Background
Peri was born as Ladislas Weisz in Budapest, Hungary, on June 13, 1889, to a proletarian parents. Antisemitism made his family to change their surname to the more Hungarian variant "Péri".
1921
Berlin, Germany
Peter Peri, Der Sturm gallery, Berlin.
Peri was born as Ladislas Weisz in Budapest, Hungary, on June 13, 1889, to a proletarian parents. Antisemitism made his family to change their surname to the more Hungarian variant "Péri".
Peter Peri completed a bricklayer apprenticeship in 1919 and began his study of sculpture in Budapest, attending workshops for proletariat fine arts. He studied architecture during 1919-1920 in Budapest and Berlin.
Peri shortly lived in Vienna, then he moved to Berlin in 1921, where he created his first abstract geometric artworks. In the early 1920s he was considered to be a leading Constructivist artist in Berlin. In 1922 Peter Peri participated in a show with Moholy-Nagy at Der Sturm Gallery, Berlin. His portfolio which contained twelve works of linocuts was published by Der Sturm Verlag in 1923.
Peter Peri worked from 1924 to 1928 as an architect at the Berlin City Construction Office. In the year 1929, he decided to return to representational painting and sculpture. After the transfer of power to the National Socialists, Peri had to emigrate to Britain for racist reasons. In England, he lived first in Ladbroke Grove, then in Hampstead. There in 1933 he co-founded the Artists' International Association (AIA). In July 1938 Peter Peri had a solo exhibition London Life in Concrete in an empty building at 36 Soho Square.
He became a British citizen in 1939. There he received a series of commissions for the design of public space, as a sculptural group The Sunbathers for the Festival of Britain in 1951, and the "Coventry sculpture" commissioned in 1960 for the opening of the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry.
Mr Collins from the A.R.P.
Stalin I
Street Sweeper
The Sunbathers
Following the Leader
Man of the World
A man with walking stick and trolley
Man Holding a Paper
It’s the people who matter
Reading at the wall
Bust of Mr. Thomas/Dockyard worker
Atom Boy
Mother and Children Playing
Standing Man
Relief of Boys Playing Football
The Players
Peri was a follower of the Quaker faith.
Peter Peri became a member of the German Communist Party (KPD) in 1923. In 1928, he signed the manifesto and statutes of the Association of Revolutionary Visual Artists of Germany (Assoziation Revolutionärer Bildener Künstler Deutschlands). He called for the idea of "proletarian culture" and suitably positive images of working-class life and culture.
Peri was also a member of Die Abstrakten (The Abstracts) and Rote Gruppe (Red Group).
Peri was married to Mary Macnaghten, a granddaughter of social reformer Charles Booth.