A public celebration of life will be held for the late Bendel Hydes at the Harquail Theatre on Saturday, 20 July at 2pm.
Hydes, considered Cayman’s ‘founding father’ of contemporary art, died in June, at the age of 71.
The event will immediately be followed by a reception at the National Gallery.
The memorial will be jointly hosted by the Cayman National Cultural Foundation, the National Gallery and the Hydes family, CNCF announced.
“We are gathering to honour the passing of Bendel Hydes, an artist who is universally celebrated as the founding father of Caymanian visual art,” Natalie Urquhart, director of the National Gallery, told the Cayman Compass in an email on Friday.
“Bendel’s practice spanned half a century of creativity from his early depictions of traditional Caymanian homes in his beloved West Bay to the purely abstract visual language that he referred to as ‘luminescent abstraction’, evidenced in his career-defining series Circumnavigating the Globe (2008-2010),” Urquhart said.
She noted that through his paintings Hydes “sought to capture his personal and collective experiences and distill these down to the essential elements of light and colour: the deep connection to his maritime heritage, the unique light and beauty of the Cayman Islands, and the vibrant urban environment of New York City, his adopted home”.
Urquhart paid tribute to the impact Hydes’ lifetime of work had on art and culture in Cayman.
“Bendel’s artistic journey laid the foundation for the development of the Caymanian professional art sector and the thriving cultural climate we now enjoy, and his remarkable legacy will continue to serve as an inspiration to us all,” she said.
Anyone who wants to attend the event is required to RSVP at [email protected].
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