Luigi Pericle: A Rediscovery – Andrea Biasca-Caroni and Thomas Marks in conversation
Spring Term, sees the return of the Royal Drawing School series of Creative Conversations; online dialogues between artists, curators and writers. Curated by Dr Claudia Tobin, lectures are held Wednesday evenings live on Zoom.
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Luigi Pericle: A Rediscovery at the Estorick Collection, London. Exhibition wall of Luigi Pericle’s India ink on paper dated 1960s/'70s. Courtesy of the Archivio Luigi Pericle, Ascona. Photo Arabella Shelbourne.
The Estorick Collection, London recently concluded the exhibition presenting the rediscovery, life and works of Luigi Pericle (1916–2001), one of the most mysterious and fascinating protagonists of the 20th-century art scene. A Swiss painter of Italian origin, Pericle was also an illustrator, writer and scholar of esoteric doctrines such as astrology and theosophy. During the early 1960s his intense, enigmatic and multi-layered imagery was the subject of several high-profile exhibitions in Britain, where it was greatly admired by important figures such as Herbert Read. Pericle’s works – characterised by sweeping, calligraphic brushstrokes – established him as a key protagonist of post-war abstraction. In 1965, at the peak of his success, he suddenly withdrew from the art world and for the rest of his life worked in a secluded house on Monte Verità (‘Mount Truth’) in Ascona, Switzerland. Having fallen into oblivion, his work was dramatically rediscovered in 2016 with the purchase of the artist’s former residence, which proved to be a treasure trove of paintings and graphic works. The process of restoring, cataloguing and researching Pericle’s vast oeuvre is ongoing, and is overseen by Ascona’s Archivio Luigi Pericle.
Andrea Biasca-Caroni was born in Locarno, Switzerland, in 1971. After graduating from linguistic high school, he obtained an Hospitality Management Diploma and a Bachelor’s degree in business economics from the Hotel Management School in Geneva. Since 1999 he has been director of the Hotel Ascona which has belonged to the Biasca-Caroni family for three generations. In 2014 he became Presidential Agent of the Swiss Theosophical Society. For more than a decade he has presided over the organisation of international cultural events. In 2008, together with his wife Greta, he founded an interior architecture firm. In December 2016 the couple bought the house that had belonged to Luigi Pericle (1916–2001) in Ascona, as their home, and discovered thousands of works of art. In 2019, Andrea and Greta founded the non-profit association Archivio Luigi Pericle, of which he is president. In 2022, he edited the book Luigi Pericle: The Rediscovered Master, published by Nino Aragno.
Thomas Marks is a writer and art critic. He has written widely about post-war and contemporary art, including frequently for Apollo magazine, which he edited from 2013–21. He contributed an essay to the catalogue for ‘Luigi Pericle: A Rediscovery’ at the Estorick Collection, London, in 2022.
Thomas is co-founder of Marks|Calil, a cultural consultancy that provides strategic advice to international arts organisations. He is a trustee of Art UK, the cultural education charity that serves to democratise access to the nation’s art collections, and an associate fellow of the Warburg Institute, London, where he is researching the collection of historical cookery books bequeathed by Elizabeth David.
Above and cover image: Untitled (Matri Dei d.d.d.), Luigi Pericle, 1978, Mixed media on Masonite, 42 x 29,5 cm . Courtesy of the Archivio Luigi Pericle, Ascona. Photo Arabella Shelbourne.