Journal
We spent a morning at Kettle's Yard photographing some of the chairs we’re helping Kettle’s Yard conserve over the next three years. And, a bit like Rachel discovering her ‘facet’ chair had been placed opposite her favourite artist, David Hockney (see previous journal), I'm so happy to support an approach and legacy we’re so aligned with.
For those of you who aren’t aware of the Kettle’s Yard story, the now gallery was once the Cambridge home of Jim and Helen Ede, who through friendships with artists and makers during the 20th century, gathered a diverse and remarkable collection that is still more or less as Jim arranged it - to allow subtle conversations between pieces.
Jim believed art belonged to everyone, and in art’s ability to transform lives. He envisaged Kettle’s Yard as ‘a living place where works of art could be enjoyed…where young people could be at home unhampered by the greater austerity of the museum or public art gallery.’
The chairs at Kettle’s Yard, chosen and positioned to encourage unhurried contemplation, embody this. The guys on the front desk this morning told me that some people enter the house with the first morning tour, often with a book to read, and stay for the whole day.
