Stephen Bann

Born 1942. First encountered Kettle’s Yard in 1960/1 whilst an undergraduate at King’s College, University of Cambridge. He remembers the tea ritual which would be ended by Jim Ede ringing the Angelus at St Peter’s Church. After Cambridge Stephen taught history at the University of Kent where he curated an exhibition of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska drawings. He kept in touch with Jim when he moved to Edinburgh. At the time of interview he was Emeritus Professor of Art History at the University of Bristol.

Stephen Bann was the guest curator of the Kettle’s Yard exhibition ‘Beauty and Revolution: The Poetry and Art of Ian Hamilton Finlay’ (Dec 2014 – March 2015). His essay for the exhibition catalogue traces the long and friendly connection between Ian Hamilton Finlay and Jim Ede (to which several works in the collection bear witness).