Paul László

Paul László

Paul László (born February 6, 1900 in Debrecen , Hungary , † March 27, 1993 in Santa Monica , California ) was a Hungarian-American modern architect and interior designer and is considered a great figure among furniture designers , interior designers, and architects of the 20th century . László earned his reputation as an architect by designing interior fittings for houses. In the 1960s, he shifted his focus to retail equipment and commercial interior design.

Life

He was born in Hungary as the son of Ignác László and Regina László (nee Soros). His family later moved to Szombathely in Hungary. Other sources give Budapest as the place of birth . László completed his training in Vienna before moving to Stuttgart . There he was quickly noticed by his unusual designs and won the admiration of Salvador Dalí , among others . Because of his Jewish background, it was in the time of growing anti-Semitism in the 1930s in Europe for him too uncertain. In 1936 he emigrated to the USA .

Ironically, parts of László's work went, without his knowledge, into the construction of Hitler's Kehlsteinhaus near Berchtesgaden , which aroused the anger of Albert Speer , the chief architect of the Third Reich and close advisor to Hitler. This incident led László to believe that he had to leave his family, work and friends because Europe was no longer safe for him. He applied for a chair in architecture in Argentina and was accepted. In truth, however, he never intended to go to South America and was instead hidden by his friends until he managed to get a place on a ship that took him to New York City instead of South America .

Once in New York, he immediately bought a car, drove to Southern California, and set up an office in affluent Beverly Hills . His reputation preceded him. He was popular with both the political and the actor elite, such as Ronald Reagan , Gary Cooper , Cary Grant , Barry Goldwater , the Vanderbilts , Fritz Lang , Barbara Hutton , Ray Milland , Debbie Reynolds , Billy Wilder , John D. Hertz , Barbara Stanwyck, and Henry Koster . With his business partner Fritz Eden , a German designer and émigré who had left Stuttgart for the USA in 1934, László ran his design studio at 362 North Rodeo Drive for over 20 years. Although he loved his adopted home Los Angeles, he stayed his work is open to international influences. His designs were opulent, but never exaggerated, expensive, and their execution demonstrated impeccable taste. He left nothing to chance in his projects and planned every single detail, including furniture, fabrics, curtains, carpets, lamps and the rest of the inventory. He was notorious for being uncompromising in his design projects, but his unique personal style seldom resulted in complaints, as in the end the completed project usually made an overwhelming impression. László himself preferred generously sized furniture, but for one of his customers who was sensitive to its small size, László designed all the furnishings to be a little smaller than normal. László was finally happy when this customer later explained to him that the new house made him feel truly great for the first time in his life. Since László increasingly occupied himself with interiors, he accepted fewer and fewer architectural assignments. And he was soon known for turning down customers if he had the impression that the personal relationship with such a customer was going to be unsatisfactory for him. So he turned down an order for Elizabeth Taylor in 1960, when she was at the height of her fame, from because she got too involved in design issues; later he turned down an assignment for Barbra Streisand for a similar reason . László did not come to an agreement with Thomas Mann either, which is why it was not László but Julius Ralph Davidson who designed the Thomas Mann House in Pacific Palisades in 1941 .

In 1948, László teamed up with George Nelson , Charles Eames and Isamu Noguchi to produce designs for the Herman Miller Company. The furniture designs that Herman Miller then presented in 1948 are considered to be the most influential series of furniture ever made. Nevertheless, László was not satisfied with the work and ended the business relationship in 1952. For many years, László ran his furniture studio at 362 North Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. He designed department stores for Bullock's Wilshire, Goldwaters, Robinson's, Saks Fifth Avenue, Halls (the Crown Center in Kansas City ), Hudson's Bayn, and Ohrbach's. He has also designed many of the casinos and showrooms at Howard Hughes' hotels in Las Vegas . László's elegant air raid shelters , which he designed for the United States Air Force , also became famous . He also designed the "Atomville", a futuristic underground city.

Works

Photographs, reproductions and descriptions of his work, which have been in books and magazines from the 1920s to the present day, bear witness to László's long and widely admired career. The Time magazine described him in an article in the issue of 18 August 1952 as "the architect of millionaires". He has the ability to combine colors that were supposed to be incompatible, but when you saw them as a whole they were amazingly warm and beautiful. It was this use of colors and the large-format and at the same time soft and flowing lines of his designs, as well as the integrative effect of the whole project, that made his work so unforgettable.

He served as a soldier in both world wars: in World War I, he fought against Hungarian artillery on the Italian front; in World War II he was recruited into the US Army and served on the home front.

László's work is repeatedly exhibited in the New York Museum of Modern Art and can also be seen regularly in other national and international exhibitions on design of the 20th century.

Paul László was married twice and had a son with his second wife. He was also the uncle of world class bridge player Ivan Erdos and the brother of Stephen de László .

literature

• D. Stuart: Paul László, Stuttgart – Vienna. In: Moderne Baufformen, Vol. 26, 1927, pp. 441–448.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Francis Nenik / Sebastian Stumpf: Seven Palms. The Thomas Mann House in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles . Spector Books, Leipzig 2018, ISBN 978-3-95905-180-4 , pp. 84-93 .