Name Peter (filmmaker) | Role Author | |
Awards British Academy Television Award for Best Arts Programme People also search for Nikos Stangos, John H. Williams, Kirk D'Amico, Susan Lacy Nominations British Academy Television Huw Wheldon Award For The Best Arts Programme or Series Books Eileen Gray: Architect, Speaking God's Words, Hearing God's Words, Living the Trinity, The Adjustable Table E 1 | ||
Peter Adam (born 1929) is a British filmmaker and author. Born in Germany, his work includes Eileen Gray: Her Life and Work: The Biography (2009), Outlines: David Hockney (1997), and Art of the Third Reich (ISBN 0-8109-1912-5).
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Early life
Adam was born in Germany, in 1929, to a middle-class family. His father was Jewish and his mother Protestant. In 1944, he moved to Austria. He became a British citizen in 1965 before taking up a career in broadcasting.
Career
Peter Adam has been an executive producer with the BBC for 22 years. He has been the editor of the arts magazines Review and Arena. He has been made an Officier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government. An autobiography, Mémoires à contre-vent, was published in French by Edition La Différence in April 2010, previously issued in English as Not Drowning But Waving. An Autobiography (Andre Deutsch, London 1995). His memoirs detail his friendships with many prominent filmmakers and writers. Adam was a close friend of the painters Prunella Clough and Keith Vaughan, and has contributed much to work on both artists. He is the author of the biography of the architect and designer Eileen Gray, published in England, USA, Germany, France, Japan and Russia. He also wrote a book on David Hockney titled David Hockney and his Friends. His other books include Kertesz by Kertesz and Eisenstaedt by Eisenstaedt. Adam lives in France.
Film works
He has made over 100 documentaries for BBC Current Affairs and for the Music and Arts Department, among them many prize-winning films:
He made films on Hockney, Luchino Visconti, Edward Albee, Lillian Hellman, Hans Werner Henze, Serge Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, the German Cinema, and a ten-part series on Modern Architecture. He staged Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale and Kurt Weill's The Little Mahagonny and Happy End.