ACHILLE PERILLI ©

© Achille Perilli by SIAE

ACHILLE PERILLI

Achille Perilli was born in Rome on 28 January 1927. He is known for his compositions of forms that resemble the projection on a plane of parallelepipeds, ultimately resulting irregular and improbable, almost unresolved to the eye. Perilli realises his works through a strong use of colour - pleasant and rigorous at the same time - and supports his work with a deliberate 'imprecision' that benefits expressiveness. After classical studies, in 1945 he graduated in Literature with a thesis on the metaphysical painting of Giorgio De Chirico. Together with Dorazio, Guerrini, Vespignani, Buratti, Muccini and Maffioletti, he founded the Gruppo Arte Sociale (GAS), but the pivotal year was 1947, in which he took part in the drafting of the Forma 1 manifesto (signed not only by Perilli, but also by Accardi, Attardi, Consagra, Dorazio, Guerrini, Sanfilippo and Turcato) which was published in the first issue of the magazine of the same name. In October of the same year, he participated in the first exhibition of the Forma 1 group at the Art Club Gallery. In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, Perilli exhibited in prestigious galleries in Italy and around the world (New York, Chicago, Prague at the National Gallery), taking part in the most important international exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale (1957) and the Tokyo Biennale. He was represented by the Marlborough Gallery, one of the most important in the world at the time. As a curator, in 1979 he organised the exhibition 'The Polish Avant-Garde 1910-1978. The first anthological exhibition dedicated to his work was in 1982, in San Marino, while in 1984 the Paris Center in Paris dedicated a retrospective to him. In the 1990s, Perilli was universally recognised as one of the greatest living abstractionists and his language evolved: forms developed in a two-dimensional condition, expanding in the space of the canvas and acquiring structures of great elegance and movement, emphasised by very bright colours and contrasts. In the 2000s, Perilli continued to work and exhibit in numerous group and solo exhibitions as well as being present in important public and private collections such as: Galleria Comunale d'Arte Moderna in Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni (Rome), Frankfurter Westend Galerie in Frankfurt, GAM in Turin, MAMAC in Liège, Triennale in Milan, Musèe des Beaux Art, Mons, Fondazione Marconi (Milan), Italian Cultural Institute in New York and Washington D.C, National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi, Italian Culture Institute Los Angeles, Walter Bischoff galerie inBerlin, Venice International Art Biennale. In 2010, the preparation of the general catalogue of paintings began. In 2018, the monumental exhibition at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg is the crowning achievement to the career of a unique artist, who encompasses a century of the history of Abstractionism in his poetics. He will pass away in Orvieto in 2022.