My book, Experimental Painting (1970), was the product of a decade of coming to terms with the history of modern art and with contemporary manifestations of the avantgarde. While at Cambridge from 1960 to 1967, I published art criticism, initially in locally published magazines, and then went on to review art exhibitions both nationally and internationally. This led to being co-editor of Form, which produced further opportunities. The term ‘experimental’ that I adopted in 1970 was intended to suggest the paradigm of scientific discovery which suited some, if not all, of the artists I studied. This article considers concepts directly imported from contemporary scientific enquiry that seemed relevant to me at the time, notably those from experimental psychology, psychoanalysis and structural linguistics. I relate them to the character of intellectual life at Cambridge in a period which saw much debate about the relationship between Sciences and Humanities as ‘Two Cultures’.
BannStephen, ed.1970b. 20th Century Studies. No. 3, May.
10.
BannStephen, ed. 1974. The Tradition of Constructivism. Documents of Modern Art. New York: Viking Press. Reprinted New York: Da Capo 1990.
11.
BannStephen, ed. 1976. 20th Century Studies, Nos. 15/16, December.
12.
BannStephen. 1984. The Clothing of Clio: A study of the Representation of History in Nineteenth-Century Britain and France. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
13.
BannStephen. 2014. Le Destin paysager de Bernard Lassus/ Bernard Lassus; The Landscape Approach. Orléans: Editions HYZ.
14.
BannStephen, GadneyReg, PopperFrank, and SteadmanPhilip. 1966. Four Essays on Kinetic Art. St Albans: Motion Books.
15.
BarthesRoland. [1963] 1966. “The Activity of Structuralism.” Translated by Stephen Bann. Form 1 (Summer): 13.
16.
CookPeter. 1970. Experimental Architecture. London: Studio Vista.
17.
CummingCaroline. 1966. “Experimental Aesthetics.” Form 1 (Summer): 14.
18.
EhrenzweigAnton. 1967. The Hidden Order of Art. St Albans: Paladin Press.
