The Museo del Paesaggio in Verbania, on Lake Maggiore, is hosting a solo exhibition dedicated to Tullio Pericoli, curated by Elena Pontiggia, from May 30 to November 1, 2026, in the rooms of Palazzo Viani Dugnani. Entitled Terre Inquiete (Unquiet Lands), the exhibition offers a broad path dedicated to the figure and work of Pericoli through the theme of nature and landscape, which has always been central to the artist’s research. Fifty works are on display, about half of which have never been exhibited before. The itinerary begins with the work chosen as the guiding image of the exhibition, The Landscape Observer, in which a human figure contemplates a view that becomes the cue for a reflection on current events.
Although Tullio Pericoli has long been known primarily as a draughtsman and portrait painter, his painting activity has followed a consistent path since his youth, focusing mainly on landscape. “Mine are not paintings of a landscape painter. I use landscape as a language that allows me to express my ideas, to speak also about what is happening in the world,” says the artist. “I don’t want to send messages but to understand something about painting and do it as best as I can. The landscape becomes the medium to communicate my feelings and disquiet about today’s reality. Painting should not tell in an overt way but filter the story with the complexity and multiplicity of meaning of images.” This plurality of meanings also emerges in the titles of his works, which are intentionally open and allusive: they suggest possible interpretations without exhausting them, leaving the viewer free to complete their meaning.
“Tullio Pericoli in his now long research has found in landscape his fundamental theme,” explains the curator. “His have never been naturalistic landscapes, but conceptual compositions where places and elements were reinvented in a kind of heraldic cartography or alienated vision. From the 1990s onward, in particular, his compositions heightened a sense of fragmentariness in which an ever-increasing restlessness gradually crept in.”
In the Italian artistic context of recent decades, Pericoli has stood out for the constant attention paid to the theme of nature, addressed, however, through a fully contemporary sensibility that is far removed from the verist and naturalistic traditions of the nineteenth-century matrix. Precisely for this reason, the comparison with the permanent collection of the Museo del Paesaggio’s Pinacoteca takes on a particular interest. Indeed, the artist’s works dialogue with the paintings in the collection, which preserves important evidence of Piedmont and Lombardy painting between the 19th and 20th centuries, from Arnaldo Ferraguti to exponents of naturalism such as Guido Boggiani and Eugenio Gignous.
The exhibition also includes large oil canvases, largely from the artist’s personal archive. This is a significant occasion for both the Museum and the territory, as it allows for an organic exploration of Pericoli’s creative path, highlighting his continuity of design and, at the same time, the transformations that have matured over the years. The relationship between landscape, memory and identity emerges as one of the central aspects of his research.
"The arrangement of the exhibition Terre Inquiete was conceived as an immersive and progressive path, capable of accompanying the visitor inside Tullio Pericoli’s vision, where the landscape is transformed into narrative, memory and tension," says the artistic director of the Museo del Paesaggio, Federica Rabai. “Not a simple chronological exhibition, but a construction by thematic and visual nuclei, in which the works dialogue with each other and with the spaces of Palazzo Viani Dugnani, enhancing its architecture and light.” “We wanted to create an exhibition rhythm that alternated dense and layered moments with others that were more rarefied, almost contemplative, in order to give back to the public the complexity of Pericoli’s gaze. The works are arranged to suggest connections and cross-references, inviting the visitor to grasp the transformations of the landscape over time and perception.”
“The decision to dedicate space to Tullio Pericoli stems from the strong affinity between his artistic investigation and the vocation of the Museo del Paesaggio,” Rabai continues. "His work, in fact, is not limited to representing the territory, but interprets it in depth, restoring its geological, emotional and cultural tensions. In this sense, Pericoli is an artist who fully dialogues with the identity of our Museum and the Verbano landscape, offering the public new tools to read and understand the relationship between man and the environment. With Terre Inquiete, we therefore intend to offer not only an exhibition, but an experience of reflection on the contemporary landscape, its fragilities and transformations. Welcoming this collection means strengthening the vocation of the Museo del Paesaggio as a space for confrontation between contemporary artistic languages and cultural heritage, while fostering new opportunities for reflection and participation for the community."
Tullio Pericoli’s views take their cue from places in the Marche region, the artist’s homeland, but they soon move away from the descriptive dimension to take on a more lyrical and imaginative significance. Landscapes become interior spaces, constructions of memory and sensibility. If in the past the representation of nature evoked serenity and harmony, today his works reflect a more restless perception of the world, marked by the increasing fragility of the environment and the threats to the contemporary landscape. While distancing himself from an objective representation of reality, Terre Inquiete continues to invoke the real world through the infinite expressive possibilities of light and color. The pictorial surfaces, animated by delicate and vibrant touches, restore a suspended and poetic dimension to convey a sense of wonder and enchantment. In this tension between disquiet and beauty manifests that cathartic function that art continues to exercise, offering the viewer a space for reflection and consolation.
Side events include guided tours of the exhibition led by art historian Ilaria Macchi. The appointments will be held on Saturday, June 6, July 11, August 8, September 19 and October 17, always at 3:30 p.m. Special attention is also paid to younger visitors and their families. The exhibition itinerary is enriched by dedicated activities and specially designed educational materials to accompany children and young people.
The exhibition is realized with the support and patronage of the City of Verbania, the Piedmont Region and the Lakes and Valleys Tourist District. The exhibition also benefits from co-financing by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund, the Italian State and the Rotation Fund, as part of the Interreg VI-A Italy-Switzerland Cooperation Program, within the project A place where I am well.
Accompanying the epsosition is a catalog published by the Museo del Paesaggio di Verbania.
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| The Museum of Landscape in Verbania dedicates a solo exhibition to Tullio Pericoli on the theme of landscape |
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