Talk
Luigi Pericle: An Introduction
29 Oct 2022
Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art
London, United Kingdom
Free with an admission ticket to the museum
Museum admission Adult £7.50
Museum admission Concessions £5.50
National Art Pass £3.75
Free entry to Estorick Collection members, under 18s and full-time students with valid NUS ID card.
Admission to café and shop free.
Luigi Pericle (1916-2001), was a fascinating and singular artist whose work was greatly admired by Herbert Read and Ben Nicholson.
Luigi Pericle (1916-2001) was a fascinating and singular artist. A Swiss painter of Italian origin, he was also an illustrator, writer and a scholar of esoteric philosophies such as astrology, theosophy and alchemy. During the early 1960s his intense, enigmatic and multilayered imagery was the subject of numerous exhibitions in Britain, where it was greatly admired by important figures such as Herbert Read and Ben Nicholson.
Pericle’s works – characterised by sweeping, calligraphic brushstrokes – established him as a key protagonist of post-war abstraction, yet in 1965, at the peak of his success, he suddenly withdrew from the art world. For the remainder of his career Pericle dedicated himself to his philosophical studies and to the creation of luminous, complex artworks in which cosmic forces and transcendental psychic states were explored through a highly personal repertoire of geometric forms and mystical, totemic symbols.
Having fallen into oblivion for several decades, his work was dramatically rediscovered in 2016 with the purchase of the artist’s former residence, which proved to be an immense treasure trove of paintings and graphic works.
The process of restoring, cataloguing and researching this vast oeuvre is ongoing, and is overseen by Ascona’s Archivio Luigi Pericle, with which this career-spanning retrospective has been organised.
Have you been to this event? Share your insights and give it a review below.