Background

Perahim was born in Bucharest, Romania, on May 24, 1914.

Education

Jules Perahim studied under the direction of the painters Nicolae Vermont and Costin Petrescu.

Career

In the early 1930s, Perahim became one of the most hopeful young artists of the Romanian surrealist avant-garde. He collaborated with the avant-garde magazines One from 1930 till 1932 and Alge between 1930 and 1933, which he founded along with Gherasim Luca and Aurel Baranga. In 1932 he had his first solo exhibition of paintings of surrealist and metaphysical character organized by Marcel Janco in Bucharest. He displayed his artworks with obvious features of social criticism in Bucharest and Brasov in 1936.

Between 1936 and 1940 Jules Perahim became a regular contributor of socially engaged drawings in the progressive press. In 1938 he exhibited in Prague, where he met Dadaist artist John Heartfield. Returning to Romania during the rise of fascism, he soon had to flee first to the Soviet Union and then to Armenia. There he made a living working as a decorator of a theatre for the wounded.

The artist was mobilized to Moscow to serve as a technician of the New Grail Front magazine starting from March 1944. In this capacity, he returned to Romania. He taught scenography and graphic arts equipment at the Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest during 1948-1956 and worked as an editor-in-chief of Arta plastică from 1956 till 1964. He also collaborated with the magazine "Veac Nou".

From the 1950s onward, Jules Perahim concentrated on book illustrations and set designs for the theatre, two art forms less strictly monitored by the censors. Around the 1960s, Perahim returned to painting. In 1969 he presented his paintings in Jerusalem and settled in France the same year. In Paris, he returned to his earlier, Surrealist style of painting. Later on, he successfully held forty solo exhibitions in various countries of the world.

Achievements

• 

  Jules Perahim was known to be a leading member of the Surrealist group in Bucharest. His works were internationally exhibited in a number of museums and galleries.
  
  Among his most prominent artworks should be mentioned the following: The God of War, Creatures, Amorphous Figures, Portrait of Ghetasim Luca, Fighting for Peace, The Partisan, Poissons, Conflict, among others.

Works

More photos

• mosaic

  • Genesis

    (Mural for the House of Culture in Mangalia.)

• painting

  • Portrait of Hedda Stern

  • Amorphous Figures

  • Conflict

  • Victorita

  • The Council

  • Figures

  • King and Queen

  • A Surrealistic Composition

  • La mariée

  • Composition surréaliste V

  • Untitled

  • L'alphabet (Samel)

  • L'Ennemi artificiel

  • La Victoire de l'Inevitable

  • Untitled

  • Poissons

  • Untitled

  • Fighting for Peace

  • Pouvoir de dédoublement

  • Untitled

  • Taureau

  • Untitled

  • Grains of Beauty

  • Creatures

  • Creatures

  • Family Misunderstanding

  • Le repas sur les marches

  • Untitled

  • Woman

  • unknown title

  • Creatures

  • Creatures

  • Quatre marins

  • Cabaret (Visul lui Omero)

  • Torso

  • La guerre africaine

  • L'echappement

  • Le Rendez-Vous Secret de Dante

  • Self-Portrait with One Red Ear

  • The Partisan

  • L'alphabet 5 (Gimel)

  • L'Alphabet

  • Peripherie singuliere

  • Untitled

  • Portrait of M.H. Maxy

  • Woman

  • Le Calme des Passions n°15

  • Figure with a dog

  • Portrait of Gherasim Luca

  • Go On!

  • Gémeaux

  • Organic Landscape

  • Creatures

  • Drapeau rigide aux couleurs inconnues

  • The Argument

  • L'Alphabet

  • The God of War

  • Rencontre mecanique

  • unknown title

  • United We Struggle Against Fascism

  • Paysage traverse d'incantations

  • Untitled

• poster

  • The Spark

  • We Want Land

Personality

Around 1930s Jules Perahim changed his family name from Blumenfeld to Perahim, a Hebrew word for "flowers."

References

• Perahim French Edition.
  1971