Eye - 30 June 2017

Saving 'The Sunbathers'

A sculpture created by Quaker artist Peter Peri for the Festival of Britain has been rediscovered and is being restored to its former glory.

In 1951 the Festival of Britain aimed to promote the feeling of recovery amongst the country’s post-war population. It was held over a twenty-seven acre site on London’s South Bank and celebrated British industry, science and art.

Unfortunately, many of the artworks commissioned for the Festival have been lost: destroyed, neglected, sold or simply forgotten.

Last year Historic England put out a call for the public’s help in saving remaining works of art from the 1945-85 period: ‘Created and sited in the open for all of us to enjoy; these pieces were made for our public spaces, our schools, hospitals, housing estates, civic areas and communities. They were commissioned and designed with a social spirit to add colour to our local places and our daily lives.’

One of the success stories of the campaign has been the rediscovery of ‘The Sunbathers’, a sculpture by Peter Peri, which was found in the garden of The Clarendon Hotel in London.

Peter Laszlo Peri (1899-1967) was born in Hungary to a large proletarian Jewish family.

His early ventures spanned from an apprenticeship as a bricklayer and treading the boards as an actor to studying architecture and fine arts. In the 1920s he lived in Germany and joined the Communist Party but he emigrated to England in the 1930s to flee the Nazis.

In Quaker Artists, Gary Sandman writes that Peter Peri joined the Religious Society of Friends in 1945 and became an energetic member of Hampstead Meeting. He produced a small bronze sculpture of a Quaker Meeting, which is on display at Woodbrooke in Birmingham.

As an artist and sculptor he produced works in a range of materials. However, his large sculptures, including ‘The Sunbathers’, were made of cement and hung from, or appeared in relief on, the sides of buildings.

Now ‘The Sunbathers’, having been lost for decades, is being restored and will be on display from 5 July to 30 August at the Royal Festival Hall.

An afternoon of activities modelled on a 1950s visit to the seaside will also take place at the end of July, inspired by the piece.

Celia Knight, of Historic England, told Eye that over £22,000 has been raised to help restore the figures. An initial fundraising campaign aimed to raise £15,000 for the restoration… a target that was reached in just five days!

The additional funds have enabled Historic England to house the piece in a safe storage space whilst securing a permanent home for it.

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