Peter Peri

British sculptor and copperplate engraver Peter Peri was born in Budapest, Hungary, into a large proletarian Jewish family under the Hungarian name Ladislas Weisz, and he became politicized at an early age, when he had to Magyarize his name to László Péri due to political pressure. He decided to stay in England, having fled the Nazis during the 1930s, after having lived and worked in Berlin from 1920-33 in order to escape persecution in Hungary. Peri studied sculpture in Budapest from 1918 and immigrated to Paris in 1920 and then moved to Berlin. He produced concrete sculptures, wooden sculptures and room constructions being discussed in the periodical der Sturm between 1921 and 1927. He also became a member of the Communist Party KPD and worked as an architect with Berlin authorities from 1924-28. During this time, he was considered a constructivist.

In Britain Peri continued to work on concrete sculptures. He executed a number of other related colored concrete and cement reliefs of laboring men. He also modelled figures and wall reliefs, including distinctive horizontal reliefs, characteristically in colored concrete. He always looked at everyday topics such as working people and presented them accordingly. In 1939 Peri became a naturalized British citizen and changed his name to Peter. His grandson of the same name, Peter Peri (born in 1971), also became an artist.