{"id":1612,"date":"2018-07-08T08:09:47","date_gmt":"2018-07-08T08:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westnorfolkartists.org\/blog\/?p=1612"},"modified":"2022-03-01T17:52:56","modified_gmt":"2022-03-01T17:52:56","slug":"the-legacy-of-kettles-yard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westnorfolkartists.org\/blog\/2018\/07\/the-legacy-of-kettles-yard\/","title":{"rendered":"The Legacy of Kettle’s Yard"},"content":{"rendered":"
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1. House extension, downstairs Showing Italo Valenti\u2019s collages (1964) and Lucie Rie\u2019s bowl \u2018The Wave\u2019 (1971)<\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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

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

Now the collection contains work by over 100 artists also including Joan Mir\u00f3, Constantin Brancusi, Naum Gabo, Christopher Wood, Barbara Hepworth, David Jones, Henry Moore and Italo Valenti (one of my personal favourites).<\/p>\n\n\t\t