Paul László

Paul László or Paul Laszlo in his anglicized form (February 6th 1900 - March 27th 1993) was a Architecte, interior designer and Designer of Hungarian and American pieces of furniture. He is regarded as one of the greatest creators of pieces of furniture and interior of the 20th century.

László built its reputation by conceiving interiors of houses but during the Années 1960, it was directed towards the design of interior of stores and professional furniture.

Its youth

It was born with Debrecen, in Hungary, its family then moved for Szombathely (the sources quoting its birthplace as Budapest are incorrect). László followed its studies to Vienna, in Austria then with Stuttgart in Germany where it started to work. He quickly became an eminent creator, gaining admiration inter alia El Salvador Dalí. However, the rise of the Antisémitisme with the arrival of the Nazis to the capacity in Germany made its position precarious in this country because of its Jewish ascent. In 1936, it flees Europe for the the United States to escape the Nazis. Ironically, without László am not informed of it, certain pieces of furniture of its creation were installed in the Kehlsteinhaus , the " nest of aigle" of Hitler close to Berchtesgaden what exasperated Albert Speer, the architect as a chief of the Third Reich and close adviser of Hitler. László asked for and accepted a post of professor of architecture in Argentine but it undoubtedly did not intend really to go to South America because there remained hidden in friends until he can obtain a place on transaltlantique for New York.

Its American career

While arriving at New York, it bought a car immediately and went in California of the South and created an office in the influential district of Beverly Hills, with Los Angeles. The reputation of László had preceded it. It became very appreciated among the elite of the policy and the cinema of which Ronald Reagan, Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, Barry Goldwater, the Vanderbilt, Fritz Lang, Barbara Hutton, Ray Milland, Debbie Reynolds, Billy Wilder, John D. Hertz, Henry Koster, William Wyler and Robert Taylor. Although appreciating Los Angeles much, its work remained international. Its designs opulent but were ever exaggerated; expensive but carried out with an impeccable taste. Its projects did not leave anything randomly, it conceived practically all the aspects of the design of interior: pieces of furniture, fabrics, curtains, carpets, lamps and other installations. It was manifestly intransigent in its projects of design but with a clean and single style. Few complaints were emitted on its work because of the immense impact which had its once completed achievements. László preferred the large-sized pieces of furniture personally but for a particular customer who was sensitive to his small stature, László designed a whole furniture on a scale more reduced than the standard scale. László was delighted when this customer declared to him later that its new house made it feel large for the first time in its life. As it was devoted more and more to installations of interior, it seldom accepted architectural projects. It was also known to refuse customers when it thought that its employment relationship with the latter would be unsatisfactory. Among his famous refused customers, one then finds Elizabeth Taylor in 1960 at the top of his glory, because of the requests for this one to contribute to the design and later Barbara Streisand for similar reasons.

In 1948, László joined with George Nelson, Charles Eames and Isamu Noguchi the company Hermann Miller to design office furniture. The lines of pieces of furniture presented by Hermann Miller from 1948 were regarded as the movable units never manufactured which had the strongest influence in the world of the piece of furniture. Despite everything, László was not satisfied with the agreement and of the relational one that it had with this company and it put an end to its collaboration in 1952. During many years, it kept its studio of design of pieces of furniture to the 362 North Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. It designed there stores for Bullock' S Wilshire, Goldwaters, Robinson, Saks Fifth Avenue, the Halls (in Crown Center with Kansas City), the Hudson' S Bay and Ohrbach' S. It has also created several of the casinos and spaces of exposure of the hotels that the American billionaire Howard Hughes had with Las Vegas. László still increased its notoriety by designing with elegance the shelter anti-aircraft of the US Air Force. He also worked on “Atomville”, a futuristic underground city.

He was useful during the two world wars, in Hungarian artillery on the Italian face in the first and like volunteer in the American Army, being used for the United States in the second.

Paul László was married 2 times and had a son of its second marriage with the actress Maxine Fife. He is also the uncle of the player world champion of bridge Ivan Erdos and the brother of Stephen de László.

Its work

Like proof of its long and always appreciated career, photographs, returned of architecture or descriptions of the work of László are published in each decade in books or periodicals and this since the Années 1920 and are always published today. An article of Time Magazine of August 18th, 1952 described it like " The architect of the millionnaire." He had also a capacity to combine colors which could seem irreconcilable but which seen like a whole, was incredibly hot and beautiful. It was this use of the colors on large scales but with soft and fluid lines for its designs and integration in a global project which made its work so memorable.

Autobiographical information is available on the life of László in the publication " Designing With Spirit, " a history directed by the the University of California of Los Angeles. László off made gift of many of its original work to the School Architecture At the University off California of Santa Barbara.

Its work is occasionally exposed to the Museum off Modern Art in New York and is frequently shown at the time of national and international retrospectives on the design of the 20th century.

External bonds

Paul Laszlo on architonic

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