Luigi Pericle Retrospective at Fondazione Querini Stampalia During 2019 Venice Biennale

A major retrospective of Luigi Pericle (1916–2001) opened at Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice, running until November 24, 2019. The exhibition marks the first comprehensive survey of the Swiss-born painter, who was a key figure in European postwar art before withdrawing from public life in 1965. Pericle had exhibited alongside artists such as Appel, Jorn, Tàpies, and Dubuffet in the 1960s, but suddenly retreated to Monte Verità above Ascona with his wife Orsolina Klainguti. There, he continued working in solitude within a utopian, vegetarian, naturist, and theosophical community. The show presents 50 works—oil on canvas and masonite, plus ink on paper from the 1960s and 1970s—drawn from the Archivio Luigi Pericle, which oversees the study, restoration, and cataloguing of his estate. A scientific catalogue published by Silvana Editoriale accompanies the exhibition. The retrospective is the first step in a broader revaluation of Pericle's legacy, timed to coincide with the 58th Venice Biennale.