Best known for her work with lacquer,
Eileen Gray (1878- 1976) had a fascinating and multifaceted artistic career: she became a designer of ornaments, furniture, interiors, and eventually homes. Though her attention shifted from smaller objects to the very large, she always focused on details, even details that were forever hidden. In Paris she studied the Japanese tradition of lacquer, employing wood surfaces-e.g., bowls, screens, furniture-for the application of the clear, hard-drying liquid. It is a time-consuming craft, then little known in Europe, that superimposes layer upon layer, sometimes involving twenty layers or more. The tradition of lacquer fit well with her artistic sensibilities, as Gray eschewed the flowing, leafy lines of the Art Nouveau movement that had flourished in Paris, preferring the austere beauty of straight lines and simple forms juxtaposed.
In addition to requiring painstaking layering, the wood used in lacquer work must be lacquered on both sides to prevent warping. This tension between aesthetic demands and structural requirements, which invests Gray's work in lacquer with an architectural quality, is critical but not always apparent: a folding screen or door panel reveals more of the artist's work than does a flat panel, which hides one side. In Gray's early work she produced flat panels; later she made door panels and even unfolded the panels into screens. In a screen she made for the lobby of an apartment,
she fully realizes the implications of this expansion from two to three dimensions: the screen juts out from a wall, and that wall visually disintegrates into panels of lacquered bricks on the screen. The screen thus becomes a painting, a piece of furniture, and an architectural element all at once. She subsequently became heavily invested in the design of furniture, often tailoring pieces to fit a particular interior environment. She often used modem materials, such as tubular steel, to create furniture and environments that, though visually austere, meet their occupants' needs.
Gray's work in both lacquer and interior design prefigures her work as an architect. She did not believe that one should divorce the structural design of the exterior from the design o f the interior. She designed the interior elements of a house together with the
more permanent structures, as an integrated whole. Architecture for her was like work in lacquer: it
could only be achieved from the inside out. But in architecture we discover the hidden layers; in fact we inhabit them. We find storage cabinets in the recesses of a staircase, desks that are also cabinets, and tables that are set on pivots to serve different functions in different contexts. One such table can be positioned either outside, on a balcony, or inside the house.
Gray placed a carpet underneath it in each location,
as though to underscore that there is no important distinction between exterior and interior.

8. Which one of the following most accurately summarizes
the main point of the passage?

A. Eileen Gray's artistic career, which ranged from interior to exterior design, was greatly influenced by her early work in lacquer, which molded her aesthetic sensibilities and caused her to develop independence as an artist, yet prevented her from garnering acclaim by critics of contemporary art.
B. Eileen Gray's artistic career, ranging from the design of ornaments and interiors to architectural design, was exemplified by her work in lacquer, from which she derived an aesthetic that downplayed the distinctions between interior and exterior and sought integral wholeness in a work of art.
C. Eileen Gray, a multifaceted artist whose designs ranged from ornaments to houses, is best known for her use of modem materials such
as tubular steel in the design of furniture and houses, which, while informed by an austerity of line, create humanistic environments that meet their occupants' needs.
D. Although Eileen Gray's artistic endeavors ranged from the design of ornaments and interiors to architectural design, her distinctive style, which is characterized by a sense of the hidden, is evident in all her work, making it readily identifiable.
E. The fact that Eileen Gray's artistic career evolved from the design of ornaments and furniture to architecture ultimately derives from her eventual dissatisfaction with Japanese traditional art and its emphasis on integral wholeness.



9. Which one of the following comes closest to exemplifying the characteristics of Gray's work as described in the passage?
A. an upholstered sofa with tasseled fringes and curved, wooden arms
B. a coffee table decorated with intricate carvings of birds, trees, and grasses that are painted in bright colors
C. a thin, stainless steel vase intended to resemble the ornate flowers it will hold
D. a round, wooden picture frame inlaid with glass beads, pearls, and gracefully cut pieces of colorful shells
E. a metal chair whose simple shape is adapted to fit the human form

10. The passage provides information that most strongly supports which one of the following assertions?(A) Gray's reputation rests primarily on the range of styles and media in which she worked, rather than on her work in any particular medium.
B) Gray personally constructed most of the interior furnishings that she designed.
(C) In Paris in Gray's time, wood was generally considered an inappropriate medium for visual art.
(D) Few of Gray's works in lacquer were intended for public viewing.
(E) Much of Gray's later work was functional as well as ornamental.

11. Information in the passage most helps to answer which one of the following questions?
(A) When did the tradition of lacquer first become known in Europe?
(B) What types of wood are usually considered best for use in traditional Japanese lacquer work?
(C) Were the artistic motifs of traditional lacquer work similar to those that were typical of Art Nouveau?
(D) Did Gray allow the style of her architecture to be infonned by the landscape that surrounded the building site?
(E) What is a material that Gray used both structurally for its superior strength and decoratively for its visual interaction with another material?

Which one of the following most accurately characterizes the author's attitude toward Gray's artistic accomplishments?
(A) appreciation of the fact that her aesthetic philosophy, as well as the materials she used and the range of her work, sets her work apart from that of many of her contemporaries
(B) admiration for her artistic independence and refusal to confonn to contemporary art trends even though such refusal positioned her on the periphery of the art world
(C) appreciation for the interpretation of Japanese tradition in her work, by which she made a unique contribution to modem architectural design while remaining faithful to Japanese architectural traditions
(D) admiration for the rapid development in her career, from the production of smaller works, such as ornaments, to large structures, like houses, that ensured her reputation as an avant-garde artist
(E) appreciation for her help in revolutionizing the field of structural design through her use of traditional materials and modern materials in her furniture creations and architectural work.

13. The passage most strongly suggests that which one of following principles was used by Gray in her work?
A. Traditional lacquering techniques can be applied to nontraditional materials, such as brick and steel, with artistically effective results.
B. The nature and placement of a dwelling's interior features can be essential factors in determining the overall structural design of the dwelling.
C. Traditional ornamental techniques that are usually applied to small items are especially suitable for use on large structural elements of buildings.
D. Excellent artistic effects can be achieved through the juxtaposition of visually austere elements with gracefully ornate elements of design.
e. The superficial visual aspects of a building's decor can give evidence of the materials that have been used in its basic, unseen structural components.


14. The passage most strongly suggests that the author would agree with which one of the following statements about Gray's architectural work?
A. It was considered by other architects of her time to be iconoclastic and inconsistent with sound principles of structural design.
B. Her involvement in it was marked by a radical shift in her attitude toward the relation between the expressive and functional aspects of her work.
C. The public is less knowledgeable about it than about at least some of her other work
D. It has been less controversial among recent critics and scholars than has at least some of her work in interior design.
E. Unlike her work in lacquer, it was not influenced by an established tradition of Asian art.