Richard Cork
Born 1947. Art historian, broadcaster and curator who discovered Kettle's Yard in his first year as an undergraduate at the University of Cambridge in 1965.
Richard feels that Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (a key artist in the Kettle's Yard collection) revolutionised sculpture in Britain, which informed his book on Vorticism. When he left Cambridge in 1969 he became art critic for the Evening Standard. He kept in touch with Jim Ede until 1973, when Jim moved to Edinburgh. At the time of interview, Richard was art critic for The Times.
By: Robert Wilkinson
Length: 2 hour 32 mins
Media: On 2 tracks on CDs, summary and full transcript
Interview id: MYKY19
Joan Miró's 'Tic Tic'
View: Transcript Theme: House as artwork
I think there's certain things stand out for me from the first visit. One was a little Miró painting, called something like Tic Tic and I loved that very much. It had a kind of vitality about it and a sort of naivete but also an incredible sense of freedom, almost like a sense of humour too, which I really responded to. It's not a big painting, it's a tiny thing, isn't it? But it has a life which seems to make me think of it as much larger than it really is. It seems to spread its wings across the wall in front of you, which is great.
Direct link to audio: .mp3
First visit to Kettle's Yard in 1960s and meeting Jim
View: Transcript Theme: Jim Ede
When somebody told me one day, 'Oh, you should go to Kettle's Yard' and I said, 'Well, what's that?' and they said 'Oh, it's run by this marvellous character called Jim Ede who is just incredibly welcoming to students and has the most marvellous collection of modern art', so I lost very little time in going round there. To discover something like Kettle's Yard on my doorstep was magical actually. I'll never forget going around there the first time and ringing this ancient doorbell and then this, kind of, slender figure appeared. He opened the door himself and just the most warm welcome, just wonderful. It wasn't like the University at all. He wasn't like some sort of terribly serious-minded academic. He was much more free and easy than that. Much more like a friend immediately. Incredibly open and hospitable and very enthusiastic as well.
Direct link to audio: .mp3
