Exploring Kettle’s Yard: University of Cambridge’s Modern Art Museum | Houses with History

House & Garden presents Houses with History from Kettle’s Yard, the University of Cambridge’s modern and contemporary art gallery. Join interior designer Virginia White as we tour Kettle’s Yard, a modest set of cottages that was transformed into a light-filled home and art lover’s paradise in the 1950s and 1960s.

Bequeathed to the University of Cambridge by the art curator Jim Ede and his wife Helen, Kettle’s Yard is now maintained as a museum filled with clever displays of art and objects. Watch as Virginia takes us on a tour of the interiors, explaining the lessons she has learned about collecting and displaying art, and what you can take away for your own adventures in decoration.

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[Music] what made kettle’s yard very  unique is that it became very quickly   like a gallery like a museum but at the  same time it was this very very private   space that you had to ring the doorbell  and be allowed into and you entered the  

Sanctuary this vision of a couple who  were collecting contemporary [Music] art I’m Virginia White I’m an interior  designer based in London we’re here in   kettle’s yard in Cambridge which was the home  of Jim and Helen Ede and they created this in  

1956 out of unifying three slum cottages  and adding a modern section to it later   on Jim Ede worked in the art world he was the  deputy director at the Tate and the world of   Contemporary Art was open to him through  the Nicholson benon Winford Nicholson who  

Introduced him to many contemporary artists and  opened a world that he hadn’t been in [Music] before the way that art and objects have been  displayed makes it so unique and different to   the experience that you might have going to  a normal Art Gallery this fireplace is a good  

Example of how jid in many ways was an artist  himself here is a wonderful Ben Nicholson it’s   called black guitar but below it is on the mantle  shelf are really just objects that he liked he   found and he felt worked really well together  here he orchestrated almost a still life that  

He felt worked very very well with the artwork  hanging above it and that makes kettle’s yard a   unique Museum because it’s about the balance  of the objects that he has brought [Music] together you can see again Jim Ede’s quirky  sense of balance and putting things together  

In his original sitting room and dining room  which is part of the original cottages for   example this painting by Meo called  tick tick has a little yellow dot in   the bottom right hand corner and jid would  always have had a yellow lemon on a lovely  

Puta platter in this corner here under the  lovely Alfred Wallace and Christopher wood painting in his own bedroom he’s got got  a collection of Pebbles which he’s created   almost like a little spiral quite Richard  Long or Andy goldsworthy and he really was  

A forerunner of finding objects simply found  and arranging them in his own little still lives this part of the house is called the  bridge it’s the area that was added between   the old cottages and the new modern Wing it’s  super Charming this part because it’s of course  

Light filled and it allows the outside world  to interact with the inside world and then   we see this wonderful prism which many people  have covered it including myself which really   reflects and is permanently moving bringing the  light in in the corner here we’ve got the Darling  

Dog by gordia breska and it’s such a clever  a way of displaying an amazing artwork which   is putting it down where a little dog would  sit normally the floorboards are wonderful   you can see the old screw holes or nail holes  their imperfections are some of what makes them  

Exciting and then the light switches are just  something quite wonderful and amusing but again   it’s Jim Ede’s love of showing materials  as they were not hiding [Music] anything here we are in the modern section of kettle’s  yard this was designed in 1970 by the architect  

Leslie Martin to get maximum light into this  building lighting up the treasure lighting up   the artworks allowing for a very balanced stable  light to come through this area of the modern part   of kettle’s yard is really dedicated more more  or less to the Cornish painter Alfred Wallace  

Jimmy just seemingly randomly decided to display  the art low hovering over the skirting board from   an interior design point of view this is quite  an influential way of displaying art as we know   it nowadays you’ve got a white wall you’ve  got a lot of picture do an atellier hanging  

And that’s really what we’re seeing here the  pictures are Lively the display of art is Lively one aspect of kettle’s yard that makes it  completely unusual is that young people are   encouraged to come and share the art they  can come to this beautiful long refractory  

Table borrow books work here study here jamid  then took that even further and this is still   a practice that kettle ad has kept even after  his death which is they lend works of art out   to Young undergraduates feeling the experience of  living with an original work which is completely  

Different to seeing it Illustrated in a [Music]  book I’m in this vast open plan space in the   modern section of kettle’s yard this was con  pered as both a gallery a space to display   Modern Art of a much greater and larger nature  than in the old Cottages but also as a concert  

Hall but he didn’t want people to sit down  he wanted people to move around be upstairs   be downstairs be at different levels so this is  really the Forerunner of open plan living using   the color of white throughout kettle’s yard was a  genius stroke of design every area looks entirely  

Different because the light shining into it is  different giving a different Hue of white and   it just has a sense of Serenity one of the reasons  for the relaxed feel of kettle’s yard really comes   from The Eclectic mix of furniture that Jim Ede  put together this is a great example of one of  

Them this is scaffolding planks that juxtaposes  beautifully with the old rug with a Stone floor   and he had rot on legs made for it and here we  go it’s a fabulous desirable console table that   is going to display lots of his artwork another  example is the day bed it’s really essentially  

Just four mattresses lumped together and with  a lovely white linen bed [Music] spread [Music]   I would call this the space of the dancer it’s  really very much about this beautiful sculpture   by gordia breska it’s called The Dan it was done  in 1913 which is reflected in the evening light  

Coming through the window up against the wall and  it’s just wonderful it’s a lovely peaceful little   Nook of an area which is between the old and the  new extension of kettle’s yard it’s a very very   simple space it’s a space for contemplation  and just enjoying the play of light on the  

Different works of art and I think that really  encapsulates what’s so wonderful and what’s so   unique in kettle’s yard it’s a space to be  lived in and to enjoy art as it’s supposed   to be displayed in the home it doesn’t glorify  art and set it apart and put it into glass boxes  

And say no touching it allows you to live  with them and that’s what makes it [Music] unique