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Lloyd Webber displays art in London
LONDON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Displaying his life-long passion for Victorian art, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber on Tuesday put his multi-million-dollar art collection on public display for the first time.
The composer, who once said he only wrote musicals so could buy Pre-Raphaelite paintings, said "I hope you get as much pleasure out of them as I do at home."
"Victorian art grabbed me as a kid," he told reporters at the press launch of the show at London's Royal Academy.
Reflecting on his 300-strong collection of Rossetti, Millais and Burne-Jones paintings, he said: "This was in many ways the golden age of art in Britain."
The 55-year-old composer won the undying gratitude of the Royal Academy when he stepped in to offer his private collection for display after a major exhibition of Egyptian antiquities fell through at the last moment.
The paintings are not just a rich man's toy. Lloyd Webber, who made his millions writing the musicals "Cats," "Evita" and "Starlight Express," has been collecting art for 40 years with his art dealer David Mason.
"As I began to have the good fortune to succeed in musical theater, I inevitably wanted to form an art collection. The area of art that I knew something about was Victorian and, importantly for me, it was affordable," he said.
The composer, whose "Phantom of the Opera" is being made into a film at Britain's Pinewood Studios, pledged that this would not be the collection's last appearance in public.
"I hope that after my death my family will be able to find a way to exhibit the best of my collection on a more permanent basis," he said.
Lloyd Webber, now working on a musical based on Wilkie Collins' classic novel "The Woman in White," gave the Royal Academy a contemporary boost by commissioning a painting by Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood which now hangs in the gallery's restaurant.
The triptych depicts the 60 "most influential people in London" at The Ivy restaurant, a favorite haunt for celebrities. His chosen subjects ranged from fellow Rolling Stone Mick Jagger to Elton John and, naturally, Lloyd Webber himself.
Reuters/VNU
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| jb |
I am responding to your post. |
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| Hannalee |
Some twit on Radio 2 news referred to Ronnie as an "amateur artist" when describing the painting...
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| jb |
Let be honest, his art is nothing that great... |
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| Mother baby |
quote:
Hannalee wrote:
Some twit on Radio 2 news referred to Ronnie as an "amateur artist" when describing the painting...
Hit him over the head with the fridge. |
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