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MIND OF THE ARTIST
house Lou Perou, which was finished when she was well into her 80s and in terms of the furniture was very rudimentary and much more functional. “In Lou Perou, everything from the inside of the house was reflected on
everything on the outside of the house. She was completely engrossed with garden design and how furniture worked on the outside in the garden.” Gray continued working throughout her life but, from the 1940s, never again
on the same scale as E-1027 or Tempe à Pailla. During World War II, she was forced to leave her home in the south of France and she lived a more reclusive life in Paris after that. “What many people don’t know is that she continued doing her artwork
during the 1940s,” says Goff. “She was always an artist, right up to the end of her days, and also worked on photographs she took and played around with architectural drawings one after another. There’s everything from exhibition spaces and workers’ homes to childcare facilities and parking complexes. There are hundreds of architectural drawings that were done during the 1940s. “In the early 1950s she returned to Tempe à Pailla and it had been very badly
pillaged, as had E-1027. She was commissioned by Badovici to start doing a second series of furniture for the house. So a second portfolio of furniture emerged for E-1027 and designs she’d worked on in the 1920s, she altered and improved on in the 1950s.” Interest in her work was renewed when architecture historian Joseph
Rykwert published an appreciation in Domus magazine in 1968. Exhibitions were held in Graz and Vienna in 1970. Two years later, one of her pieces – the La Destin screen –sold at auction for US$36,000. After this, several of her pieces were put back into production by London-based manufacturer Zeev Aram, including the Bibendum chair and the E-1027 table. “She was producing block screens,” says Goff. “She had signed a deal with
Donegal Carpets. Twelve of her carpets were produced and for sale in London. She had collectors worldwide trying to get pieces.” In 1973, the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland organised a retrospective of Gray’s work, which was held in the Bank of Ireland.
Eileen Gray, Dressing table-screen, circa 1926-1929. Painted wood, aluminium, glass, cork, aluminium leaf. Piece of furniture from the E-1027 villa. Centre Pompidou, Musée National D’art Moderne, Paris. Purchase, 1992
IRISH CONNECTION Goff stresses Gray’s ties to Ireland throughout her life. “Many people had assumed that she turned her back on Ireland when she settled in Paris in 1906 and especially after her mother died in December 1919,” she says. Goff is convinced that Gray would have lived in Ireland if she had inherited Brownswood, the family home.
Eileen Gray, Adjustable table, circa 1926-1929, Lacquered tubular steel, cellulose acetate. Piece of furniture from the E-1027 villa. Centre Pompidou, Musée National D’art Moderne, Paris. Purchase, 1992
70 INNOVATION IRELAND REVIEW Issue 7 Autumn/Winter 2013
Eileen Gray, Console table, circa 1918-1920. Polished and stripped Chinese lacquered wood. Photography: Christian Baraja, studio SLB and Provenance: Private collection, Paris
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