Portraits of Place: Works from Kettle’s Yard and Richard Long opens on November 5 at Downing College and brings together paintings, sculptures, collages and works on paper by leading artists who have been inspired to respond to the places in which they have lived and worked. The exhibition runs until January 15, 2017.
The exhibition includes an array of intimate depictions of British landscapes from the Kettle’s Yard Collection, ranging from early paintings of Cumberland and Cornwall by Nicholson and Wallis, to evocative textual and material compositions by Ian Hamilton Finlay. Selected collages, paintings and photographs of rural and urban sites by non-British artists such as Italo Valenti and Frankenthaler are also on display.
The Kettle’s Yard Collection particularly highlights how artists have found new ways to represent their emotional, visual and physical connections to places, just as Kettle’s Yard House has become a poignant site within Cambridge. Portraits of Place also extends beyond Kettle’s Yard’s Collection to include works by British artist Richard Long (b. 1945), lent by the artist, whose works respond to the feelings, scale and textures of places and journeys.
The title Portraits of Place is inspired by John Constable’s East Bergholt, a painting from Downing College which is not usually on public display but is included in this exhibition. The landscape is significant because it portrays Constable’s home village. Other landscapes in the exhibition depict places of significance to the artists.
This is one of ten exhibitions around Cambridge to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the gift of Kettle’s Yard to the University of Cambridge, for a full list see: kettlesyard.co.uk/fifty
The exhibition is being held at Downing’s Heong Galley as Kettle’s Yard is currently closed to carry out a major building project (http://www.kettlesyard.co.uk/about/development-plans/). The Heong Gallery opened in February 2016 as a new Gallery for exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. Its design was influenced by the feel and ambience of Kettle’s Yard.
During its closure, Kettle’s Yard is working with a number of partner galleries across the UK to present works from its permanent collection in new contexts. Displays are taking place in Cambridge, Wakefield, Nottingham and other locations.
Opening times for Portraits of Place: Works from Kettle’s Yard and Richard Long are Wednesdays 10am–8pm, weekends and bank holidays 10am–6pm.
Works by some of the leading artists of the 20th and 21st centuries – including Ben Nicholson, Alfred Wallis, LS Lowry and Helen Frankenthaler – are to go on display in Cambridge as Kettle’s Yard celebrates 50 years as part of the University of Cambridge.
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