In 2011 Richard Rodney Bennett will celebrate his 75th birthday. His birthday is on March 23.
To mark this, Omnibus press will be releasing a biography of Bennett, written by Tony Meredith with Paul Harris.
Claire Martin and Richard Rodney Bennett will also release an album of Cy Coleman songs on Linn records.
Richard Rodney Bennett: Collages
running until September 2010
Venue: South Kensington & Chelsea Mental Health Centre(adjacent to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital)
1 Nightingale Place, London SW10 9NG
The exhibition will be opened by Deborah, Lady Macmillan.
Richard Rodney Bennett is internationally known as a composer – he has written music all his life for the concert hall, for films such as Far from the Madding Crowd, Murder on the Orient Express and Four Weddings and a Funeral – as well as being a writer and performer of jazz cabaret songs. What is generally unknown is that in recent years this multi-talented musician has also developed a private passion for making collages. This will be the first public exhibition of his work.
Bennett writes: ‘I started making collages about ten years ago, after brief flirtations with abstract painting and with fibre art. I use all kinds of found paper, paper which has been painted with acrylic and watercolour, and old shirts and ties. My collages are entirely abstract.
‘After many years of trying to find a personal voice in my musical compositions, I have let myself be influenced in my collages by a number of distinguished artists. There is of course the grandfather of them all, Kurt Schwitters, but also five twentieth-century American collagists – Anne Ryan, Hannelore Baron, William Dole, Robert Nickle and Robert Courtright, and the school of abstract painters that was flourishing in France in the forties and fifties, notably Nicolas de Stael, Maria Elena Vieira da Silva, Serge Poliakoff and Maurice Esteve. I cannot let my work be shown without acknowledging my debt to all these great artists’.
The Nightingale Project brightens up mental health premises through art and music. We see it as vital to bring life and colour into healthcare settings to provide a conducive context for medical and therapeutic work. Providing a welcoming and attractive environment can be seen as the first step in treatment. The Nightingale Project (charity number 1082989) is working with CNWL NHS Foundation Trust. Further information on current and past projects from www.nightingaleproject.org
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