La traversia della geometria

The abstract painter Achille Perilli has always combined his artistic production with the systematic formulation of his ideas in numerous theoretical writings. One recurrent subject of his reflections is geometry, which the artist perceives as a paradox in which it is possible for the laws of calculation and optics to encounter “landslides of memory onto visual perception”, thus developing a personal “theory
of geometric irrationality”, to quote the title of an essay written in 1982. This constitutes an indispensable theoretical framework for any understanding of his most recent works, where the geometric organization of space is assigned the absolute leading role of the visual field. The Ordeal of Geometry embryonically encapsulates these speculations, where the mind loses its way while the eye follows the meticulous pictorial handling of sign that boldly demarcates glowing expanses of colour (see PERILLI, 2000, pp. 139-146). (Transl. by Paul Metcalfe per Scriptum, Roma)