Pursuit of an absolute beauty
Foreword by Sir Herbert Read (1965)
Herbert Read and Peggy Guggenheim
Sir Herbert Read (1965) :
Personal friend of Picasso and Man Ray, adviser to Peggy Guggenheim as collector, promoted Surrealism co-founding the Institute of Contemporary Arts.
Read was trustee of the Tate Gallery and curator at the Victoria & Albert Museum (1922–39), Professor at Harvard University.
Sir Read in 1965 wrote :
“On a recent visit to Switzerland, I was invited to visit the studio of an artist whose work was unknown to me – LUIGI PERICLE. I went without great expectations because an unknown artist is so often unformed artist, or at best a talented amateur. I found an artist whose works imediately impressed me by their professional skill and strange beauty. Here evidently was an artist who had perfected his talent in stillness, and was using that talent to express a subtle perception of reality. Sometimes there was a vague suggestion of naturalistic forms, but form itself was established beyond phenomenal appearances, to represent some inner essence, some spiritual condition that can be represented only in the abstract harmonies of line and colour. A metaphysical art, therefore, but one that remains faithful to the sensous qualities of the material of the painter’s craft. LUIGI PERICLE was a mature artist whose work is highly appreciated in England and Switzerland; that it is not better known in other countries can only be attributed to the artist’s extreme modesty and long pursuit of an absolute beauty. “
Few people are aware of Giovannetti’s painting skills, since after the first triumph he never wanted to exhibit or sell his works.
LUIGI PERICLE 