“One of the most memorable moments of the opening night of the Yong Pyong Great Mountains Music Festival was a performance by Norman Perryman in the Asian premiere of Murmurs in the Mist of Memory by Augusta Read Thomas. Perryman used overhead projectors to show his kinetic brushstrokes on screen during the music. He created an abstract illusion of spontaneity, building a layer of visual experience on to the music as it was performed on stage.”  JoongAng Daily August 13, 2007

“Stravinsky would have undoubtedly given his approval to the fantastic synthesis of live painting, theatre and music this weekend in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. In “The Soldier’s Tale” an immense screen hangs above the stage, on which one can follow the gestures of the kinetic painting by Norman Perryman. The devil danced, the soldier marched to the rhythm of the music and melted into the image of his painted beloved. With a superbly chosen combination of concrete and abstract images that flowed into each other in an ingenious manner, Perryman followed the structure of the music, but at the same time allowed the development of his interplay of forms and colours. Rhythmically he moves his brushes along the crooked route which the soldier follows. When the devil blocks his way, the brush transforms itself into a threatening black monster. Irresistible!”

De Telegraaf, 14 September 2004


The Great Gate of Kiev (Mussorgsky) sequence

“An ingenious audio-visual experiment, with brilliantly conceived imagery”

The Times, July12 1993
after the BBC documentary “Concerto for Paintbrush and Orchestra” on Perryman’s performances to music, with Sir Simon Rattle).


“Perryman is a musician, who creates music with his paintbrush”

violinist Yehudi Menuhin

“The trump card in the performance were the interventions of the painter Norman Perryman, whose kinetic images were seen live on screen in giant projections, as he illustrated the drama with modern, fluid painting and images of varying degrees of abstraction”.

NRC Handelsblad, 13 September 2004

“Surprise and Delight!” and “Boundary-breaking music-theatre”.

from Dance and Dancers, after a performance of ballet and kinetic painting with the Netherlands Dance Theatre

“Two bubbles of paint when projected become two planets on a collision course. You feel the audience holding their breath. Other artists tell you to come and look when it’s finished. But then you’re too late! I want to show the creative process as it happens, so beautiful because it’s ephemeral, like a sunset, you’ll never see it again”.

De Gelderlander, 3 November 2004.

Joy of Visions and Sounds
“With the worlds first-ever concerto for paintbrush and orchestra, Perryman introduced a new art-form. How thrilling to be at its birth! As it moved on-screen, the paintbrush itself also became a vital image, insect-like, loose-limbed, humorous or moving with swirling lyricism.”

Birmingham Post, July 1993

"Perryman's compositional energy... is fortunately controlled by his poetic and musical nature.  As in Kandinsky's work, one must look for the secret of this oeuvre in the intimate musical harmony of its author, which gives him a very special view of the world...  The sensitive, lyrical rhythm in his compositions has an effect similar to that of a page of music".

(Roy Oppenheim, Head of Cultural Programmes, Swiss Television, Zurich, 1972).

"Perryman's works witness to a deep inner experience.  They particularly excel for their unusually fine linear rhythm. We seldom meet such incredible musicality in visual artists".

(Neue Berner Zeitung, 1966) 

Norman Perryman
Lomanstraat 61, 1075 PW Amsterdam, Netherlands

Tel/Fax: +31 (0) 20 676 6138 (home)
+31 (0) 650 294 233 (cell/mobile)
 
website design justpurple new media