Reflections: Sir John Soane’s Museum and Kettle’s Yard

‘O Beauty, so ancient and so new’– St Augustine, Confessions, quoted in the foreword to Jim Ede’s 1984 book A Way of Life: Kettle’s Yard

Reflections is a new section at this year’s Frieze Masters, showcasing a wide array of decorative art and objects. For this first edition, the presentations draw inspiration from two of the world’s most iconic collections of objects: architect Sir John Soane’s home on Lincoln’s Inn Fields in London, which became a museum in 1837; and Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, the 20th-century art collection and home of curator and scholar Jim Ede and his wife Helen Ede, an art teacher. The fair’s presentations feature artists whose works belong to these collections or who share their ethos.

Both Soane’s Museum and Kettle’s Yard continue to inspire today’s creatives. The list of those who publicly acknowledge this influence is long, and includes fashion designers Jonathan Anderson and Erdem Moralıoğlu, curator Hans Ulrich Obrist and interior designer Rose Uniacke. Soane and his museum have been frequent reference points in 20th-century architecture, notably influencing the 1991 design of the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London by Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, which references Soane’s Dulwich Picture Gallery (1814) in the planning of the exhibition rooms. In 1953, when architect Philip Johnson remodelled the interior of the Brick House on the same property as his famous Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, he based the arches of the bedroom on those in the breakfast room of Soane’s house.

Both these collections are filled with wondrous objects in a domestic setting, preserved as their owners left them. A key element that they share is the deliberateness of their arrangement. Beauty and meaning emerge from the relation of works to one another and to the surrounding architecture. Ede often included found and natural objects at Kettle’s Yard, placing them as thoughtfully as he did the Lucie Rie ceramics or Ben Nicholson paintings. A well-known example is the spiral formation of 76 limestone pebbles that he collected from Norfolk beaches, carefully arranged on a low circular table.The stones have a harmonious relationship with other objects on the table and with its shape. Soane collected many great masterworks, including William Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress (c.1733–35), Antonio Canaletto’s Riva degli Schiavoni (c.1734–35) and, of course, the sarcophagus of the Egyptian pharaoh Seti I. Again, these works gain much from Soane’s careful situating of them: the paintings are dramatically revealed on ‘picture planes’ that fold out from the wall, while visitors only encounter the sarcophagus after descending into the ‘Sepulchral Chamber’ in the house’s basement.

The galleries in Reflections also show this care for arrangement. As curator of the section, working in concert with the Frieze Masters team, I arranged the galleries in two rows of three stands facing each other. One row’s presentations are inspired by Soane’s collection: Brun Fine Art (Milan, London, Florence), Elliot Davies Fine Art (York, London) and Vagabond (Petworth). Opposite them are the Kettle’s Yard-inspired presentations: Ago Projects (Mexico City), Erskine, Hall & Coe (London) and Ippodo Gallery (Tokyo, New York).

Soane’s spirit of discovery is woven throughout the gallery presentations inspired by the architect: models of buildings sit alongside wonders from the ancient world – sculptures, urns, obelisks and capitals. Erskine, Hall & Coe directly engages with artists in the Kettle’s Yard collection, presenting ceramics by both Hans Coper and Lucie Rie. These works are paired with London-based artist Jennifer Lee’s hand-built, coloured stoneware, which shares many of their formal qualities. Kettle’s Yard hosted Lee’s 2019 solo exhibition, which included interventions of her work within the house.

Frieze Masters offers us an opportunity to encounter works across time, carefully arranged by their present-day stewards.

Glass is a key material in both collections: from an unattributed green glass fishing float and engraved pieces by David Peace at Kettle’s Yard, to Renaissance stained glass in Soane’s house. Inspired by this, Ippodo Gallery presents a solo stand of work by Laura de Santillana, who innovated Venetian Murano glass techniques passed down from her grandfather, the legendary designer Paolo Venini. Her sculptural work pushes the boundaries of glass expression in colour and form. Across other mediums, Ago Projects is presenting tapestries by Pedro Preux, a French-born artist who relocated to Mexico in 1942, alongside ceramic vessels by celebrated Mexican artist Gustavo Peréz. Both Preux and Peréz show a deep reverence for the natural world, a sensibility they share with Ede.

The objects presented in Reflections are connected by a shared thread. As Ede alludes to in the quote from St Augustine he includes in his book about Kettle’s Yard, beauty is both ancient and new. Although these two collections were established in different eras by very different collectors, they share similarities: their domestic setting, their juxtaposition of artists and objects, their curation of a harmonious whole from many elements.Thanks to the diverse specializations of the many galleries at Frieze Masters, we are offered an opportunity to encounter works across time, carefully arranged by their present-day stewards.

This article first appeared in Frieze Masters magazine 2025 under the title ‘The Collector’s Collectors’.

Further Information

Frieze London and Frieze Masters, The Regent’s Park, 15 – 19 October 2025. 

Tickets are on sale – don’t miss out, buy yours now. Alternatively, become a member to enjoy premier access, exclusive guided tours and more.

BUY TICKETS

For all the latest news from Frieze, sign up to the newsletter at frieze.com, and follow @friezeofficial on Instagram and Frieze Official on Facebook.

^{Main image: The dome at Sir John Soane’s Museum, London, including a bust of Soane. Courtesy: Sir John Soane’s Museum, London. Photography: Gareth Gardner}