The True Revolutionary exhibition showcasing the work of Croatian-American painter Anton Perich is organised by the local branch office of the Croatian Heritage Foundation and the Dominican monastery.
True Revolutionary, an exhibition showcasing the work of Croatian-American painter Anton Perich opened at the Dominican monastery on August 29. The event is organised by the local CHF office and the Dominican monastery in Dubrovnik.
Anton Perich was born in Dubrovnik. He lived in Paris from 1965 to 1970 where he was a member of the Lettrisme movement, working in painting, poetry and film. He conceived and led a programme of international independent film at the American Centre on the Boulevard Raspail at which he screened the films of Heliczer, Iimura, Mekas, Warhol, Lemaitre, Bassan, Auder and others.
He staged his first solo photographic exhibition in January of 1972 at the Gotham Book Mart gallery in New York – over the years his photos have been exhibited in numerous galleries around the world and have been published in many magazines and books. That same year his video works were screened at The Kitchen, a cult exhibition space of the New York independent scene.
In 1973 he began work on a TV programme on Manhattan Cable, where he served as editor of a show that proved to be controversial, having introduced content previously not broadcast on TV. It was the first underground show ever broadcast on US television stations and was censored soon after airing, leading to a major scandal in the American culture and journalism scene and resulting in deep reaching changes in the operations of cable TV stations in general. This made Anton Perich a revolutionary in video art and cable television, and his video works are aired on TV channels around the world to this day. Western German national TV broadcaster ARD shot a one-hour film on Anton Perich in 1975 documenting his work.
In 1977 and 1978 he conceived and built an electrical painting machine (the precursor to the modern ink-jet printer) and staged a solo exhibition of “electric paintings” the following year at the Shafrazi Gallery u New York. Perich is considered a pioneer of digital art.
He launched Night magazine in 1978 as one of the first underground magazines for photography, painting, essay writing, poetry also featuring interviews with leading entertainers and artists – it continues to be published to this day. An Italian edition of Night magazine was also recently launched. In April of 2006 Anton Perich staged a retrospective exhibition of his photography and video works at the central institution for film art, the Anthology Film Archives and at the Ocularis film venue.
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