Achille Perilli

ACHILLE PERILLI Rome, 1927 - Orvieto, 2021

Achille Perilli, known for his warm abstract art, was born in Rome on January 28, 1927. He is recognized for his compositions of forms that resemble the projection of parallelepipeds on a plane, which appear almost unresolved to the viewer's gaze. Perilli creates his works using strong colors that are both pleasing and rigorous, supporting his art with a deliberate "imprecision" that enhances expressiveness. After attending a classical high school, he enrolled in the Faculty of Letters in 1945. In the following years, he studied under Lionello Venturi and prepared his thesis on the metaphysical painting of Giorgio De Chirico. Together with Dorazio, Guerrini, Vespignani, Buratti, Muccini, Maffioletti, and Perilli, he founded the Gruppo Arte Sociale (GAS). At the same time, he collaborated in the creation and editing of the magazines "Ariele" and "La Fabbrica," the official publications of GAS, which only released a single issue. In 1947, Perilli contributed to the drafting of the Forma 1 manifesto (also signed by Accardi, Attardi, Consagra, Dorazio, Guerrini, Sanfilippo, Turcato), which was published in the first issue of the eponymous magazine. In October of the same year, he exhibited at the first Forma 1 group show held at the Art Club Gallery. Introduced by Lionello Venturi, Perilli participated in the 1st International Congress of Art Critics held in Paris (June 21-28, 1948), where he and Dorazio presented a report on the situation of Italian painting in the 20th century. In 1950, together with Dorazio and Guerrini, he founded the "Age d'Or" Library-Gallery. The first technical-informative notebook on contemporary art, Forma 2, was published under the supervision of "Age d'Or." The first and only issue was a tribute to V. Kandinsky, featuring texts by Max Bill, Nina Kandinsky, Enrico Trampolini, and others. Perilli's essay was dedicated to Kandinsky's calligraphy. During the Holy Year, "Age d'Or" organized a protest performance of Bertold Brecht's "Galileo Galilei," directed by Vito Pandolci, with Perilli in the role of Urban VIII. In collaboration with Art Club, "Age d'Or" also organized the exhibition "Abstract and Concrete Art in Italy" (the first comprehensive survey of Italian abstractionism), held in February at the National Gallery of Modern Art. In the same year, Lucio Fontana invited "Age d'Or" to collaborate on the Milan Triennale. Perilli, Dorazio, and Guerrini jointly created two large murals, which were awarded a silver medal. In 1957, Perilli had a solo exhibition at the La Tartaruga Gallery, presented by Nello Ponente. Five years later, he had his own room at the Venice Biennale, where he was introduced in the catalog by Umbro Apollonio. In 1963, he participated in the meetings of the "Gruppo 63" in Palermo, creating scenes, projections, and costumes for the "Teatro Gruppo 63" performance at the Scarlatti Hall in Palermo. At the same time, he held a solo exhibition at the Bonino Gallery in New York. In the early 1970s, he exhibited a series of works from 1961 to 1969 in a solo exhibition at the National Gallery in Prague and had solo exhibitions in Italy and abroad: at the Marlborough Gallery in Rome, the Galerie Espace in Amsterdam, the Frankfurter Westend Galerie in Frankfurt, and the Jacques Baruch Gallery in Chicago, featuring only graphic works. He also participated in the International Biennial Exhibition of Prints in Tokyo. In 1979, on behalf of the municipality of Rome, he organized and realized the exhibition "Polish Avant-Garde 1910-1978" at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni. In the 1980s, Perilli contributed to the publication of "Retina," a magazine for artists, where he published the manifesto "Theory of Geometric Irrationality." A comprehensive retrospective exhibition titled "Achille Perilli, Continuum 1947-1982" was held at the Palazzo dei Congressi in the Republic of San Marino. Subsequently, he presented a retrospective exhibition of works from 1969 to 1984 at the Paris Center in Paris, titled "Achille Perilli. Geometric Irrationality." In his works from the 1990s, Perilli's artistic language further strengthened with vibrant, cheerful, lively, and brilliant chromaticism. The forms developed in a two-dimensional condition, expanding into the canvas space and acquiring structures of great elegance and movement. Perilli's works are characterized by an absolute abstract direction while, at the same time, allowing chromatic articulation to argue and assist the emergence and expression of the forms themselves.