Despite the brevity of his life French-born sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, who died in 1915 aged just 23, is one of the artists most closely associated with Kettle’s Yard even to this day. His famous and ground-breaking sculpture Bird Swallowing A Fish is one of the touchstone pieces in the collection at Kettle’s Yard, enjoyed by generations of visitors to the house and its neighbouring gallery. Before his death he had worked alongside prominent literary and artistic figures including Ezra Pound, Jacob Epstein, TE Hulme and Wyndham Lewis, becoming one of the founders of the Vorticist movement, which subsequently came to be regarded as Britain’s first avant garde movement. In 1927 Jim Ede, the founder of Kettle’s Yard acquired a significant collection of Gaudier-Brzeska’s work when he was a curator at the Tate Gallery.
Ever since Ede and his wife Helen moved into Kettle’s Yard in the 1950s, the work has formed an important part of the displays there. Now, with their extensive refurbishment under way, a selection of Gaudier-Brzeska’s sculptures and related drawings will be on display in the exhibition gallery while work continues, examining the role his Vorticist worked played in the development of modern scupture.

Henri Gaudier-Brzeska: Vorticist! Until Sunday 1 April. Kettle’s Yard, Castle Street T: 01223 748100 www.kettlesyard.co.uk