By Jennifer Goff

istory was made at the Grand fall of 2016 the Bard Graduate Center in Palais in Paris on February 24, New York, in association with the Pompidou H 2009, when lot 276 in Christie’s Center in Paris, will mount a comprehensive sale of the collection of Yves Saint Laurent exhibition about Gray, encompassing all that and Pierre Bergé was hammered down. In recent and current investigations are unearth- the midst of an economic recession, Eileen ing. Here is a brief look at some of these, Gray’s Dragons armchair (Fig. 3) had sold starting with the Dragons armchair. for € 21.9 million (more than $28 million), Exemplifying Gray’s early lacquer work, the highest price ever paid at auction for the subtly sculpted and magically crafted twentieth-century decorative art. It was Dragons chair was created between 1917 bought for a private collection through the specialist Paris gallery of Cheska and Rob- ert Vallois, fitting, indeed, since Cheska Vallois had sold the chair to Yves Saint Laurent in the early 1970s. When asked why the chair reached this astonishing price, she replied simply that it was the “price of desire.” Since then, the desire to Fig. 1. E.1027, the villa designed know more about Gray has by Eileen Gray (1878–1976) for (1893–1956) in soared—exhibitions, books, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, movies, and more are provid- France, 1926–1929, following restoration, 2014. Photograph © ing a better understanding of Manuel Bougot.

this enigmatic and elusive Irish- Fig. 2. Gray with peacock born designer, architect, photogra- feathers in a photograph of 1903. National Museum of Ire- pher, and artist, revealing her to have land, Dublin; except as noted, images are © NMI. been one of the most important figures Fig. 3. Dragons armchair de- in twentieth-century modernism. In the signed by Gray, 1917–1919. GRAY Wood, leather, natural brown, orange, black, and white lacquer and silver leaf; height 24, width Recent films, exhibitions, and books re-establish 34 ¾, depth 26 ⅜ inches. Private MATTERS collection © Christie’s Images. Eileen Gray’s reputation and start to set the record straight and 1919 as part of her design for the boulevard Suchet apartment she innovatively covered rue de Lota apartment of Juliette the walls in silvered glass. Mathieu-Lévy, the first patron to n early 2013 the Pompidou Center held the first provide Gray with an opportunity ever retrospective exhibition of Gray’s work in to create a complete environment. I France, her adopted home from the early 1900s The intertwining dragons that form until her death in 1976. Curated by the visionary Gray the frame and armrests are lacquered scholar Cloé Pitiot, it embraced every aspect of the in rustic orange and brown, their eyes designer’s life and work, and brought to light little- in black lacquer on a white ground. The known pieces from private collections and public original upholstery was a pale salmon institutions, such as the Charioteer table, which she color, suiting Gray’s overall aesthetic for the created for fashion designer Jacques Doucet (Fig.10); apartment, with walls covered in sumptuous and original furniture from the “Bedroom boudoir Fig. 4. Bibendum chair de- chocolate-colored lacquer with sweeping geometrical for Monte-Carlo” that she designed for the Fourteenth signed by Gray, 1930. Stacked lines in gold and silver leaf. Lévy was the owner of the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs in 1923 (see Fig. 5). cylindrical backrest and padded fashion house and millinery shop started by Jeanne Gray’s novel use of different mediums and the various seat with ivory-white fabric up- Tachard, called Suzanne Talbot, a celebrated designer holstery on chromed tubular known for her hats and stylish clothing for the Paris steel frame; height 24 ¾, width 34 ½, depth 30 inches. Private elite. The chair, along with the other exotic pieces of collection © Christie’s Images. furniture created for the apartment, notably the Pirogue sofa bed—a canoe-shaped daybed with gold cush- Fig. 5. Gray’s Monte Carlo room ions—and a textured buffet, or enfilade, reflected for the Fourteenth Salon des Ar- Gray’s interest in Asian and African art, presaging a tistes Décorateurs, 1923, in a taste that became fashionable in the 1920s. In 1931 hand-colored photograph in Jean Fig. 7. Satellite hanging Badovici, Intérieurs Français (Édi- Lévy turned again to Gray to design an apartment, light designed by Gray, tions Albert Morancé, Paris, 1925). this one on the boulevard Suchet. Both interiors stood 1919. Painted aluminum; National Museum of Ireland. out radically from those of other decorators of the height 53 ⅛, diameter 18 ⅞ inches. Though previously Fig. 6. The salon in the apart- time in being architectural, not just luxurious; Gray dated to c. 1925, documents ment Gray designed for Ju- created screens that functioned as moveable walls and in the Gray archives at the liette Mathieu-Lévy (1879– concealed earlier architectural details and moldings National Museum of Ireland 1969) on the rue de Lota in with panels in different mediums. The hall of the rue record that she designed this Paris, 1918–1922, including de Lota apartment, for instance, was sheathed in 450 hanging lamp for herself in the Pirogue sofa bed. National lacquer blocks decorated with Japanese powders in 1919. Private collection Museum of Ireland. matte gold, gray, and silver, while in the salon of the © Christie’s Images. artistic movements that inspired her were revealed in Fig. 8. Composition by such pieces as the rare sycamore De Stijl-influenced Gray, 1930. Gouache and collage on paper, 12 ¼ by Architectural cabinet with sliding and pivoting draw- 13 ¼ inches. National Mu- ers. Iconic pieces from Gray’s architectural masterpiece seum of Ireland. in the south of France, E.1027, built for her lover at the time, the Romanian architect Jean Badovici, in- Fig. 9. Transat chair de- cluded an original Bibendum chair (Fig. 4). In addi- signed by Gray for the ma- harajah of Indore, 1931. tion, the exhibition examined Gray as an artist—with Lacquered wood, nickel- rare gouaches for carpets as well as other artworks plated metal, leather; height and collages (see Fig. 8) produced in the 1920s, 1930s, 29, width 20 ⅞, depth 35 ¼ and 1940s—and as a photographer, revealing her inches. Photograph by Kent concentration on form, light, and shade. Pell, courtesy of Phillips. In October 2014 Gray Matters, Marco Orsini’s documentary film premiered at the New York Archi- tecture and Design Film Festival. A revisionary docu- mentary, it addresses the many myths surrounding Gray through interviews with those who knew her and those who have dedicated themselves to under- standing her life’s work. It reveals new research sur- rounding E.1027 and focuses on Gray’s conflicted

114 ANTIQUES MAY/JUNE 2015 115 relationship with Badovici and with the enfant terrible of , , whom she both admired and despised. his eye-opening story is also the subject of , a new feature-length film di- T rected by Mary McGuckian and starring Orla Brady as Gray (and Alanis Morrissette as Marisa Damia, one of her lovers), which launched the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival earlier this year. Gray designed E.1027, its furnishings, and garden for Badovici (E stood for Eileen; 10 for the tenth letter of the alphabet, J for Jean; 2 for the second letter of the alphabet, B for Badovici; and 7 for the seventh letter of the alphabet, G for Gray). The design was playful, subtle, and carefully attuned to the sun and wind, but Badovici never really understood the purity and simplicity of Gray’s design. Long after the two parted ways, he invited Le Corbusier to visit and commissioned him to paint Fig. 10. Red lacquer a series of murals in the house. block screen designed by Gray, 1922–1923, with While Gray had initially been lacquer by Pierre Bobot influenced by Le Corbusier’s (1902–1974), 1972. planar style of modernism, Wood and aluminium, she had developed her own and a unique red lacquer block screen produced with lacquer; height 70, style at E.1027, integrating in 1972, four years before Gray’s death at ninety- width 59 inches. Bobot architecture and furniture and eight (Fig. 10). was hired to do the lac- believing that architecture In 2000 the National Museum of Ireland acquired quering, as Gray, at must be its own decoration. ninety-four, was physi- a significant collection from the artist’s niece cally unable to do it. Not surprisingly, she found and Gray’s biographer Peter Private collection © the murals, executed in bright, Adam. Accessioned between 2000 and 2008, the Christie’s Images. bold colors, some charged 1,835 objects embrace the many disciplines that with sexual imagery, an act interested Gray and represent a veritable anthol- Fig. 10. Charioteer table of vandalism and a desecration ogy of her varied career. It is fully covered in the designed by Gray, 1913– of her original vision as well recent book Eileen Gray: Her Work and Her World, 1915. Lacquer, wood, as a callous display of disrespect ebony, and ivory. Photo- which offers both new clues to her inspirations and graph by Arnaud for another artist’s work. new insight into her early years as an artist and Carpentier © Archives This May, after years of designer. The book explores Gray’s friendships— Galerie Vallois, Paris. neglect and controversy, both professional and personal—with artists, E.1027 opens to the public, writers, philosophers, and architects and reveals largely restored (the murals remain) and with further how elements from their catalogues, manifestos, restoration due toward the end of the year. The and other publications, which she collected avidly, contents were sold at Sotheby’s Monaco in October are reflected in coded references in her work. 1991, dispersed to a wide variety of private and During her later years Gray attempted, and mostly public collections, including the Vitra Design Mu- succeeded in, destroying her personal papers, wanting seum in Germany and the Pompidou Center. to be remembered for her designs and her architecture, Fig. 11. The living room at E.1027 Other sales in the years since the Yves Saint rather than her personal history. Increasingly, this in a photograph of 1929–1930 Laurent-Pierre Bergé auction have brought to light fascinating woman is being remembered for both. It with a Bibendum and Transat chair additional little-known pieces by Gray, including has become abundantly clear that Gray matters. designed for the room. National an original white block screen from the Monte Museum of Ireland. Carlo room; Gray’s own original black lacquer Fig. 12. The guest bedroom block screen, 1920s; Transat chairs made for Ba- JENNIFER GOFF is the curator of the Eileen Gray Collection at the at E.1027 in a hand-colored dovici, 1925, and the maharaja of Indore (Fig. 9); National Museum of Ireland and the author of the recently published photograph in Gray’s copy of the Aéroplane ceiling light of circa 1925–1928; Eileen Gray: Her Work and Her World. L’Architecture Vivante, Winter 1929. National Museum of Ireland.

Fig. 13. Gray in her rue Bonaparte apartment in a photograph of 1975. National Museum of Ireland.