Design Icon: Eileen Gray
The modernist designer generated an oeuvre that is gentler and more sensuous in spirit than many of her competitors.
Modernist design is not often associated with opulence and luxury, but Eileen Grey, an Irish lacquer artist, interior designer, and architect, combined the lavishness of art deco design with the geometric forms of the international style, creating an aesthetic of her own. Through her celebrated lacquered folding screens, expanding side tables, industrial lamps, and modernist architecture, Gray integrated stark forms and geometric decorations with luxurious materials and traditional techniques, constructing dark, sensual objects and interiors that communicated a distinctly unique modernity.
Cover photo courtesy of the National Museum of Ireland.
The voluptuous Bibendum chair, named after the Michelin man for its soft, comfortable cushions, is a perfect example of Gray’s decorative union between Art Deco and Modernism. Combining cold, pure tubular steel with the luxury and warmth of natural leather, Gray fuses the two styles into one.
Photo Courtesy of classicon.com
Born in 1878 to an aristocratic family, Grey was exceptionally talented. She studied with a Japanese lacquer artist for years in order to perfect the painstakingly difficult technique, experimenting with colors and textures in variations on traditional Japanese inlay decoration. Still, Gray’s work was largely overlooked until late in her career. She was overshadowed by modernists like Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius as she worked without a male mentor or partner like many better-known female artists of her time. Gray nonetheless generated an oeuvre that is gentler and more sensuous in spirit than many ofher competitors.
Gray studied the craft of lacquer work under the Japanese master Seizo Sugawara. Although she drew directly from the technique, she incorporated distinctly modern elements into this 1928 screen’s design, decorating the sleek piece with geometric designs against a stark black background.
Photo Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum
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Gray designed her famous Pirogue daybed for the Rue de Lota apartment between 1920 and 1924. The lacquered daybed was inspired by Polynesian dugout canoes. It is a delicate, feminized piece, recalling exotic designs, luxurious materials, and historical French forms.
Photo Courtesy of Design Museum
The Rue de Bonaparte apartment, which features the Bibendum chairs along with a collection of striking animal hide blankets and rugs, provides a sense of the modernist atmosphere within which the designer worked. White walls and open spaces, as well as a clear geometricity in the floor tiles and organization of the room, give the apartment a Le Corbusier-like airiness. This tone is complimented by Gray’s interest in femininity and comfort, which she incorporates through natural materials and delicate lines, differentiating her from her contemporaries.
Photo Courtesy of Design Museum
A fierce, independent woman and an innovative designer, Eileen Gray wove art, design, and architecture together into distinct projects that celebrated femininity and inspired both Modernism and Art Deco.
Photo by Berenice Abott
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Eileen Gray: Objects and Furniture Design
Neglected in her lifetime, Eileen Gray (1878-1976) is now regarded as one of the most important furniture designers and architects of the early twentieth century. She first worked as a lacquer artist, then as a furniture designer and finally as an architect. At a time when other leading designers were almost exclusively male and adherents to one movement or another, Gray remained stalwartly independent. Her design style was as distinctive as her way of working; Gray developed an opulent, luxuriant take on the geometric forms and industrially produced materials used by International Style designers such as Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand and Mies van der Rohe. Her voluptuous leather and steel Bibendum Chair and chic E-1027 glass and tubular steel table are now familiar icons of modernity. Part of the By Architects series, Eileen Gray highlights the work of this singular designer-architect.
ShopClassiCon Adjustable Table E 1027
A pioneer of modern design in the 1920s and '30s, Eileen Gray created revolutionary furniture out of tubular steel. The Adjustable Table E 1027 is a side table she created in 1927 for the French Riviera retreat she built to share with her partner, architect Jean Badovici. The summer home is also named E 1027, which is code for their two names intertwined: E for Eileen, and 1027 for J, B, and G. Made of black powder-coated or chome-plated steel, the table echoes the house's cantilevered form and is adjustable to fit next to a bed, chair, or sofa. The tabletop is clear crystal glass, gray smoked glass, or black lacquered metal. The iconic Adjustable Table E 1027 is part of the permanent collection at MoMA. Photo Courtesy of Design Within Reach
ShopRelated Reading: Eileen Gray Documentary Premieres in Tribeca
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