Title: Eileen Gray : her life and work /
Authors: Adam, Peter,; Gray, Eileen, 1878-1976.
Year: 2019
Subjects: Gray, Eileen,; Gray, Eileen,; Designers Ireland Biography.; Designers France Biography.; Architects Italy Biography; Architecture France History; Furniture design France History; Architects; Designers; Ireland; Italy
Abstract: One of the most important designers and architects of the 20th century, Eileen Gray (1878-1976) wielded enormous influence - though often unacknowledged, especially in her lifetime - in a field largely dominated by men. Today, her original furniture sells for dizzying sums and her iconic designs, including the luxurious Bibendum chair and the refined yet functional E.1027 table, are renowned throughout the world. 0Resolutely independent and frequently underappreciated, Gray evolved from a creator of opulent lacquer furniture into a pioneer of the modernist principle of form following function. Remaining separate from major schools or movements such as Bauhaus and De Stijl, she developed her own distinctive take on the forms and materials favoured by fellow International Style designers such as Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand and Mies van der Rohe. 0This definitive new edition of the biography by Peter Adam, the only surviving person to have been close to Gray during her reclusive later years, is a uniquely intimate survey of her life and work. Comprehensively updated and illustrated with material drawn from Gray's personal archives - correspondence, journals, photographs and architectural sketchbooks - it tells the full story of her life from aristocratic beginnings in Ireland, through the extravagance of Art Deco-era Paris, relationships with lovers, male and female, and her productive years in southern France. It reveals fresh details about her elegant, largely overlooked paintings; tense exchanges with Le Corbusier; and the fate of E.1027, the home that she designed and furnished herself, and which set a new standard for radically modernist living.
Contents: Childhood and student years -- To Paris -- Early professional life and the art of lacquer screens -- The lacquer cult -- The Great War -- On Rue de Lota -- Jean Désert Gallery -- Monte Carlo and beyond -- L'architecture vivante -- Turning point -- Toward an erchitecture -- E.1027 -- After E.1027: laying foundations -- A house for herself: Tempea Pailla -- Building for others -- The Second World War -- Starting anew -- The last house: Lou Pérou -- Recognition at last.