ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the early work of Ernest Edmonds and places it in the social and cultural context of Britain in the 1960s. His youthful artistic inclinations were soon evident to peers through his facility for drawing cartoons and painting portraits. But, it is the transition from figuration to abstraction, in his early twenties, which represents the most significant step in the development of his thinking as an artist. The chapter discusses his early paintings and explores how abstract concepts emerged in his first non-representational compositions. A passion for art, including music, painting and poetry, encounters with influential teachers and mentors and the rich intellectual climate that marked that rebellious, countercultural age awakened in him a strong desire to experiment with a variety of artistic structures, compositions and styles. All these forces were at work as he built the foundations of his groundbreaking piece Nineteen (1968–1969), which for the first time involved writing a computer program.
