One of the few remaining sketches from Perleamo’s “Book of dreams”
Antonio Perleamo was a surrealist painter and poet and amateur anthropologist who was an associate and contemporary of Dadaist Raoul Haussman (1896-1991). Exiled from his homeland of Italy due to his unconventional lifestyle and ‘degenerate art,’ Perleamo settled in the Balearic Island of Ibiza in 1933.
Much of Perleamo’s work, including his many paintings and sketches and his copious research into local customs was destroyed in 1936 when he was forced to flee the Island. Some historians believe he renounced art altogether after 1936 and settled in one of the Nordic countries, while a local legend has it that he returned, once again, in 1938 but was never seen again.
What little remains of Perleamos’ painting suggests that he was a limited talent but he was nevertheless treasured by the surrealist community for what Haussman described as ‘a passion for freedom and enquiry – he taught me to trust my dreams.’
His unconventional lifestyle (Perleamo was prone to drinking absinthe in the morning and loved to entertain the locals with his ‘wild dancing’) and his use of ‘automatic’ and free associative writing techniques were also influential on the island’s surrealist community. Anyone with further information on the works or life of Perleamo is urged to contact the administrators.
Antonio Perleamo was a surrealist painter and poet and amateur anthropologist who was an associate and contemporary of Dadaist Raoul Haussman (1896-1991). Exiled from his homeland of Italy due to his unconventional lifestyle and ‘degenerate art,’ Perleamo settled in the Balearic Island of Ibiza in 1933.
Much of Perleamo’s work, including his many paintings and sketches and his copious research into local customs was destroyed in 1936 when he was forced to flee the Island. Some historians believe he renounced art altogether after 1936 and settled in one of the Nordic countries, while a local legend has it that he returned, once again, in 1938 but was never seen again.
What little remains of Perleamos’ painting suggests that he was a limited talent but he was nevertheless treasured by the surrealist community for what Haussman described as ‘a passion for freedom and enquiry – he taught me to trust my dreams.’
His unconventional lifestyle (Perleamo was prone to drinking absinthe in the morning and loved to entertain the locals with his ‘wild dancing’) and his use of ‘automatic’ and free associative writing techniques were also influential on the island’s surrealist community. Anyone with further information on the works or life of Perleamo is urged to contact the administrators.
“He taught me to trust my dreams” Raoul Haussman (1896 - 1991)