The exhibition “Peter László Péri – Péri’s People” at the Gerhard-Marcks-Haus in Bremen (which runs from 10 March to 2 June 2024, and is organized in cooperation with Kunsthaus Dahlem in Berlin), draws attention to a fascinating sculptor who contradicts the common narrative of modern art in the 20th century. He began as a constructivist and ended as a figurative artist. Yet he was not a traditional academic sculptor but combined the achievements of the avant-garde with a socialist-influenced idea of realism.
Péri was born Ladislas Weisz in Budapest in 1889. Peri became the Hungarianized family name in 1918. In 1919 he participated in the Hungarian soviet republic, and in 1920 settled in Berlin. At the beginning of 1933, as a Jew and Communist, he had to leave Germany and moved to London with his second, English, wife. These brief facts reveal a biography typical of all too many Jewish artists in early 20th century Europe, and they also explain why so many of these artists remain overlooked. Despite all the methodological innovations of the discipline, art history is still written primarily according to national patterns. And artists who were forced to move through Europe fall through the cracks. Hungarian and German art history is mostly interested in Péri before 1933, while English art history focuses on the artist after 1933. This lecture by Arie Hartog will present the results of recent research on Péri and represents a more holistic approach.
Dr. Arie Hartog has been the director of the Gerhard-Marcks-Haus in Bremen since 2009, having previously worked there as a curator. Since 2013 he has been the chair of the AG Bildhauermuseen and Skulpturensammlungen, the German working group for sculptor museums and sculpture collections. His research focus is the history of sculpture in the 20th century and the posthumous afterlife of modernist sculpture.
Image: Peter László Péri, Reflections, mid-1960s (detail) © The Estate of Peter László Péri