NIGHT magazine was a product of the nightclub boom of the late 1970s, and of the concurrent renaissance in DIY independent publications. The magazine’s first issue (October 1978) celebrated Studio 54, and consisted solely of photographs by its founder Anton Perich. Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine was the inspiration, but NIGHT quickly established its own identity with beautifully printed, oversized photographs of New York’s glamorous nightclubs and celebrities. There were thirteen issues of NIGHT extending to summer 1981, when Perich folded the publication and retired from the nightlife scene. Throughout the 1980s, he lived a quiet existence as a married painter, with two young sons in tranquil Katonah.
While nightlife and photography aficionados continue to fetishize the early issues of NIGHT, much less is known about the magazine’s resurrection in the 1990s after Perich returned to New York and reunited with co-editor Robert Henry Rubin. Although they solicited and accepted contribution from others, the two were in essence the magazine’s only staff. Perich was responsible for the graphics and Rubin for the text. There were to be 38 new issues, published somewhat erratically with increasingly lengthy gaps until 2011.
Gallery 98 has recently acquired a large collection of NIGHT from the 1990s onward. Although the 1990s lacked the exciting nightlife of the late 1970s, NIGHT continued to find worthy content. Like its earlier predecessor, the new version of NIGHT retained its oversize format, with large, full-page photographs. While the interviews continued to emphasize new and emerging talents, a continuing coverage of older celebrities from the Warhol era is also one of the magazine’s notable features.
NIGHT Magazine Reborn, 1990 – 2011
Cicciolina (Cover), NIGHT Magazine, #23, 1994. Size: 23 x 17 inches — Issue Available
This interview with Ilona Staller (La Cicciolina) took place during her acrimonious divorce from artist Jeff Koons, that involved their collaborative work “Made in Heaven,” and the custody of Ludwig, their toddler son. The couple’s issues were only fully resolved in 2008.
Damita Richter (cover) photograph by Marcia Resnick, “Negative Girl” text by Victor Bockris, NIGHT Magazine #32, 1997. Size 23 x 17 inches — Issue Available.
“Nothing Happens: Andy Warhol Meets Muhammad Ali,” text and photographs by Victor Bockris, NIGHT Magazine, #32, 1997. Size: 23 x 17 inches — Issue Available
The interview with Muhammad Ali is dated August 1977, and its inclusion in this 1997 issue of NIGHT, is indicative of the magazine’s continued focus on the Warhol era.
Joe Dallesandro (Cover), Photograph by Francesco Scavullo, NIGHT Magazine, #40, 1998. Size: 11 x 8.5 inches — Issue Available
Kembra Pfahler (Cover), Photograph by Katrina Del Mar, NIGHT Magazine, #51, 2003. Size: 11 x 8.5 inches — Issue Available
The first issues of NIGHT measured 21 x 16.5 inches. When the publication was revived in 1990, the new measurement was 23 x 17 inches. From 1997 to 2002, NIGHT was published in a smaller 11 x 8.5 inch format. The last six issues of the magazine reverted to its 1990 original size of 23 x 17 inches.
Anton Perich
Croatian-born Anton Perich moved to New York In 1970, where he soon met his idol Andy Warhol, and began working at Interview Magazine. Perich was already a well-known photographer and cable television producer when in 1978, he started NIGHT, which became, among other things, a showcase for Perich’s photography and art. During the 1990s he continued taking new photographs for NIGHT issues, but increasingly he also published earlier photographs of Warhol and others from his extensive archive. Each issue also featured images of Perich’s unique paintings, all of which were executed with his self-invented painting-machine.
Rene Ricard at the opening of New Paintings, presented by Vito Schnabel, Photograph by Anton Perich, NIGHT Magazine, #57, 2011. Size: 23 x 17 inches — Issue Available
Andy Warhol (1973), Photograph by Anton Perich, NIGHT Magazine, #19, 1990. Size: 23 x 17 inches — Issue Available
Anton Perich, “Andy,” Acrylic on Canvas created with a Painting Machine invented by Perich, Back Cover, NIGHT Magazine, #26, 1995. Size: 23 x 17 inches — Issue Available
Anton Perich, “Emotion No. 111” (1998), Oil on Canvas created with a Painting Machine invented by Perich, NIGHT Magazine, #57, 2011. Size: 23 x 17 inches — Issue Available
Tristan Perich
Anton Perich was not shy about promoting his own work, or the work of his son Tristan, who is now a well-known composer and sound artist. In this issue of NIGHT, Tristan, then still a 10th grader at Phillips Academy, is interviewed on the occasion of the premiere of his original music setting for Ezra Pound’s poem “In a Station of the Metro.”
“Tristan Perich in a Station of the Metro” by John Gould, NIGHT Magazine, #40, 1998. Size: 11 x 8.5 inches — Issue Available
