The Lost Architecture of Jean Welz

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A deserted Paris house holds the mystery of a brilliant Viennese modernist who worked alongside Le Corbusier and Adolf Loos before vanishing. Jean Welz, a leading painter still celebrated in South Africa, had a previously unknown architectural career that author and filmmaker Peter Wyeth uncovers through a series of discoveries. Trained in sophisticated yet conservative Vienna, Welz was sent to Paris for the 1925 Art Deco exhibition by his influential employer, architect Josef Hoffmann. There, he met modern architects Le Corbusier and Adolf Loos, who hired him to assist in building a house for Dada founder Tristan Tzara. They mingled in avant-garde circles at the Dome Cafe in Montparnasse, alongside Welz's classmate Gabriel Guevrekian, future employer Raymond Fischer, and photographer Andre Kertesz. Wyeth retrieves stories, letters, portfolios, and photographs from Welz's South African family archive generations after his death, revealing his heroic designs and critiques of Corbusier's architectural principles, including a gravestone for Marx's daughter. This account explores why Welz did not achieve fame in architecture, delving into his brother's Nazi dealings, personal struggles, emigration, and his uncompromising artistic vision, while presenting significant evidence of his built projects and visionary designs.