The Estate of Victor Skipp / Legacy giving / Tuesday 2nd April
On Christmas Eve 2010 one of our regular visitors, Victor Skipp, died at the age of 85, leaving his estate to Kettle’s Yard. Victor had been a historian of the Industrial Revolution in the West Midlands.
The paintings of Ivon Hitchens were an early passion but at the 1984 British Art Show he came across the work of the English minimalist artist Bob Law and began to form a significant collection of his work. In the 1970s he and his wife Pat bought and extended an old farmhouse in Suffolk, which on their retirement became their permanent home.
Kettle’s Yard became increasingly influential on Victor’s thinking about art. If Kettle’s Yard is a place of aesthetic connections, Victor’s house became one of philosophical links where minimalist art combined with tribal rugs, African sculpture and a range of artefacts reflecting his interest in pre-industrial societies. Victor was a convinced modernist and his library includes rich holdings of 20th century poetry, literature and literary criticism.
In later years he would visit Kettle’s Yard for particular exhibitions. The Black Mountain College exhibition : Starting at Zero, was important to him as were Fred Sandback , Rodin: All about Eve , Edmund de Waal , Callum Innes , Francis Davison , the two Roger Hilton shows Late Works and the Night Letters and Roger Hilton , and Agnes Martin . The 2003 Linda Karshan exhibition made a strong impression and led him to acquire several of her drawings and prints.
An exhibition will be held at Kettle’s Yard in honour of Victor Skipp in early 2014 and will feature many treasures from his estate. Stay tuned to our blog and website for more details regarding the show.
Gifts in will, like Mr Skipp’s, ensure the future of Kettle’s Yard. They help us to care for the collection, deliver exhibitions, present music and education programmes, commission artists and composers, and encourage everyone to engage in the arts. You can find out more about leaving a legacy to Kettle’s Yard on our website or by emailing:
