Denis Murphy
Born 1937. Met Jim Ede as an undergraduate. Says the then University Treasurer, Trevor Gardner, knew an eccentric genius when he saw one. He saw the potential of Kettle's Yard and decided to take it on. Denis was an administrator at Magdalene College and had direct dealings with Jim when he acted as Secretary for the Kettle's Yard Committee. Says of Jim, "He wrote more letters in a day than a university administrator did in a week." One day he drove Jim down to London to buy a Ben Nicholson from the Marlborough Gallery and noticed he had a plastic bag on his lap. In it was a Brancusi plaster 'Head'. He helped Jim sort out a pension from some of the funds at Kettle's Yard. He also visited Jim in Edinburgh in connection with the aftermath of him leaving. At the time of interview he was retired and living opposite Kettle's Yard.
Interviewed: 2008-10-03By: Robert Wilkinson
Length: 1 hour 11 mins
Media: On 1 track on CD with summary
Interview id: MYKY23
Jim's vision for the future of Kettle's Yard
View: Transcript Theme: House as gallery
I used to be the go-between between him and the University and I remember talking to him about, when the extension had been built, I remember talking to him about how he saw the thing in 50 years time, I was deliberately provoking him. I'd just been to Paris and I'd been to the Couloncourt Museum. I said, you know, 'do you imagine in 50 years time that it's all going to be like this? You know, how do you see it? Is it going to develop? Is it going to take in new objects?' He was struck, as if to say, 'well of course its going to be like this in 50 years time'. I said, 'well, it can't be the case. You're not going to be here in 50 years time, nor am I, who is going to look after it? What's it's function going to be? Is it going to be dead?' Like the Musee Couloncourt, sorry, it's the Musee Carnavalet in Paris, it's that museum of the city of Paris. I said 'I've just been there and I've seen, you know, bits of Napoleon's memorabilia and dusty objects and the whole thing looks extremely sort of grimy. He took this in and he came back and said, 'well, we have to have an exhibition gallery, something that's moving all the time as well as something that's static. So the house was eventually the static area and he gave the new young curators quite a hard time over it. You weren't allowed to move things. Things had to stay the way they are.
Direct link to audio: .mp3
Jim's approach to money and fundraising for Kettle's Yard
View: Transcript Theme: Jim Ede
We went to the Marlborough Gallery, Jim saw these huge, row after row, of Ben Nicholsons, grey and white, and he was scandalised, you know, 'ten thousand pounds, what nonsense, I can't possibly afford ten thousand pounds'. He didn't buy one that day, although he could have done. We went to buy a piano that day and he didn't like the colour of it, the piano was... he had this idea of music in the gallery, an idea which he backed up. He produced money every day of the week. I'd sit at my desk and I'd get letters from Jim, three or four a day, with money in them, cheques from various people... so before we knew what had happened, he had got money for the exhibition gallery. He conjured it out of the air. He also sold things I suspect - quite a lot of that. Little old ladies buying works of art which weren't numbered or dated or anything. He sold things at auction. He was a wheeler-dealer, anything to achieve his objective and I find that admirable actually.
Direct link to audio: .mp3
