near a textile factory, in homage to its workers. Joy
delivered the sculpture to Kettle's Yard on 13 October
1969. Ede wrote to Gabo the same day, describing it as
'a poem of beauty'.
5
In 2006–7, Kettle's Yard received a further generous gift
of nine sculptures from Gabo's daughter and son-in-law,
Nina and Graham Williams. The group included palm-
sized amulets and carved and cast 'stones', as well as an
early version of Construction in Space: Suspended, made
for Nina's twenty-first birthday in 1962. Consisting of a
delicate Perspex and nylon thread construction balanced
on a metal cradle, this sculpture is inscribed 'FOR
NINA FROM / (in Cyrillic) PAPA / Gabo'.
Right:
Naum Gabo on the piano at Kettle's Yard. (This is a smaller and earlier
version of the Construction in Space: Suspended). To the left of the piano,
Ben Nicholson, Musical Instruments,' 1933 and to the right of the piano,
Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Wrestlers relief, 1913 (posthumous cast 1965)
Photograph Mark Dalton, 2025. © Courtesy of Kettle's Yard.
1 Ede, A Way of Life, p.177.
2 Freeman, pp. 97, 201. Photographs, drawings and notes relating to the design of
Gabo's car for the Design Research Unit, c.1943, exist in the Tate archive.
3 Naum Gabo, Opus 5 (aka The Constellations (1950), Kettle's Yard Collection,
NG 1.
4 Miriam Gabo, letter to Ede, 7 February 1968, Kettle's Yard Archive, KY/EDE/1/1.
5 Ede, letter to Naum Gabo, 13 October 1969, Naum Gabo Papers, Ede, J., Yale
Beinecke Library, quoted in Freeman, p.263.
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