Peter Laszlo Peri
Other names: Ladislas Weisz
Born 13 June 1899
Died 19 January 1967
Active: 1919 - 1966
Country of birth: Hungary
Country of death: England
Sculptor, stone mason
Born Budapest. Apprenticed to stonemason and attended evening classes in art. Toured with agit-prop travelling theatre in Czechoslovakia. After 1919, sought political refuge in Vienna and Paris and settled in Berlin. Leading Constructivist artist in Berlin in early 1920s. Worked in Berlin City Architect's Department 1924-27. Turned to making figurative sculpture in late 1920s. Lived in England from 1933, naturalised citizen in 1939. Modelled figures and wall reliefs, including distinctive 'horizontal reliefs', characteristically in coloured concrete. Invited to stage a solo show in London, London Life in Concrete, by Cement and Concrete Association in 1938. Also distinguished printmaker. Numerous commissions for education authorities after the war, notably Leicestershire.
Commissions include: three wall reliefs for South Lambeth Estate, London 1948-9; Watching the birds fly for Humphrey Perkins School, Barrow-upon-Soar, Leics. 1955; Man's Mastery of the Atom= Self Mastery for Longslade Community College, Leics. 1959-60; external and interior wall reliefs for Scraptoft Primary and Infant School, Leics. 1956; Two children calling a dog at Willowbrook Primary School, Leics. 1956-57; Willenhall Primary School, Staffordshire 1957; projecting concrete figures for Devonshire House, Exeter University 1960; The Spirit of Technology for Loughborough University 1961.
Exhibitions include: AIA Gallery, London 1948 (solo); SB 1951; Etchings and Sculpture, The Coffee House, London 1952 (solo); Looking Forward, Whitechapel Gallery, London 1953; Sculpture in Relation to Architecture, Architectural Association, London 1954; The Religious Theme, Tate Gallery, London 1958.
Collections include: Tate Gallery; British Museum, London; Herbert Museum and Art Gallery, Coventry; Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg; Bochum Museum; Leeds City Art Galleries.
Further reading: J. Kay and J. Lloyd, Peter Péri 1899-1967, A Retrospective Exhibition of Sculpture, Prints and Drawings, Leicestershire Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester, 3 August-29 September 1991, (exh. cat.).
Biography from Whiteley (2001)
Institutional and Business Connections
Founder of Artists International Association
1933
A co-founder of the AIA with Pearl Binder, Misha Black, James Boswell, James Lucas, James Fitton and Cliff Rowe.
Sources
AIA: The Story of the Artists International Association 1933-1953
1983
Extensive references
Directory of sculptors working and exhibiting in Britain in the 1950s, by Gillian Whiteley
2001
pp. 27-8
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2004
Gillian Whiteley, 'Peri, Peter Laszlo (1899-1967)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/64507, accessed 25 July 2010]
Citing this record
'Peter Laszlo Peri', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=ann_1280071279, accessed 25 May 2013]
