James Hall

Luigi Pericle: A Rediscovery James Hall

This important book presents the work of the fascinating and singular artist Luigi Pericle (1916-2001). Pericle was a painter, illustrator and scholar, as well as a leading figure in the story of art in the second half of the twentieth century. The artist initially found fame as an illustrator, gaining widespread renown in the 1950s as the inventor of the character Max the Marmot.

But his intense, enigmatic and multi-layered paintings increasingly drew the attention of the art world, with works that reflect his personal, metaphysical take on post-war abstraction exhibited at numerous venues in Britain during the 1960s. Pericle then abruptly retreatedfrom the art system, and for the rest of his life continued to paint, write and to study esoteric philosophy in the secluded house he shared with his wife Orsolina on Monte Verit in the Ticino region of Switzerland. The artist's work was dramatically rediscovered in 2016 when the contents of his former residence were revealed.

The process of restoring, cataloguing and researching his vast oeuvre is ongoing, and is overseen by Ascona's Archivio Luigi Pericle, with which the exhibition has been organised. This beautifully illustrated publication, which accompanies an exhibition at the Estorick Collection, London, includes a full catalogue of the works, as well as essays by noted scholars.