Introduction and Acknowledgments

Pitiot, Cloé

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Introduction and Acknowledgments

Cloé Pitiot

Eileen Gray

The National Museum of Ireland, Victoria & Albert Museum, and Centre Pompidou have the largest holdings of Eileen Gray research materials. The captions for images from those collections follow the requirements of the respective institutions. In certain cases particular bequests have stipulations about rights. We advise all researchers to check with the institutions when requesting photographs...

Author

Cloé Pitiot (Editor), Nina Stritzler-Levine (Editor)

PublisherBard Graduate Center

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-100136

Chapter subject tags:Gray, Eileen, 1878-1976Women designers--20th century

Introduction and Acknowledgments

Cloé Pitiot

In 2013, the Centre Pompidou in Paris organized the most comprehensive exhibition of Eileen Gray in four decades. The catalogue that I edited for the exhibition brought together an international group of contributors who considered the range of Gray’s artistic production. The exhibition, Eileen Gray Architect Designer Painter, a collaboration between the Irish Museum of Modern Art and Centre Pompidou, followed in October of that year. When the Bard Graduate Center approached the Centre Pompidou about being a venue for the exhibition, we agreed that the research that had become available since the Pompidou project, as well as previously untapped sources, warranted a new publication. Working with Jennifer Goff, curator of the Eileen Gray Collection at the National Museum of Ireland, we embarked on this book project with the goal of publishing new research focused in particular on archives and repositories in the United States, including the Getty Research Center in Santa Monica, the Archives of American Art, and the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University, among others. In addition, since 2013, many of Gray’s papers have moved from private hands to public collections, which provided access to material that had previously been inaccessible to most scholars. A series of events during Gray’s lifetime, however, leaves permanent gaps in our understanding of Gray’s work. Owing to vandalism of her home Tempe a Pailla during the Second World War and her own act of self-effacement when she destroyed a cache of her papers before she died, there will always be unanswered questions. Nevertheless, the Bard Graduate Center book responds to many of these questions, presents new material, and publishes essays from the Pompidou catalogue previously available only in French. This volume is a compilation of texts that explore and analyze Gray’s career as an artist, designer, and architect. “Crossing Borders,” my opening chapter, provides an overview of Gray’s long and prolific career. Chapter 2, by Frédéric Migayrou, “The Imagist,” discusses Gray as an architect, noting that any analysis of her work necessitates consideration of her wide network of friends and the influence of varied sources, such as the British schools of Imagism and Vorticism. In Chapters 3 and 4, Jennifer Goff and Olivier Gabet focus on Gray’s early years in Ireland, her aristocratic Irish heritage, and the impact of her upbringing on her work as a modern designer and architect. Goff’s chapter includes new research; the Gabet essay is republished from the Pompidou catalogue. Gray’s enrollment in the Slade School of Fine Art in London was a turning point in her artistic career, and Catherine Bernard’s Chapter 5, “Edwardian London: A City in Flux, or Learning from Syncretism,” contextualizes Gray’s time in London, a city that experienced changing conceptions of modernity at the turn of the twentieth century.

The essays that constitute the section titled “Being a Designer” explore three areas of Gray’s artistic endeavors. My chapter opens the section with a text that brings together new research on the connections between theory and practice in Gray’s design work. Ruth Starr, in Chapter 7, “The Lacquer Studio,” expanding on work published in the Pompidou catalogue, details Gray’s move to lacquer and her important twenty-year working collaboration and friendship with respected lacquer artisan Seizo Sugawara. In Chapter 8, “Eileen Gray and the Art of Lacquer,” conservator and lacquer specialist Anne Jacquin introduces remarkable new research in her discussion of a notebook that includes Gray’s handwritten notes on lacquer techniques and analyzes these in relation to surviving pieces. These notes confirm Gray’s deep knowledge of the medium and reveal how she both respected and experimented with traditional techniques in creating distinctly modern designs. Jennifer Goff’s examination of Gray’s woven rug designs in Chapter 9 expands the text published in the Pompidou catalogue by further exploring another facet of Gray’s artistry, which, with her friend and collaborator Evelyn Wyld, resulted in abstract and geometric designs that can be considered alongside contemporaneous avant-garde art movements, including Cubism and Fauvism. Here Gray’s expertise and her exacting eye for color, line, and form are evident in both her drawings for rugs and surviving examples.

The section entitled “Being an Architect” brings together important new research on the architectural projects Gray designed throughout her life. Although she never attended architecture school and was largely self-taught, these essays together confirm that Gray led an accomplished career that saw the construction of three residential homes and the design of many other projects, both built and unbuilt. In Chapter 11, architect and historian Renaud Barrès provides a comprehensive analysis of Gray’s first completed project: her best-known home, E 1027, created for her longtime friend and collaborator Jean Badovici, who was himself a trained architect. Here Barrès emphasizes the importance of the house’s seaside location and details some of the project’s main focuses: lightness, functionality, modularity, and small scale. Chapters 12 and 13 discuss Tempe a Pailla, the house in the mountains that Gray purchased and renovated for herself while working on E 1027. Architectural historian Caroline Constant considers Tempe a Pailla (1932) and Gray’s last residence, Lou Pérou (completed in 1961), arguing that these two projects accurately depict her “architectural ‘soul’ ” more so than the work she had done in the 1920s with Badovici. In its considered layout and attention to both sunlight and privacy, Tempe a Pailla reveals how Gray manipulated the landscape and interiors of the house to support the life she led there as a single woman. Multifunctionality was a primary concern in Gray’s design and architectural work, and, as Constant and Goff discuss in Chapter 13, this was also the case at Tempe a Pailla, particularly in the furnishings and fittings Gray designed for the house. In Chapter 14, “Social and Cultural Forays: Architecture as Suggestive Action,” Constant delves into a set of socially motivated projects Gray designed in the 1930s that reveal her concern for the physical and psychological well-being of the modern individual, among which are a Vacation Center (see L2) and a Cultural and Social Center (see L5).

The forty-two Decorative Arts and Design Case Studies in the next section of this book demonstrate the scope of Gray’s prolific career as a designer and artist and showcase her work in many media and disciplines. From lacquer to tubular steel and designs for objects including frames, light fixtures, and screens, Philippe Garner, Renaud Barrès, and I provide exhaustive technical and historical information about examples of Gray’s design work held in public collections, private hands, and the pieces that are now lost. In particular, we want to call the reader’s attention to the analysis of the Oriental Mountebanks panel in the collection of the Maryhill Museum of Art whose re-discovery is discussed in Chapter 1. Similarly, in the subsequent Architecture Case Studies, Barrès, Caroline Constant, and Jennifer Goff detail forty-seven designs Gray created throughout her life. These Case Studies are organized into four typologies: Residential Architecture, Social Architecture, Exhibition Architecture, and Urban Projects. A final section of Case Studies based on drawings by Le Corbusier in the Eileen Gray Collection of the National Museum of Ireland aims to unravel details of the influence and tension in Le Corbusier and Gray’s relationship. Here Constant and Goff discuss the differences and similarities between E 1027 and Le Corbusier’s Maison au bord du lac Léman in Vevey, Switzerland, as well as Gray’s work with Jean Badovici on the avant-garde architecture journal L’Architecture Vivante. These entries are published here for the first time with illustrations, most of which come from the collections of the National Museum of Ireland and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A).

A checklist at the back of the book makes clear the wide scope of Gray’s career and includes materials from each facet of her practice. We would like to thank the community of researchers who helped bring this project to fruition. This book would not have been possible without the shared knowledge of Jennifer Goff, curator of the Eileen Gray Collection at the National Museum of Ireland, who has devoted her professional life to safeguarding and analyzing the works and archives of Eileen Gray. She has spent hours scouring through documents, photographs, and drawings—in Dublin, New York, and Washington—a substantial undertaking for which we cannot possibly thank her enough. Philippe Garner shared his incomparable knowledge of Gray, generously shared his time with me, and contributed substantially to the case study section of this book. Architect and architectural historian Renaud Barrès also played an essential role in the project. He has an unparalleled understanding of E 1027 that he has allowed us to publish in this volume. We thank him as well for the information he provided on the enigmatic Jean Badovici, a figure who is finally beginning to come into focus. We are indebted to Caroline Constant, Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan, for agreeing to republish and expand upon the entries on Gray’s architecture from her groundbreaking book published in 2000 and for her new research and writings on several of Gray’s previously unpublished architectural projects. At the V&A we received assistance without which the architecture Case Studies would not have been published in the comprehensive way they are presented here. The greatest debt of thanks goes to Christopher Marsden, who dedicated innumerable hours, including time during the Christmas holiday, to measure the drawings, check the materials, and provide other information on the drawings from the V&A collection illustrated here for the first time. We would also like to thank Christopher Wilk for his support and the photography studio at the V&A for making the new photography available for this volume.

Michael Likierman, head of the Comité Scientifique de Cap Moderne, a group of researchers, professors, curators, specialists, and others working to restore E 1027, provided encouragement and shared his inspiring passion for Gray.

We would like to reiterate Susan Weber’s thanks to all of the lenders and extend a special note of appreciation to Magda Rebutato and the Rebutato family for their incomparable generosity in donating the Coiffeuse transportable (Mobile dressing table) (see H9), originally designed by Gray for E 1027, to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.

Marcial di Fonzo Bo shared his critical eye, engaged in many enlightening discussions with me, and is an important lender to the exhibition.

Alexandra Popescu offered her Romanian translation skills and helped us better understand Jean Badovici through his letters and files.

Much of the new research would not have been possible without the support of gallerists and private collectors. We thank all those who wish to remain anonymous, as well as:

The Galerie Anne-Sophie Duval and its director, Julie Blum, who, following her mother Anne-Sophie Duval, represents the second of two generations of women passionate about Gray’s work. Blum’s architect’s eye was essential in analyzing the design and construction of lacquer pieces and furniture, as well as architectural drawings and rugs. We offer immense thanks for her generous correspondence and contributions.

The Galerie De Lorenzo and longtime director Adriana Friedman, who continues to collect lacquer and modernist pieces by Gray. We thank her deeply for opening her gallery to us and for our many enlightening exchanges on the designer’s work.

The Galerie Jacques De Vos and Jacques De Vos, who has, since the 1970s, collected Gray’s lacquer masterpieces and later modern works.

We offer immense thanks for the many informative conversations he had with me on the design and construction of Gray’s furniture.

The Galerie Peyroulet, and Gilles Peyroulet and Dominique Chenivesse, who have collected a number of iconic pieces by the designer, as well as related archival documents. We thank them for our many fruitful discussions on Gray’s archives, the intricacies of her furniture, and her choice of materials and for the time they gave to helping us obtain key illustrations in this book that have not been published previously.

The Galerie Vallois and Cheska Vallois, who has, since the early 1970s, collected a number of Gray’s lacquer pieces and iconic works from the 1910s and 1920s. I have benefited from many conversations with Cheska about Gray, many of which called attention to the subtlety and elegance of Gray’s work and her use of line and geometry to create abstract forms. We also thank Bob Vallois, Georges-Philippe Vallois, and Marianne Le Métayer for their warmth and generosity.

This book and the exhibition it accompanies would have been impossible without the dedicated team at the Bard Graduate Center and in Paris. Here we would also like to reiterate the appreciation for their efforts on behalf of this project expressed in Susan Weber’s Foreword. Warmest thanks to Marine Bry, who has worked with us for many years to expand the research on Eileen Gray. Her remarkable dedication to locating works by Gray in various libraries and her analysis of the archival and photographic collections were among the most important contributions to this project. Special thanks also go to Emma Cormack, who participated with the utmost professionalism in the realization of both the exhibition and the catalogue and who has, through her brilliant research, increased our knowledge of the subject with finesse and precision. We would like to give special attention to Alexis Mucha and Barbara Burn, to whom we are indebted for their work on this project. We also thank Caroline Constant who generously agreed to resume and expand the remarkable research work that she began many years ago for this edition of the catalogue. I would also like to express my gratitude to Irma Boom, whose sensitive and dynamic design for this book brings a fresh eye to what has been published previously and illuminates what is published here for the first time.

I can never thank enough Olivier Gabet, Director of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, who let me continue this journey with Eileen Gray that I began when I was at the Centre Pompidou. His patience, understanding and support is warmly appreciated and has given me the strength to realize this project.

I would like to express my profound appreciation to Peter Adam, film director and journalist, who died in the fall of 2019 before this exhibition opened. Peter gave me access to his archive on Gray for more than ten years. He also generously shared his recollections so that the memory and work of Eileen Gray would continue to be celebrated. It was Peter who worked to have a plaque installed in front of Gray’s residence at 21, rue Bonaparte. Peter contributed substantially to Eileen Gray’s posthumous recognition throughout the world. He played an incomparable role in preserving the legacy of his dear friend.

Editor’s Note
The National Museum of Ireland, Victoria & Albert Museum, and Centre Pompidou have the largest holdings of Eileen Gray research materials. The captions for images from those collections follow the requirements of the respective institutions. In certain cases particular bequests have stipulations about rights. We advise all researchers to check with the institutions when requesting photographs to be sure the proper protocols are followed. In some cases there are duplicate images in different collections but only one institution owns the rights.

The reader should also be aware of the potential for confusion with references to page and plate numbers in the article by Eileen Gray and Jean Badovici on E 1027 in L’Architecture Vivante. The plate numbers in the Automne Hiver (fall and winter) 1929 issue go from 26–59 in the so-called special issue and reprint, “E 1027 Maison en bord de mer,” the plates are numbered 1–34. For an exhaustive study of the the different versions see: Daniel Lawler, “L’Architecture and its Extraits,” Studies in Bibliography 60 (2018): 251–277.

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