Šime Perić
Novella, 1958
oil on canvas
130 × 162 cm
MG-4794

Šime Perić (1926–1990) studied mural painting at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and graduated from the Academy of Applied Arts in Belgrade in 1952. He emerged in the post-war period with works rooted in intimist figuration and dense chromatic structuring. Initially associated with socially engaged painting through Krsto Hegedušić’s circle, Perić rapidly shifted toward an autonomous exploration of colour, surface, and rhythm. By the late 1950s, his painting began to loosen figural definition in favour of expressive chromatic fields and symbolic reduction.
In Novella, Perić abandons intimist figuration and constructs a painting dominated by gestural eruption and material density. The surface is structured through vigorous black linear networks that traverse the canvas in sweeping arcs, splatters and concentrated knots of pigment. Rather than defining stable forms, the lines accumulate into agitated clusters that suggest movement, collision and compression. The pale, textured ground remains visible beneath the dark calligraphic layers, creating a tension between depth and surface. Spatial illusion is rejected; the painting asserts itself as a field of action in which gesture, gravity and material interaction determine the composition. Within the broader exhibition narrative, Novella reflects the emergence of material and gestural experimentation in post-war Croatian painting.
Text: Marta Radman, curator at the National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

Translated by: Marta Radman © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb