A new exhibition at Kettle’s Yard is presenting the work of ground-breaking artists of the early twentieth century.

The early twentieth century was a time of extraordinary change in Europe. The advance of the machine age brought mass production and distribution and a new sense of internationalism. The ‘Œheroic’ period of modernity - between the Russian Revolution and the arrival of Fascism in Germany - found particularly forceful expression in graphic design and photomontage.

New techniques allowed a fusion of typography, painting and photography for artistic, commercial or political ends, evoking the dynamism and fragmentation of cinema.

This exhibition is a rare opportunity to see posters, prints, book designs and political and commercial ephemera, together with original layouts and photomontages, produced by some of the most important artists working at that time.

Bringing together artists related to the Dutch 'De Stijl' group, the German 'Bauhaus', and the 'Constructivists' of Russia and Central Europe, it includes work by Jean Arp, Herbert Bayer, Willi Baumeister, Theo van Doesburg, Georg Grosz, John Heartfield, Hannah Höch, Gustav Klucis, El Lissitzky, Lászlò Moholy-Nagy, Liubov Popova, Alexandr Rodchenko, Oskar Schlemmer, Kurt Schwitters, Georgii Stenberg & Vladimir Stenberg, Soloman Telingater and Piet Zwart, among others.

This national touring exhibition is drawn from one of the greatest collections of twentieth century graphics, that of Merrill C Berman, and is selected by the filmmaker and curator Lutz Becker. A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition, including texts by Lutz Becker and the design historian and designer Richard Hollis.

For sixteen years, Kettle's Yard was the home of Jim Ede, a former curator at the Tate Gallery, London, and his wife, Helen. It houses Ede's collection of art, mostly of the first half of the twentieth century. Jim Ede kept 'open house' every afternoon of term, personally guiding his visitors around his home.

In 1966 he gave the house and its contents to the University of Cambridge. In 1970, three years before the Edes retired to Edinburgh, the house was extended, and an exhibition gallery added, both to the design of the architects Sir Leslie Martin and David Owers.

The exhibition runs from 30 July until 25 September 2005. The Avante Garde Gallery is open Tues-Sun 11.30am – 5pm, while Kettle’s Yard (permanent collection) opens Tues-Sun 1.30-4.30pm.

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