ALTO ADIGE newspaper, Sunday 22 March 1981
Last days for the Trentino painter’s exhibition at the Seat of the Regional Government
The mocking and bitter statement of Perghem’s Iperrealism
Critical review by Franco de Battaglia

Michelangelo Perghem’s exhibition closes at the Seat of the Regional Government after ten days. It’s the painting production of a difficult artist, who cannot be boxed into the usual classifications and art movements, as with every painting he shows a desperate need to truly grasp things and live them through his art.
Here lies Perghem Gelmi’s limit: in fact, his greediness is so great that, aided by his complete mastery of technique and colouring, he easily passes from one style to another, from one attitude to another: from mockery to passion, from a fond outlook to a disenchanted attitude.
But here is also where his strength lies: his curious gaze, which knows no restraint, gives him the chance to explore reality down to the smallest details – a glimpse, a house roof, the hidden structure of reality. At the same time, he makes free use of sarcasm towards power mechanisms, snobbish myths, intellectuals, ambiguities and artists who use their art for commercial gain. Is Perghem Gelmi’s art likeable? Maybe not all the time. However, the interest around this exhibition has been great and his latest but long cultivated turn towards Iperrealism, as Gian Pacher wrote, could be the right way to express his message, far better than his Surrealist perspectives or his irreverent statements.
Anyway, with this exhibition, Perghem Gelmi, completely rooted in his birthplace Trento but also longing for his South American years, an engineer with a life-long taste for drawing, has shown himself worthy of his position in the local art scene and can no longer be considered “just an eccentric character with a taste for painting”.

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