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that Nicholson might create a relief for a flat ceiling in the extension was robustly rebuffed. Then, hurtfully, Nicholson struck at the heart of Ede's vision: As far as I can see your idea of a 'home' is not a feasible one except in a home & where the whole way of a life is cared for. That cannot continue beyond the lives of other people who've lived in the home – & what I look for is space – also I look for something contemporary – today & yours is quite naturally I suppose of that v. interesting past. 59 Ede had always prided himself on his sense of timelessness: his ability seamlessly to stitch together past and present, often through pictures. When Kenneth Clark turned down Ede's suggestion of including Christopher Wood in the Penguin Modern Artists series, on the grounds that Wood was dead, Ede countered that he considered him 'increasingly alive'. 60 Whether objects or paintings had 'life', for Ede, had nothing to do with age. Ede and Nicholson remained at cross- purposes, Ede wishing dearly to create a centre for his paintings within Kettle's Yard, Nicholson resisting. At a particularly low ebb, in November 1967, Ede questioned, 'who else has formed a permanent home for your work for instance – even Helen S. [Sutherland] has scattered it instead of making a place'. Exasperated by the failure of others to match his efforts at fundraising for the extension, Ede described his making of 'an ambiance' at Kettle's Yard as nothing short of a creative act: I do think in all humility that … I have something to offer which few people could do – & so it is vital that I should still be alive to organise the enlarged building. It's as if I have offered to paint them a picture (the full K Yd) if they will get me a canvas. 61 The period of planning and fundraising gave Ede opportunity for reflection. He opened discussions with Margaret Gardiner, who had lodged at 1 Elm Row in the 1930s, about creating a room at Kettle's Yard for her collection, itself rich in works by Hepworth and Nicholson. 62 For perhaps the first time, Ede had become conscious of gaps in his own collection: an intriguing notion, given that he had neither set out to collect exhaustively in a single area nor identified a remit for his acquisitions. These gaps included periods of Nicholson's work, such as the white reliefs, that he had failed to appreciate at the time but which were now financially out of reach. Picasso proved elusive (even his etchings), and Ede wrote unsuccessfully to ask Rothko for a gift of a painting. Gabo, now old and living in the United States, responded irritably. Yet, miraculously, Ede received a donation of Gabo's Linear Construction in Space No. 1 (1944–45) from an unexpected source. And Hepworth? 59 Ben Nicholson, letter to Ede, 12 September 1967, Kettle's Yard Archive, KY/EDE/1/11. 60 Ede, letter to Ben Nicholson, 27 June 1943, Tate Archive, TGA 8717/1/2/893. 61 Ede, letter to Ben Nicholson, 21 November 1967, Tate Archive, TGA 8718/1/2/987. 62 Margaret Gardiner, letters to Ede, 19 February 1968 and 14 April 1974, Kettle's Yard Archive. For Gardiner's collection and friendships with artists, many of whom are represented at Kettle's Yard, see Modern British Art: The Legacy of Margaret Gardiner, Osborne Samuel, 2024. 20