Anton Perich is a Croatian-American filmmaker, photographer and

video artist Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. ...

, born in

Dubrovnik Dubrovnik, historically known as Ragusa, is a city in southern Dalmatia, Croatia, by the Adriatic Sea. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, a Port, seaport and the centre of the Dubrovni ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

, in 1945. He has lived and worked in New York City since 1970.

Biography

From 1965 to 1970, Perich lived in Paris, France and became close to the group of poets and artist working in the

Lettrism Lettrism is a French avant-garde movement, established in Paris in the mid-1940s by Romanian immigrant Isidore Isou. In a body of work totaling hundreds of volumes, Isou and the Lettrists have applied their theories to all areas of art and cultur ...

group: (

Isidore Isou Isidore Isou (; 29 January 1925 – 28 July 2007), born Isidor Goldstein, was a Romanian-born French poet, dramaturge, novelist, film director, economist, and visual artist. He was the founder of Lettrism, an art and literary movement which ...

Maurice Lemaître Maurice Lemaître (; born Moïse Maurice Bismuth; 23 April 1926 – 2 July 2018) was a French Lettrist painter (known for his use of Hypergraphy), filmmaker, writer and poet. Lemaître was Isidore Isou's right-hand man for nearly half a century ...

), but also with the French film underground milieu (

Piero Heliczer Piero Heliczer (June 20, 1937 – July 22, 1993) was an Italian-American poet, publisher, actor and filmmaker associated with the New American Cinema. Life and career Heliczer was born in Rome to a German mother and a Polish father. His film ca ...

, Michel Auder,

Raphaël Bassan Raphaël Bassan (born 1948) is a French film critic and journalist, who has specialized in experimental film and the history of cinema. He has also made three short movies. Biography Bassan was born in Burgas, Bulgaria, of French nationality, i ...

, Slobodan Pajic,

Pierre Clémenti Pierre André Clémenti (28 September 1942 – 27 December 1999) was a French actor. Life and career Born in Paris to an unknown father and Rose Clémenti, a Corsican concierge whose surname he took, Clémenti had a difficult childhood and took ...

). During that period, Perich changed his first name and became Antoine Perich, because Anton was not familiar a name in France. He was among the first activists to present, every week, programs of avant-garde and underground films at the American Center in Paris. He moved to New York in 1970, became friends with

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (;''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''"Warhol" born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol ...

and contributed as a photographer to Warhol's

Interview An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers.Merriam Webster DictionaryInterview Dictionary definition, Retrieved February 16, 2016 In common parlance, the word "interview" re ...

. He also worked as a busboy at the legendary

Max's Kansas City Max's Kansas City was a nightclub and restaurant at 213 Park Avenue South in New York City, which became a gathering spot for musicians, poets, artists, and politicians in the 1960s and 1970s. It was opened by Mickey Ruskin (1933–1983) in Dece ...

, where he photographed the scene as an ongoing art performance every night, along with exhibiting the photos on the walls. In 1977–78, he designed and built an electric painting machine, an early predecessor of the

inkjet printer Inkjet printing is a type of printer (computing), computer printing that recreates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper or plastic substrates. Inkjet printers were the most commonly used type of printer in 2008, and range f ...

. The development of this machine rendered Perich a pioneer of electric-digital-

computer art Computer art is art in which computers play a role in the production or display of the artwork. Such art can be an image, sound, animation, video, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, video game, website, algorithm, performance or gallery installation. Many traditio ...

. In 1978, he founded

NIGHT Night, or nighttime, is the period of darkness when the Sun is below the horizon. Sunlight illuminates one side of the Earth, leaving the other in darkness. The opposite of nighttime is daytime. Earth's rotation causes the appearance of ...

as an interactive "gallery space" for his photography and the nightly activities at places such as

Studio 54 Studio 54 is a Broadway theatre, Broadway theater and former nightclub at 254 West 54th Street (Manhattan), 54th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. Opened as the Gallo Opera House in 1927, it served ...

. In 2006, he had a video retrospective at the

Anthology Film Archives Anthology Film Archives is an international center for the film preservation, preservation, film studies, study, and film distribution, exhibition of film and video, with a particular focus on independent film, independent, experimental film, ex ...

, in New York. In 2012, the Italian film production Minimal Cinema produced ''In the fabulous underground'', an unconventional art documentary and a portrait of Perich as an artist and as a man, directed by Claudio Romano and

Mauro John Capece Mauro John Capece is an Italian filmmaker and author. Early life Mauro John Capece was born in 1974 in San Benedetto del Tronto. Career Capece is a director, cinematographer, and screenwriter of Italian films. In 2008 Capece directed the film ''A ...

and produced by Betty L'Innocente. The film was screened at the contemporary art center of New Orleans on Saturday the 13th. His son,

Tristan Perich Tristan Perich (born 1982) is a contemporary composer and sound artist from New York City who focuses on electronic one-bit sound. Perich received his B.A. from Columbia University in 2004 and went on to earn a master's degree from New York Univer ...

, is a noted composer and visual artist.

Notes

References

Revisiting Max's, Sanctuary for the Hip, by Randy Kennedy September 05, 2010, Two coming exhibitions shed new light on the glory days of Max's Kansas City, an oasis for artists in the 1960s and '70s

External links

Perich's BiographyPerich's bio and worksPerich's Painting machinePerich's Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perich, Anton Living people 1945 births Yugoslav emigrants to the United States American photographers Filmmakers from New York (state) Yugoslav expatriates in France