendous insight into Gormley’s life and work. (Shown Thursday to Sunday.)

Antony Gormley SUBJECT runs until 27 August.

Kettle’s Yard
University of Cambridge
Castle Street
Cambridge
CB3 0AQ

+44 (0)1223 748 100
mail@kettlesyard.cam.ac.uk

Visit Kettle’s Yard website for more information.

Esther Boehm

Further photo information:
3. House cottages, downstairs Jim Ede’s bedroom table
4. House extension, upstairs Designed by Sir Leslie Martin, opened in 1970
7. Showing the Buddha from the Prang Sam Yot Temple, Lopburi, Thailand (13th or 14th century) and works by Mario Sironi, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and Ben Nicholson
8. House extension, upstairs showing Winifred Nicholson’s ‘Roman Road’ (1927)
10. Installation view Antony Gormley SUBJECT © Antony Gormley
11. INFINTE CUBE © Antony Gormley

Photos 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 & 8 © Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge
Photos 3, 7 & 8 by Paul Allitt
Photos 5, 6 & 9 by Helena Anderson
Photos 10 & 11 by Benjamin Westoby

Pictured from left to right Andrew Schumann, John Hughes, Michael Bell and Syd Davison. Photo by Alan Miller, Lynn News Nov. 2001

The Schumann Cabinet was made in 2001. The Association had only been formed the year before and no exhibition programme had yet been formulated.
I had the idea of a cabinet of small works hanging on the wall and Liz Falconbridge agreed that it could hang on the wall of the Arts Centre foyer. I commissioned it from Toby Winteringham, our wonderful local precision cabinet maker.
It first appeared in November 2001 in the Arts Centre and was nicely illustrated and reported on in the Lynn News. After a few months in the Arts Centre it was moved to the Doric Arts Gallery in King Street, where it was well received (until the gallery eventually closed).
Andrew Schumann

Please click the image to open the slide show. You can click the ‘pause’ button on the top right to read the articles.

Damien Hirst, Myth and Legend, by the entrance to the hall at HOUGHTON HALL, NORFOLK
Photo by Pete Huggins

The first Damien Hirst piece, Sensation, is encountred while driving to the carpark. From the car it look looks like something from an amusement park or fun fair. Looking like brightly coloured plastic. On closer inspection, it appears to be a magnification of a section of skin complete with hairs.

This concept is carried through several works. Myth (unicorn) and Legend (Pegasus) are built with clean precision but at the same time highly stylised. The ‘outer skin’ is painted white, a stark contrast to areas where the skin is ‘peeled away’ to reveal the insides horrifyingly red with touches of pink and yellow.

The same graphic depiction of this scientific disecting into parts of the figures is seen in the oversized torso Temple and the massively grotesque The Virgin Mother. In the gift shop, you can recognise the same general feel in the type of anatomy books which inspired Hirst.

Damien Hirst, The Virgin Mother, in the Pleasure Grounds at HOUGHTON HALL, NORFOLK
Photo by Pete Huggins

The monochrome works may be subtle as far as colour goes but definitely not in content. Anatomy of an Angel in Cararra marble, carved with mechanical precision exposes sections of the anatomy to the bone. Wretched War – The Dream is Dead in silver shows a decapitated pregnant woman with baby exposed in the womb as already seen in The Virgin Mother. Saint Bartholomew, Exquisite Pain in black is poignant at first glance but the use of scalpel and tailor’s scissors give an unexpected twist on a theme already blatantly conveyed by Marco d’Agrate in 1562.

Also on the grounds are Charity the oversized replica of a collection box in the shape of a sweet girl with a leg brace has been ripped open with a crowbar, coins strewn on the ground and The Hat Makes the Man after Max Ernst’s collage of 1920.

In the house, all Walpole and Cholmondeley family portraits were removed from the stately rooms of Houghton Hall and replaced with Hirst’s Colour Space painings. A total of 46 paintings are being displayed for the first time at Houghton. We were told by the guides that these were selected from the 300 paintings in the series made with the help of assistants.

The red walls of the Saloon provides an excellent backdrop for the first 8 paintings on display. What is striking about the paintings is the complete contrast to the sculptures outdoors. The dots are happy.  They are taken out of the rigid grid of the earlier Spot paintings. They interact. They make you smile.

Damien Hirst, Colour Space series, in the Saloon at HOUGHTON HALL, NORFOLK
Photo by Pete Huggins

Hirst says of his work: “I originally wanted the spots to look like they were painted by a human trying to paint like a machine. Colour Space is going back to the human element, so instead you have the fallibility of the human hand in the drips and inconsistencies. There are still no two exact colours that repeat in each painting, which is really important to me. I think of them as cells under a microscope. It felt right to show them somewhere historic rather than in a conventional gallery space and Houghton’s perfect. It feels totally right.”

Damien Hirst, Space, Time, Form, Matter, Substance, Change and Motion and Observe, Identify, Reason, Analyse, Measure, Modify and Reproduce, in The Stone Hall at HOUGHTON HALL, NORFOLK
Photo by Pete Huggins

Space, Time, Form, Matter, Substance, Change and Motion and Observe, Identify, Reason, Analyse, Measure, Modify and Reproduce are a kinetic translation of the spots into three dimensions. The balls dance randomly through the box for the 5 minutes when air is blown through. Then they rest and then the cycle begins again.

One of the many very helpful guides told me, “There is one thing about this exhibition, everyone is smiling. Some because they think it’s a joke and others because they really love the work.”

It’s well worth the visit to Houghton Hall to make up your own mind. The exhibition runs until 18 July. The outdoor sculptures will remain until September.

Visit the Houghton Hall website for more informaiton and booking.

All images ©Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2018

Episodes

I went to the Fermoy Gallery in King’s Lynn to see Alison Dunhill’s exhibition ‘Plaster, Parquet and Pillars’ with great anticipation. My first impression was, “I love it!”

In this beautiful space with natural light coming in from above, the predominantly small scale work was excellently curated. Each piece is an island of discovery. An element of play is present.

Microcosms under glass. Scrolls concealing stories. Clouds floating above carrying their secrets. Intricate objects and collages.

It is in the surrealist ideas of chance and found objects that Alison finds her inspiration.

Satellite of Love II

Alison says “I owe a lot to Kandinsky and his ideas of dynamic and static form and to the poetry of objects in Joseph Cornell’s Boxes. I am enjoying the discipline and the disordering of geometry in abstraction.”

Two

She is led by the materials she works with. Found objects and re-cycled materials are part of her repertoire but cut paper, painterly elements or even canvas wedges can be found in her constructions. Sometimes these elements settle onto a bed of setting plaster. The textures, shapes and functions come together but it isn’t all chance. Alison makes the final aesthetic decisions in the work.

The studio space Alison had while she was artist in residence at Largo das Artes International Art Residency Programme in Rio de Janeiro,  Brazil in 2015 further inspired the discoveries she was making in her collages. Alison began collecting twisted and crushed metal debris from the streets of Rio.

The roof rafters of the space gave Alison a means of hanging work. A new opportunity for creativity presented itself. The piece Rio Road uses this locally found debris. Often the same or similar object is sewn to each side of the piece creating a soft shadow or reflection. There is no front or back. Everything is in balance.

Not only does Alison play with objects, she also plays with words. The titles of Alison’s work are chosen in such a way as to allow the viewer to wonder about the piece without conveying a particular meaning. The titles are given after the work is completed. Perhaps this is Alison, the poet, coming through.

Alison pictured with Seventh Cloud, Three Swans and Rio Road.

This poetic aspect is further demonstrated in her work Three Swans which is a visual interpretation of her poem of the same name.

There was so much to see and experience in this exhibition, all quite diverse and pleasurable. It seems to me though, that a golden thread of exploration passes through Alison’s  work and that Alison is dedicated to that exploration.

Visit Alison’s website
Email Alison

Esther Boehm

Artwork © Alison Dunhill and Esther Boehm

2011: Sea Weed Printing Fund Raiser for St Nicholas Chapel

It was an exhilarating and exciting experience, as a new arrival to Norfolk in 2008, to be leading screen painting and printing workshops in St Nicholas Chapel. There was no water but an enormous table with enough space to accommodate 20 people and large screens and squeegees. I was very surprised by being in a church environment for the first time as a practising artist – gradually it dawned on me that coming to Norfolk was going to church! Everything seemed to be happening in churches all over the county. Continue reading →

When Annie and I set off to Paradise Island the sky was threatening. We had planned our trip to coincide with low tide. The Bounty Bars were packed, we were wearing our waterproof trousers and nothing was going to stop us.

Leaving the car at Ongar Hill out on the Terrington marshes we turned left along the sea wall. Depending on your point of view, there was either nothing to see or there was an amazing vista of salt marshes bisected by saltwater muddy creeks where the mouth of the river oozes into the Wash. The sky was huge and constantly changing, grey chasing blue. I had my trusty Lumix camera but had recently been on an iPhone photography afternoon and was interested to try out some new photography apps.

As we followed the path, part of the Peter Scott trail, we could see our island from a long way off as a small mound on the otherwise flat horizon. There are two islands. The first is some half a mile out from the sea wall and connected by a soil causeway. The second is visible nearly two miles out into the Wash near the bombing range. They were made in the mid-1970s when there were plans to build a sand wall across the Wash and turn it into a huge freshwater lake. These two trial banks were apparently made to test the theory. A friend had named the closer one Paradise Island as on Google satellite view it has the appearance of a pacific atoll!

It was about 4 miles walking to the island. The causeway turned out not to be the raised thoroughfare we had expected but a wet muddy path across the marsh, so hidden in the flat land that somehow we walked straight past the start of it and only spotted it sloping down the bank when we turned back. A line of white posts had distracted us — we imagined they marked the way but they just stretched in an enigmatic line far into the distance. There were wooden plank bridges across muddy creeks and we sloshed our way to the start of the rise, pausing to pick and eat some samphire growing along the way.

I enjoyed experimenting with the iPhone apps manipulating the pictures into instant “paintings”.  The results give a different way of looking and inspiration for art works. Apps I used included VSCO, which has a focus and an exposure button, which you can split on the screen. If you push the exposure button to different areas it changes the appearance dramatically. VSCO also has some editing tools. Enlight app offers “artistic” editing tools that are fun to use. The Waterlogue app turns any photo into a facsimile of a watercolor.

We puffed our way up to the top of the Island and were rewarded with a view expanding in the distance to include the whole coast from the mouth of the Ouse along to Hunstanton, with visible landmarks such as the church at Snettisham. Behind us the flat fenland fields were a patchwork of browns and green. Immediately in front of us rocks were piled in a protective crescent halfway around the base of the island and the creeks formed intricate patterns through the mud flats.

Finding two handily placed rocks we sat down to rummage for our sandwiches and then the ceremonial Bounty bars. As we munched we contemplated the fact that we could see from our vantage point that the earth is flat and if we had the means to walk through the mud we could walk onwards and fall off the edge. The silence was profound. The few birds we could see also seemed lost in contemplation. The light changed every few minutes and again there was nothing and everything to see.

On the walk back under stormy skies we surprised a buzzard. Despite having the camera in one hand and the iPhone in the other I just took pleasure from the sight as it rose up in front of us from behind the bank and wheeled away. Walking along the top of the bank gave us great views of the contrast between the wild marshland on the seaward side and the acres of rich dark fenland soil ploughed on the landward side.

We made sure we went at low tide but I think it is only on the highest spring tides that the causeway is covered. The whole Peter Scott walk is about 10 miles from West Lynn to the lighthouse at Sutton Bridge. If you like huge landscapes where the only features are man-made sea defences, experimental islands and mud all overlain with huge skies then I can recommend a walk to Paradise Island.

Michele Summers

Piet Mondrian
Composition with red, black, yellow, blue and grey. 1921
Gemeentemuseum

The Hague:
• Home of King Willem Alexander and Queen Maxima.
• Residence Huis ten Bosch.
• Seat of the Cabinet of the Netherlands. (tweedekamer)
• International Court of Justice.

In mid-September I visited The Hague; the purpose of my visit “Discovering Mondrian” an exhibition at the Gemeentmuseum in the city. The Gemeentemuseum houses and owns the largest and best collection of Mondrian’s’ in the world.

As a devotee of Mondrian’s oeuvre and a fascination in his unique journey from being a very competent landscape painter to the very modern abstract art for which he is better known today. Continue reading →

Greyfriars Art Space first began in February 2008, when Jill North, with a group of B.A. Fine Art students, based at the College of West Anglia, decided that there was no affordable space in Kings Lynn for emerging young artists to show their work. Jill was able to purchase the property at 43 St James Street, and together with friends transformed it into the attractive small gallery we know today.

Greyfriars Art Space is an artist-led – a not-for-profit association of members which aims to provide professional exhibition opportunities plus affordable studio workshop spaces. A modest membership fee of £20 per annum ( £10 for students ) helps to support the Gallery’s running costs. The day-to-day management is carried out on a voluntary basis by the Committee, co-ordinated by Kathy Cossins, who earlier this year received one of the Mayor’s Voluntary Service Awards.

With the demise of the Arts Centre galleries, the role of Greyfriars as an affordable artist-run exhibiting space is even more crucial now than it first started. GAS has been a supportive artistic community for many exciting artists working in a whole range of media which includes 3D, painting, printmaking, photography and textiles.

It is now almost ten years since Greyfriars began, and throughout this time Jill has very generously allowed the gallery to be used rent-free. However, it has now become necessary for her to sell the property within the next year. Greyfriars are urgently seeking sources of funding to enable the Committee to purchase the property. Members who can, have been asked to pledge £300 towards this, so that GAS can continue to develop its role in the artistic life of Kings Lynn and West Norfolk. Anyone able to help in this way, or with any fundraising ideas please contact Greyfriars Art Space at 43 St James St, King’s Lynn PE30 5BZ, via the website at greyfriarsartspace.com, email greyfriarsart@gmail.com or phone 0751 714 7444.

Anne Roberts