Articles> Graduates Rule Ok!

Collectors East: Aude Gotto
Green Pebble June/July 2010 issue

How did you begin?
Before starting the King of Hearts I was a psychotherapist; my interest was, and is, people. I had never thought of doing this, it just happened. If I had known how big a step it was to become, I don’t know if I would have started!

I didn’t have much experience or knowledge of contemporary art, but I wanted to support artists. I was aware it’s a difficult life being an artist. I was also aware that there are artists who make their lives easier by being shocking and that there are plenty of very good artists who are not shocking and nobody takes any interest in them and they’re probably not very good at selling themselves. So I thought that was something I could do. I can’t pick up a pencil or a brush, but I can support talent and commitment.

How did you know where to begin?

Once I started I got a bit more brave, but to begin with I gathered together a panel of experts to help me to select what we were going to show. They recommended artists, and that’s how it all began. One of the first artists to exhibit with us was Evelyn Williams, who coincidentally is one of the few who isn’t from East Anglia, but she was recommended. This was in 1991. Her work is very striking, she mainly paints people. It took me some time to have the courage to purchase this piece, Crowd Waiting, and it is one of the most commented-on pieces in my collection. Even if I wanted to, I could not take it home (I don’t think it’s a ‘home piece’ actually, it’s too challenging) because I would have a revolution from the people who come here especially to see it.

How did it feel, buying such a striking piece?
Making a big purchase is always difficult. You ask yourself whether you can trust your taste, is the painting truly good and where are you going to put it? At the time it was, if I remember correctly, between £2000 - £3000, so for me it was a frightening thing. I have never gone beyond four figures, that’s my limit.

After that, did you buy a piece from every exhibition?
The next best thing you can do to encourage artists, besides giving them an exhibition, is to buy their work. So that’s what I did. The collection consists mostly of people from East Anglia and it shows how we have this extraordinary amount of talent that people don’t know about. I have no theme, I just go and I see and if I really love it, I buy it. It has to speak to me.

Who else have you collected?
I have collected several pieces by Zheni Warner. Her husband is an English teacher and he reads texts to her and while she’s listening she will suddenly say, ‘Oh there!’ and she gets inspired and paints.

Revelations of Divine Love, is based on a text by Julian of Norwich. Initially I only bought from the King of Hearts Gallery because my purpose was to encourage art, but this one I saw in the Elm Hill Contemporary Gallery and I bought it. After that I bought a few others from Jill BIshop because she had very good local artists. Brenda Unwin’s paintings were also from Jill.

One of the paintings is by a friend of yours?
Yes, Indian Conversation is by Caroline Hoskin. She was the Chair of the Arts Panel and she was one of my great supports for the setting up of this place as an arts place. She did all the hanging with the gallery manager ?and so she really taught me a lot. I bought Indian Conversation before the King of Hearts even started because it is of the two of us in a very special retreat in India. We’re sitting in a cloister with arches and you can see the garden, and what she’s caught absolutely superlatively is the contrast between the heat and the shade. It’s a wonderfully hot picture. I always hang it in winter because it warms you.

Now that painting over there, One Fish Alone in the Water, is by Sir Terry Frost. We did a special exhibition in the year 2000 to celebrate the millennium and we had him then, and this is very untypical of his work. He usually does big abstracts but I thought this fish was absolutely wonderful because it has the sun and the waves, it needs nothing, it is completely happy. For many years I was haunted by the thought of being alone and how awful that would be, and this fish says, ‘Actually, it’s alright, you can do it’
.
You have sculpture as well as paintings?
Oh yes, I have a lot of sculpture as well as paintings. Do you see that little statue over there? It’s First Step by Lee Grandjean and it was in the first show and I said we have to buy this because this is what we’re doing with the King of Hearts: stepping firmly into the unknown. And I used to say that I knew why he had such a small head, because if he had thought any more about it, he wouldn’t do it!

I have a Vanessa Pooley as well, which is very feminine, and to me you have to have both the masculine [First Step] and the feminine. We have to know how to be active and dynamic and to start things, but we also need to relax and enjoy.

You collect craft?
Yes, I deliberately make a very strong statement that I dislike this division between craftspeople and artists, as if craftspeople aren’t artists. What nonsense. The word craft has a very noble meaning and it has also acquired a very down-market meaning. Knitted glove puppets.

This silk painting triptych above the mantelpiece, Magical Animals by Katherine Korrell, is a commission. That’s something else I have done a lot, I have actually commissioned pieces especially for here. This building is of an age that they would have had tapestries everywhere and so she did it in tune with the colours in the floor, and then found out we both had a passion for these medieval tapestries with the unicorn in them, so that was a very nice meeting of minds. I love doing these commissions because there’s an interaction between us.

I also have a tapestry and a painting by Kathleen McFarlane. She used to have work in the V&A, and she made her name in textiles and she did these extraordinary 3D textile sculptures, but she also did some flat tapestries. I was so pleased with my tapestry, Magic Carpet, because it is quite unique.

She’d done it without a preliminary drawing. Also, when we had gone to choose work for a textile show, we saw she was doing paintings. They filled the gallery and were so happy and colourful and vibrant. She died about three weeks after the private view. She was in her 80s by then, but she had such spirit.

In the fireplace is another commission, Willing to Please, which is a sculpture of our dog by Emily Mayer. I don’t know if she still works as a sculptor. I know she’s done work for Damien Hurst. She was a taxidermist, you see, so of course her knowledge of a nimals showed that she knew exactly what she was doing.

Aude, we could go on for hours.
Yes, I know!

How many pieces do you have?
I haven’t counted.

And what will you be collecting next?
Nothing! I have no more space!

Altogether Aude Gotto has works by over 50 artists, many of whom have featured in Green Pebble Magazine, including: Louise Richardson and Andrew Campbell, John Kiki, Ana Maria Pacheco, Martin Mitchell and Ros Newman. To read about them, read our articles on www.greenpebble.co.uk.

Sadly, shortly after this interview The King of Hearts trustees were faced with the fact that the money is expected to run out by the end of the year, when the venue will have to close. However, there will still be a couple of shows before then, for more details visit www.greenpebble.co.uk/gotto.htm. If you would like to sign our petition to express support for the King of Hearts, visit our Facebook page Green Pebble on Facebook and go to our ‘Discussions’ pages.


Subscribe to Green Pebble Magazine
and have the latest issues delivered
straight to your door!

Back to directory of articles