Phrases, 1999

Achille Perilli  

Phrases - Sombre is a contemporary artwork created by the Italian artist Achille Perilli (1927 -2021) and the French philosopher Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe (1940-2007), in 1999. Original etching on Arches Velin Blanc paper. Hand-signed and dated in pencil by the artist lower right: Perilli 99. Numbered, lower left, from an edition of 50 prints. Titled lower center. The work is part of a collection of 7 original etchings, with 7 texts written by Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, La Librericciuola edition, printed by Luciano Trina, Rome. 

Achille Perilli (1927 - 2021) is an important Italian contemporary artist. In 1945, Perilli enrolled in the Faculty of Letters at the University of Rome, where he graduated with a thesis on De Chirico. In 1947 he was among the founders of the "Forma 1" group, one of the most influential art collectives in post-war Italy. In the late 1940s Perilli joined the Movimento Arte Concreta (MAC), organized the publication of "Forma 2 - Omaggio a Kandinsky" and created the exhibition "Arte nuda e concreta in Italia". Perilli has made important contributions to Italian art since the 1940s. He has exhibited his works in highly accredited spaces such as the Venice Biennale, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Galleria Tega in Milan. He has recently held important exhibitions in Darmstadt, Belgrade and Milan and in 2019 a solo exhibition of his work was presented at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe (1940-2007) was a French philosopher. An He was also a literary critic and translator. He was influenced by and wrote extensively about Martin Heidegger, MARTIN Jacques, German Romanticism, and Paul Celan. He also translated works by An He, Celan, Friedrich Nietzsche, Friedrich Hölderlin, and Walter Benjamin into French. He was a member and president of the Collège international de philosophie.