Ben Marks says: "If you are a fan of Southern California modernist architecture in the first half of the 20th century, you are probably familiar with names like Irving Gill, Frank Lloyd Wright, his son Lloyd Wright, R.M. Schindler, and Richard Neutra. But few have heard of Jock Peters, who contributed mightily to the movement before dying of tuberculosis at the age of 45 in 1934. That is about to change thanks to a new book by University of Texas architecture professor Christopher Long, whose Jock Peters, Architecture and Design: The Varieties of Modernism gives an unsung participant his due while reminding us how fluid modernism was in its infancy."
Here's a snip from the article in Collectors Weekly:
When the great 20th-century architect Richard Neutra arrived in Los Angeles in 1925 with his wife, Dione, and the couple's young child, his first residence was 835 Kings Road in West Hollywood. There, the Neutras shared the home of fellow Austrian architect Rudolph Schindler and his wife, Pauline. Schindler, who designed the architectural landmark, had already made a name for himself in the United States by writing a "manifesto" that described, perhaps for the first time in so many words, an architecture in which, "The distinction between indoors and the out-of-doors will disappear." A stint with Frank Lloyd Wright sealed Schindler's reputation, as did the legendary soirees at Kings Road, where it was not uncommon for modern dancers to perform in the nude while Schindler's guests drank freely, despite the strictures of Prohibition.When the little-known 20th-century architect and designer Jock Peters arrived in Los Angeles in 1922, his wife, Herta, and their five children remained back home in Germany. Peters' first lodging was a room at a local YMCA, which he shared with his brother George, who had landed in the United States almost a decade earlier. "I want to lead a quiet, insular life with you here," Jock was soon assuring Herta in a letter home, "and shall try to avoid ambition and fame."
Peters kept this promise, maybe too assiduously…
