About the artwork

During World War 2 Péri volunteered for air raid rescue services in North London, getting the dead and injured out of bombed premises. He documented much of what he saw in drawings and etchings, and produced this large relief sculpture ‘The Rescue Men’ in 1942. The tactile quality of the concrete, with its visceral and raw quality, contrasts beautifully with the elegant curves of the figures. The construction of the rescue scene is reminiscent of his earlier constructivist works.

A powerful piece of major historical significance.

Artist: Peter László Péri

Medium: Concrete

Date: 1942

Dimensions: 86 x 86 x 24cm

Delivery: Contact Cal to arrange specialist art handlers.

About the artist

Peter László Péri (1899 – 1967) was a Hungarian artist and sculptor renowned for his constructivist artworks in the 1920s. He was involved in the Hungarian avant-garde from an early age, joining Janos Macza’s innovative theatre workshop in 1917. After moving to and being expelled from Paris for sedition, he settled in Berlin, becoming close with a group of exiled left-wing Hungarian avant-garde artists. An émigré to England in 1933 from Nazi-occupied Germany, Péri worked more figuratively after the war. The collection that we have for sale is largely from this period of his life.

Two of his sculptural relief works are on display at Tate Britain in the Historic and Modern British Art section 1920-1940, and several of his works are in MoMA. His long-lost Festival of Britain sculpture 'The Sunbathers' was recently restored and installed at Waterloo Station. This piece was exhibited at the recent exhibition ‘Péris’ People’ in Berlin at Kunsthaus Dahlem and in Bremen at Gerhard-Marcks-Haus.