Peter Clapham British, 1924-2003

Peter Clapham was an architect and artist.

Born in London and living in Hampstead as an architectural student, Clapham pursued his interest in Constructivism and always thought naturally and intuitively in terms of space, light and construction. After war service with the Engineers, he chose Architecture and Planning and began to design furniture as well. In 1961 his lateral thought fused naturally and creatively with his interest in mathematics, craftsmanship and structure into a personal concept of Constructivism. He was influenced by Mies van der Rohe, Mondriaan, and Albers. He then discovered affinities with Lissitzky and Antonio Calderara. Clapham's space/light structures, for all their beauty, are very pure, classical works. His structures show are spontaneous but with intuitive balance and repose. Above all, they were intended to be silent works with an internal life of their own, made aware by the viewer, by the light of the sun or their position in a room.

Peter Clapham exhibited widely with the AIA London, Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh, and Marlborough London and New York. He had one-man exhibitions at the Battelle Gallery, Geneva in 1971 and a solo show entitled 'Peter Clapham: Space, Light and Structures at Kenwood' that same year.