Norman Perryman

Norman Perryman was born in Birmingham, England in 1933, was educated at the Worcester Royal Grammar School, and studied painting and art education at the Birmingham College of Art and Crafts, graduating with Honours in 1954. He emigrated to the Netherlands in 1957, then moved to Switzerland (Leysin 1966, Villars 1973 and Geneva 1975-77). He was Head of Art at Aiglon College (1967–73) and from 1976–1990 was Chief Examiner for the Visual Arts programme of the International Baccalaureate, designing and developing the Visual Art curriculum and traveling worldwide to give workshops on the role of the arts in education and the relationships of the visual arts and music. He returned to Holland in 1978 and now lives in Amsterdam.

Perryman has exhibited widely (in The Netherlands, U.K., Switzerland, Germany and the U.S.). His principal themes are portraits, landscapes, dance and in particular, music. He uses the fluid transparency of watercolour to convey the illusion of movement and the transient nature of music and dance. His work is both figurative and abstract expressionist. Perryman’s earliest paintings on musical themes stem from the early sixties. One of his first subjects was conductor Bernard Haitink in 1965, conducting the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. This led to many 'action portraits' of other great musicians, such as the violinist Lord Yehudi Menuhin.

In 1990, Perryman was commissioned to paint a series of large watercolours of musical celebrities for Symphony Hall, Birmingham (UK). These include conductors Riccardo Chailly, Valery Gergiev, Andris Nelsons, Carlo Maria Giulini, Bernard Haitink, Kurt Masur and Sir Simon Rattle, violinists Sarah Chang, Kyung Wha Chung, Yehudi Menuhin and Itzhak Perlman, pianists Vladimir Ashkenazy and Alfred Brendel, singers Bryn Terfel, José Carreras, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Jessye Norman, Luciano Pavarotti, cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Mstislav Rostropovich. This collection is arguably one of the world's largest collections of musical subjects by the same artist. Included in this collection are the large works The Mahler Experience and Elgar’s Dream.

Live Kinetic Painting as performance art

In 1973 Perryman began to work as a performing artist on glass plates placed on a series of overhead projectors, interpreting music visually in real time. In contrast to the trend of creating digitally generated video-projections, Perryman has developed a low-tech analogue alternative to produce huge projections of kinetic colours without pixels. As they listen to the music, the audience watches the evolution and dissolution of the semi-abstract visuals as Perryman paints them. The images from five or more projectors are mixed by hand with an analogue dimmer. Perryman calls this art-form kinetic painting, because the continuously changing sequence of colours and forms only exists in real time, then disappears forever. His paintbrushes also move to the rhythms of the music and make the liquid watercolour splash, pulsate, flow or spread continuously.

In 1993, BBC Television made the documentary 'Concerto for Paintbrush and Orchestra', about Perryman's life and work with music. This included a performance of Mussorgsky’s 'Pictures at an Exhibition', with Sir Simon Rattle conducting the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in Symphony Hall, where Perryman could be seen painting his own semi-abstract pictures, inspired by and synchronous to the music.

Perryman has also performed with José Carreras and the Hallé Orchestra (1994), with percussionist Evelyn Glennie (1998), Holland Symfonia (Ravel) (2004), the Rotterdam Philharmonic (2004), the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra (Stravinsky: The Soldier’s Tale) (2004), the Arnhem Philharmonic (2004) and with the Circle Percussion ensemble (frequently between 1978 and 2009). In 2005 he appeared with the Flemish Radio Orchestra in a performance of John Adams’ 'El Dorado' and toured Belgium with the Flemish Radio Choir in a programme entitled 'The Occupied City'. In 2006 he performed in Amsterdam in a Dutch version of Gertrude Stein’s chamber opera 'Dr. Faustus Lights the Lights', with music by Guus Janssen. At the 2007 Connecticut Greenwich Music Festival Perryman performed John Adams’ 'Hallelujah Junction' (with pianists Steven Beck and Andrew Armstrong). He has also performed several times in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Qatar.

Asian painting and music have always influenced Perryman’s work, first in his early watercolours, then in performances. In 2004 he chose Toru Takemitsu’s 'From me flows what you call Time' for a performance with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. In 2005, with the Dutch ASKO Ensemble, he performed 'Confluences: Concerto No. 4', by the Chinese-American composer Huang Ruo at the Amsterdam International Contemporary Music Week. 2007 saw three concerts with the International Sejong Soloists (Augusta Read Thomas and Takemitsu) in the Great Mountains Music Festival, South Korea. He worked with Huang Ruo in 2008 to create 'Written on the Wind': a work for pipa, vocals and kinetic images. In 2009 he performed in the Amsterdam Muziekgebouw the first of a series with the Chinese trio Min/Wu/Xu. 2009 also saw performances in England with Charles Hazlewood in his "Play the Field" festival, in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw with the Netherlands Philharmonic. 2010 saw Perryman’s debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Scriabin: 'Poem of Ecstasy') and in 2013 the first performance of Scriabin’s 'Prometheus: Poem of Fire' with live kinetic paintings and the National Orchestra of Belgium in Brussels. Perryman toured "Piano Colours" with pianist Pierre Laurent-Aimard in 2012, and with violinist Daniel Hope and pianist Sebastian Knauer for the 2016 Menuhin Centenary in Konzerthaus Berlin and the Lübeck Schleswig-Holstein Festival. Then again with the Daniel Hope ensemble in l'Histoire du Soldat in Essen in 2018.

Perryman's final performance of lyrical kinetic painting live in concert was in Symphony Hall in 2019, with conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with "The Sea" by the artist/composer M.K.Čiurlionis.

Solo exhibitions

Year Location 1964 Wassenaar (Netherlands), Heuff Gallery 1965 Zürich, Bürdeke Gallery 1966 The Hague, Liernur Gallery Berne, Anlikerkeller Gallery 1967 Rotterdam, Kunstzaal Zuid Gallery 1968 Montreux (Switzerland), Picpus Gallery 1970 The Hague, Liernur Gallery Nijmegen (Netherlands), De Waag Gallery Apeldoorn (Netherlands), Municipal van Reekum Gallery 1971 Gstaad (Switzerland), Yehudi Menuhin Festival 1972 Fribourg (Switzerland), Galerie de la Cathédrale 1973 Les Diablerets (Switzerland), Festival Musique et Neige Lausanne, UNIP Gallery 1974 Delft, De Volle Maan Gallery Geneva, Le Petit Palais Museum 1975 Bournemouth (England), Minn’s Music Gallery 1976 Neuchâtel, Galerie Contact Carouge (Geneva), Galerie Delafontaine 1977 Laren (Netherlands), Singer Museum San Francisco, Bank of America Gallery 1978 Basel, Galerie Münsterberg Amsterdam, The Concertgebouw 1979 Amstelveen (Netherlands), Cultural Center Utrecht, Het Vredenburg Music Centre 1980 Frankfurt, Frankfurter Sparkasse Gallery 1981 Utrecht, Zwolsche Algemeene Gallery 1987 The Hague, Pullman Gallery 1988 Toledo (Ohio), Barrett Galleries Amsterdam, Dirks Gallery 1989 The Hague, Art Propos Gallery 1991 Amsterdam, Dirks Gallery Maastricht, Count & Brookman Gallery 1992 Amstelveen (Netherlands), Cultural Center 1999 Cropston (England), Severn Trent Gallery 2001 New York, The Gallery at Lincoln Center, Metropolitan Opera On permanent display: The Symphony Hall Collection, Birmingham (England)

Performances of live visual music

Year Event 1973 Video-Art Dance Group: London (The Roundhouse), Oxford, Southampton 1975 Created Groupe MIM (Musique, Images, Mouvement): multiple performances in Geneva 1976 Film Esquisses for Télévision Suisse Romande, with Groupe MIM 1977 Tour USA, Canada (Columbus, Tacoma, Montreal) with Vivian King (cello) and René Bazinet (mime) 1978 Tour with Circle Percussion, Utrecht, The Hague, Amsterdam 1979 Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with Yehudi Menuhin for France TV 2 1989 Modern Ballet Invention for Netherlands Dance Theatre, to music by Kabelač 1991 Education Project. Tour of schools in North Holland with Monique Copper (piano) 1993 Concerto for Paintbrush and Orchestra (50min. documentary and performance for BBC Television) with Sir Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (Mussorgsky) 1994 An evening with José Carreras, Amanda Roocroft and the Hallé Orchestra 1998 An evening with Evelyn Glennie, City of London Festival 2002 Dutch tour with Circle Percussion (all Japanese programme) 2003 Amsterdam: with Harry Sparnaay (bass clarinet) and Evelyn Stoop (harp) 2004 Rotterdam Philharmonic (Takemitsu) Holland Symfonia and MTV (for Entrée, Concertgebouw) Shéhérazade Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, L’Histoire du Soldat, Concertgebouw Arnhem Philharmonic, Arnhem, Nijmegen, Apeldoorn (Mussorgsky) 2005 Flemish Radio Orchestra, Ghent and Mechelen (John Adams: Eldorado) Flemish Radio Choir, Belgian Tour (The Occupied City) ASKO Ensemble, Muziekgebouw (Confluences, by Huang Ruo) Opening of the DIFC, Dubai, Czech National Orchestra 2006 Amsterdam Bethanienklooster, Dr Faustus (Gertrude Stein, chamber opera) The Royal Awards, Abu Dhabi New York, Time Warner Center: Composer Portrait evening, with Huang Ruo 2007 Aiglon College, Switzerland with Julien Quentin (piano), Mussorgsky Greenwich Music Festival (Adams and Saint-Saens) Great Mountains Music Festival (South Korea) Sejong Soloists (Augusta Read Thomas and Takemitsu). Also a children’s concert, all for KBS Korean Television. ADNEC Corporate event in Abu Dhabi 2008 New York, Symphony Space and Purchase College NY (Huang Ruo) 2009 Qatar, Corporate event for Vodafone An Evening with Trio Min/Wu/Xu, Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam Play the Field Festival, with Charles Hazlewood (Vivaldi) Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Netherlands Philharmonic: Shostakovich, Liszt, Borodin Bozar, Brussels, National Orchestra of Belgium, with Dirk Brosse 2010 Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Scriabin: Poem of Ecstasy) 2011 Recordings for HQ Creative, Dubai 2012 Groningen, Lars Wouters van den Oudenweijer (clarinet) & Hans Eijsackers (piano). Berg, Berio, Brahms Bergen Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic (Elgar: Enigma Variations) Piano Colours recital tour with Pierre-Laurent Aimard: Aldeburgh Festival, Helsinki Festival, Yellow Lounge Amsterdam, Salzburg Dialoge Festival 2013 Recording for HQ Creative, Dubai National Orchestra of Belgium, Brussels (Scriabin: Prometheus, Poem of Fire) 2014 Festival O/MODERNT, Stockholm (Stravinsky: L'Histoire du Soldat) 2015 Nightfall with the Ebonit Saxophone Quartet, NJO Muziekzomer 2016 Musik und Malerei with Daniel Hope and Sebastian Knauer: Konzerthaus Berlin, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival UN-WIPO Conference, Geneva (Stravinsky: L'Histoire du Soldat) Seoul, Sejong Soloists (Augusta Read Thomas: Murmurs in the Mist of Memory) Nightfall with the Ebonit Saxophone Quartet, Amsterdam