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| Golden Fish |
Kettle’s Yard is an exhibition space owned
by the University of Cambridge. It began
life as the home of Jim Ede, a curator at the Tate Gallery, collector, and
author of Savage Messiah (1931),
about the artist Henri Gaudier-Brzeska. Ede and his wife lived at Kettle’s Yard from
1957 to 1973. The original house,
originally three cottages which were combined, has a gallery next door which runs
an adventurous exhibition programme devoted to modern art. The house is retained as it was when the Edes
lived there, complete with the artworks Jim collected.
Earlier this year the gallery reopened
after a massive expansion programme, resulting in extra floors and the
inevitable café being added. This week I
visited to see an exhibition and took the opportunity to revisit the house.
A number of the works Ede collected are
by Constantin Brâncuși. Brâncuși was
born in the village of Hobița, Peștișani, south-west Romania, in 1876. He moved to Paris in 1904 and remained there for
the rest of his life, dying in 1957. The
two knew each other and Ede visited Brâncuși at his studio in Paris. There are a number of the artist’s works at
Kettle Yard, helpfully itemised in the Kettle’s Yard database, of which I
viewed only those on display (i.e. not those listed as being in the reserve
collection):
The Prayer (reserve collection) 1907:
A photograph of one of Brâncuși’s
sculptures, in the National Museum of Art of Romania, Bucharest.
Leda (reserve collection) c. 1920:
This is a photograph of one of Brâncuși’s
sculptures now in the Art Institute of Chicago.
Prometheus (displayed) 1912:
Cement cast of the 1911 marble
original. Given by Brâncuși to Vera
Moore in 1930 and bought by Ede from her in 1969. It sits on top of a baby grand piano.
Golden Fish (displayed) posthumous cast,
1969:
Brass and steel. The cast of the 1924 original sits on top of
a tapering barrel which has a metal band around the top.
Nude (displayed) 1902-26?:
The end date for this drawing is 1926,
when the artist gave it to Ede. It is
displayed on the wall behind Prometheus.
Oiseau dans l’espace (reserve
collection) 1926-27:
This photograph is of one of a series of
sculptures investigating birds and flight.
Letter with sketches of The Kiss
(reserve collection) 22 December 1933:
Letter in French to Jim Ede, accompanied
by pencil sketches.
There is one more reference to Brâncuși at
Kettle’s Yard: a drawing by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska of an African tribal mask,
with Brâncuși’s name under it, indicating Gaudier-Brzeska’s admiration for him. On display in the attic among a number of Gaudier-Brzeska’s
works, it is undated.
Update 16 October 2018: The house in
which Brâncuși was born has collapsed
While not related to Brâncuși’s presence
at Kettle’s Yard, I thought it worth recording the news reported by Irina Marica on
the website Romania Insider on 12 October that the house he was born in had
collapsed the day before. This does not
seem to have come as a surprise as the wooden structure had been in an advanced state of decay for
some time.
George Ivascu, the Romanian Minister of
Culture, said the government could not intervene because the building was in
private hands but added that the Gorj County Department for Culture would make
an inspection, implying a bunch of local bureaucrats standing round surveying a
pile of rotten lumber. What they could
do at this stage he did not say.
Getting into his stride, Ivascu added it
was crucial for money to be allocated to protect historic structures at risk,
but because of a lack of political will over so many years, the Ministry didn’t
have the necessary funds to buy such properties. He added that what had happened at Hobița
should act as a wake-up call. Well, that
is the essence, though the minister opined at greater length.
The website Romania Journal today adds
details highlighting the confusion leading to this sad state. Brâncuși has 13 heirs, but none has been interested
in taking responsibility, nor has anybody else, including Peștișani town
hall. The courtyard has been used by locals
for their chickens. Apparently in 2001 a
sculptor from the capital bought the house but when he tried to change the roof
the council halted the work, and the place was left roofless.
The reason the local municipality is not
too bothered is perhaps because there is in Hobița a replica ‘memorial house’, opened
in 1971, which houses a small museum visited, according to the curator, by 10,000
tourists a year. This is despite Brâncuși
never having lived in it. The cynical
thought also arises that perhaps the land is worth more without the ruined house
on it than with it.
Perhaps someone needs to suggest to Ivascu
a system of listing sites of historic importance, putting the onus on the owner
to maintain them within tight rules, rather than standing by helplessly because
cash is not available to buy them on behalf of the state. Also, the local authorities should be ashamed
of themselves; Brâncuși being born there is probably the biggest thing that has
happened in the area, and they should have been more conscious of their
responsibility towards the community’s cultural heritage.
