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money

Jim's lack of extravagance and his love for the arts


Elisabeth Swan

Transcript
There was no extravagance going on of any kind. No, he wasn't earning much and he was always giving money away. They weren't really wanting the things that cost a lot of money, I don't think. Jim was in that way like... evangelical is the proper word really, a sort of keen missionary. All his life, I think, he wanted people to get the pleasure and authenticity of things looking lovely, indoors as well as out of doors but my mother was terribly keen about nature and about things she saw in the country or at the seaside whereas Jim was more appreciative of things which artists had made very often but they both were very aware of what they were looking at.

Visiting Jim in Edinburgh in 1977, life after Helen's death


Jeremy Lewison

Transcript
I stayed with him in his flat in Jordan Lane. I spent three days with him, I think, there, so I spent this time with Jim and basically he's telling me about the history of Kettle's Yard and history of himself and his relationships with the artists. As it turned out, it was all the stories that everybody knew anyway and which he published and, etc, etc, but it was nice to spend time with him. Very important, I think, to see how he lived. Effectively, he'd set up a little, mini Kettle's Yard in Edinburgh, although the quality of the artwork wasn't the same but it was, you know, his spartan way of life. I can remember him saying when I was washing up the dishes after dinner, and dinner was a very light meal I have to say, it was grated carrot and I can't remember what else, but it was like an hors d'oeuvre for most people. I remember washing up, he said, 'well, I only use hot water, I don't use washing up liquid because it's a waste of money' and you would literally just wash the things under the hot tap and dry them up and that was it. He was very much in control of his faculties still, very alert, a dapper man, always well turned out. I can remember that between 2pm and 4pm, I had to go out because between 2pm and 4pm he would visit St Columbus Hospice to visit the terminal patients. He would talk to me about that too, about actually how a lot of them didn't want to see him for quite a long time and then, I think, gradually, he managed to integrate himself into that community. So the 2pm to 4pm ritual of Kettle's Yard was maintained in the visits to St Columbus Hospice.

Jim's approach to money and fundraising for Kettle's Yard


Denis Murphy

Transcript
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.