Eileen Gray

Extremely private and unprepossessing Irishborn designer <strong>Eileen Gray</strong> 18781976 has remained an elusive subject despite her lasting influence. Kn... » 

Extremely private and unprepossessing Irishborn designer Eileen Gray 18781976 has remained an elusive subject despite her lasting influence. Knownprimarily for her highly original furniture and interior design Gray realizednine buildings in her lifetime and recorded more than fortyfive architecturalprojects in her archive although until recently several of her built projectswere attributed solely to her collaborator Romanian architect Jean Badovici.After briefly studying art in London and Paris Gray settled in Paris in 1907and began designing sumptuous lacquer furniture wool carpets and draperiesthat reflected the sensual luxury of traditional French decorative arts.Beginning in the mid1920s and influenced by the Modern Movement she turnedto architecture. Her most renowned project the villa E. 1027 on the coast ofsouthern France interprets Corbusian spatial principles and forms and hasbecome an important example of Modernist architecture.This book is the first indepth study of Grays entire career providing agenerously illustrated analysis of her early designs as well as her work as anarchitect beginning in 1926. It draws on a wealth of archival material plansdrawings and photographs including many of Grays own to place Gray in thecontext of contemporary movements in design and architecture as well astwentiethcentury social and cultural history. «