This year’s annual meeting with ADSLA’s board of directors, is immediately followed by an illustrated presentation with author Christopher Long, for a talk on his new book “Jock Peters The Varieties of Modernism Architecture and Design” from Bauer and Dean Publishers. He will put a special focus on the Art Deco work by Peters in Los Angeles.
We are delighted to have author Christopher Long present the life and work of one of the pioneer modernists in Los Angeles, the German-born architect and designer Jock Peters (1889–1934). Famous for the elegant interiors he designed for the iconic Bullock’s Wilshire in 1929 and for his chic interiors for Hollander, the long-forgotten department store in New York City that opened in 1930, Peters managed to leave his mark on the modernist landscape at a time when the new style was just emerging.
Long will recount the compelling arc of Peters’ life, from his early education in Germany to his triumphs in America. Soon after Peters immigrated to America in 1922, he became a set designer for Famous Players-Lasky (later Paramount Pictures), working under the famed Hans Dreier. In 1927, Peters established himself as a free-lance designer, producing graphics, interiors, lighting, and furniture. Two years later, working with the interior design firm Feil and Paradise, he received national acclaim for his remarkable designs of the lower floors of Bullock’s Wilshire department store. The following year, Peters completed the upscale Hollander Store in New York and a series of exuberant and cutting-edge houses in and around Los Angeles. He also participated in several exhibitions with Richard Neutra, R. M. Schindler, Kem Weber, and others, and he produced a number of designs for Park Moderne, William Lingenbrink’s visionary modernist community in Calabasas. Peters’s career was cut short in 1934, when he died suddenly after a long battle with tuberculosis.
This lecture will present many photographs and drawings from the architect’s personal archive, still held in family hands. These were published for the first time in Long’s insightful and lively study of the architect’s work, the recently published monograph Jock Peters, Architecture and Design: The Varieties of Modernism.
About the Author:
Christopher Long is Martin S. Kermacy Centennial Professor of Architectural and Design History at the University of Texas at Austin. He has published widely on various aspects of American and Central European modernism. Among his many books are Paul T. Frankl and Modern American Design (Yale University Press, 2007), Paul T. Frankl: Autobiography (DoppelHouse Press, 2013; with Aurora McClain), and Kem Weber: Designer and Architect (Yale University Press, 2014).
Members will receive information about how to RSVP for complimentary admission. This is a virtual event on Zoom and is free to current Art Deco Society of Los Angeles members. There is ONE Zoom link for both portions of this event. Those tuning into the meeting will simply stay connected for the lecture. Non-members can purchase tickets and are welcome to attend the annual meeting. Maybe it will convince you to become a member!!
If you purchase a ticket before the event, but are unable to attend, we will send you a link to view the program.