Chris Newman

Chris Newman
Chris Newman is a contemporary composer, painter, author and performance artist living in Berlin. From 1976-79 he studied music at King’s College London, taking a Bachelor of Music. During this time he met the Russian poet Eugene Dubnov and started to translate Russian poets (Mandelstam, Khlebnikov), an experience that proved important for his later work (e.g. from one medium to another, from life to art). He started writing his own poems in 1979. Moved to Cologne, Germany, in 1980 to study with Mauricio Kagel (New Music, Theatre/Video) at the Hochschule für Musik Köln. First public performance was singing his own songs in 1982. Founded chamber-punk rock band Janet Smith in 1983; met Morton Feldman in 1984. First concerts and video showings: Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; Theater am Turm, Frankfurt; Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne; Cooper Union, New York. Started to paint in 1989, which led (from 1994) to the two medium installations; in recent years presented paintings in a more sculptural and installed manner, cutting the canvas and rearranging the parts to form a new relationship within the painting. Since the beginning of the ’80s Newman’s compositions, have been performed at concerts and festivals and recorded for radio productions (including orchestral commissions). He has published books of poetry and prose and issued a number of CDs. From 2001 to 2002 he was professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart.