Waddesdon plays its trump cards

Click here to see images from 'House of Cards'

This Summer Waddesdon Manor – the Rothschild stately home in rural Buckinghamshire – is showing ambitious contemporary art inside and out. The house hosts an exhibition of work by the celebrated ceramicist Edmund de Waal, which has been made in response to Waddesdon’s historic interiors. De Waal’s ancestors, the Ephrussi family he wrote about in his best-selling memoir The Hare with the Amber Eyes , married into the Rothschilds, so there is a family connection.

Jacob Rothschild, who runs Waddesdon, has collected De Waal’s work for over thirty years, but he only recently learned of the family link, which prompted him to commission the show. Click here to watch an interview with Edmund de Waal on his exhibition.

Click below to listen to Sarah Greenberg in conversation with Lord Rothschild:

Meanwhile, in the grounds, Christie’s has curated a stunning contemporary sculpture show in response to Chardin’s painting ‘The House of Cards’ from the Waddesdon collection, the subject of an exquisite exhibition there in the spring. Large-scale works by sculptors including Antony Gormley RA, Anish Kapoor RA, Damien Hirst, Richard Serra and Jeff Koons, have been dotted around the landscaped gardens, inviting visitors to take a treasure hunt around the grounds to find them all. Most of the works are for sale. I sat in one of the sculptures – a teapot by Joana Vasconcelos – with Francis Outred, head of Post-War and Contemporary Art for Christie’s UK, and asked him about how and why this contemporary interpretation of an historic work of art came about.

Click below to listen to Sarah Greenberg in conversation with Francis Outred:

• Edmund de Waal and House of Cards are at Waddesdon Manor until 28 October 2012

• Royal Academy of Arts