Kettles Yard – Inexpensive Progress

What does it mean for British Culture when Kettle’s Yard start to charge for the viewing of the house? A large amount of the population don’t go to art galleries. They think it will be boring or the spaces too austere. For many members of the public it is hard to see art in situ of a home, and Jim Ede’s home has been a place where many people started to become curious of art. But now Kettle’s Yard are charging for the public to view the house. £10.50 (£12 with a donation). It might not be a lot to some of you, but it will ban many people who are facing enough economic hardship.

They say the Gallery hasn’t recovered since Covid 19, however, the problem of Kettle’s Yard is the distance between the house and the gallery. The gallery has been hosting, what I would say were uninteresting and pretentious exhibitions that have failed to capture the public’s attention. The current show of Lucie Rie that is touring around UK venues is rare because it is extremely popular, but the curators of the gallery can’t see that the public and art fans want exhibitions like this – shows that reflect the collection of the House and the values of Jim Ede. What has happened is the house and the exhibition centre have been moving drastically in opposite directions, it feels more like Kettle’s Yard is being used as a trampoline to get the current curators jobs at more radical and lucrative galleries for their careers.

Left: *The House as Ede likes it.* Right: *The same room with added Jennifer Lee during her exhibition there – what is the point of it?*

For a while now the Kettle’s Yard team have been messing with the house, subtle things like putting works of art in parts of the property that have been in their exhibitions in order to validate the works. These are not works Ede collected, but by doing this it feels they are trying to make it look like they are given Ede’s stamp of approval.

But this isn’t what Ede wanted. When he left Kettle’s Yard to Cambridge University, Ede was horrified to find the curator Jeremy Lewison had started to move works around in the house, to the point Ede left written instructions of how the house was to be treated after he had left.

Left: *Jim Ede’s Miro.* Right: *Barbara Hepworth’s Two Figures, Yellow and Brown*.

Ede maintained an ‘open house’ each afternoon from 2pm to 4pm, giving any visitors, particularly students, a personal tour of his collection. He enjoyed peoples reactions to his works of art and he didn’t charge them. I would imagine he would be disgusted by the idea of making people pay for the privilege of looking at his home. He didn’t see it as a space that would be monetised like a static National Trust house, he thought of it as a home, with art in.

Kettle’s Yard is now to be another place lost to people who were curious of art but were delighted and inspired by the setting of a beautiful home.

While the house is open free to people under 25 years, the link of the property being owned by Cambridge University can only suggest this is really to give the majority of their students free access to the house, more than it is to help young minds. But the questions stand: should it be free? Do you think people will miss out on the space because of the charge? Do you think this will have wider repercussions for the state of Arts in Britain?

The legacy of the curator is that one of the most accessible art institutions in the country is now another money making venture. Slow hand clap.

It would be fair to suggest that the antiques trade has never been more alive and buoyant. With the television full of shows like Antiques Roadshow, Antiques Roadtrip, Flog it and various shows about upcycling antiques and furniture it might be hard to ignore. But at the back of my mind is the dark future for the trade – it comes from housing and education.

Richard Bawden – Sitting Room of his Home, 1997

The housing problem today for antiques is, large furniture doesn’t sell, because people are living in smaller houses than they were. When it comes to the young people who would be the target demographic for buying antiques, most of them have small flats and houses they rent in the major cities. Cambridge, where I am from has this issue. One of the biggest dooms for renters is that many landlords now charge tenants for the damage to the walls of putting up pictures, so it isn’t uncommon to walk into someone’s flat and see there are no pictures on the walls at all.

David Gentleman – Illustration from Elizabeth Kendall’s Home from Home, 1962

I also find that books are the possessions of people I feel more affiliated with. In the days when I would date, a good test would be to see if they looked upon my book collection with horror or joy. To some people owning books is a waste of space; or they flaunt an education or social aspiration. Maybe it looked obsessive. A lot of the novels I had bought for the dust jackets because I liked the artists at that time.

My Bookcase.

When it comes to education I am less informed to make the argument, I can only go on my own education, artistically. That was when we were only taught about Pop Art and Impressionism. To me then, they were exciting movements but it doesn’t do much to teach people about craft. Our ceramics classes were about making hideous slab work boxes with wonky sides. We were never told about the ideals of pottery or the movement in studio pottery. I would have been more engaged if the ideals of Japanese craftsmanship were told to us, but I feel my education was a matter of ticking boxes in the curriculum with teachers who were not engaged. I am happy to report my latter education was much more interactive.

The Study of Peter Parker – World Book Day, 7 March, 2019

But as a reader of this blog I want to know if you too are worried about what will happen to the world of studio pottery, paintings… Will John Lewis and Ikea furniture rule the homes as much as they currently rule the landfill. These questions are all selfish really. I am asking ‘who will care for the things I care for’.

Kettles Yard, the House of Jim Ede.

The only antidote to my moral in Cambridge is to visit the house of Kettles Yard and avoid the gallery area. It’s a beautiful home with function and full of art. My friend’s homes are similar, and the more cluttered it is the more I admire them if it is full of items they have collected or love. As film sets go I always admired the sets of The Servant. A mixture of hip modern items and Georgian charm.

David Gentleman – Illustration from Elizabeth Kendall’s Home from Home, 1962