| Eileen Gray |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT EILEEN GRAY | |
| irish furniture designers | |
| gray, eileen | |
| irish architects | |
| alumni of slade school of art | |
| women in art | |
| women architects | |
| bisexual artists | |
| 1878 births | |
| 1976 deaths | |
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Eileen Gray ( August 9 , 1878 – October 31 , 1976 ) was an Irish Lacquer artist, Furniture Design er, and Architect now well-known for incorporating luxurious Lacquer work into the stark International Style aesthetic. EARLY LIFE She first studied painting at London 's Slade School Of Art . She eventually left painting to study lacquer under the guidance of lacquer craftsman, Sugawara. In 1913 , she held her first exhibition, showing some decorative panels at the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs. She combined lacquer and rare woods, geometric abstraction and Japan ese-inspired motifs into her work. It attracted the attention of Jacques Doucet, an art connoisseur and collector. He commissioned a few pieces – her only signed and dated creations. Her work went mostly unnoticed. In London after the start of World War I , Gray needed to rely on her family's financial support. Near the end of the war, Gray was commissioned to decorate an apartment on Rue de Lota in Paris . Her interior designs generated a great deal of praise in the press. She opened the Jean Desert Gallery in 1922 . INCREASED NOTORIETY Shortly thereafter, persuaded by Le Corbusier and Jean Badovici among others, she turned her interests to architecture. In 1924 Gray and Badovici began work on the house E-1027 in Roquebrune, Cap Martin in southern France (near Monaco ). L-shaped and flat- Roof ed with floor-to-ceiling windows and a spiral stairway to the guest room, E-1027 was both open and compact. Gray designed the furniture as well as collaborated with Badovici on its structure. Her circular glass E-1027 table and rotund Bibendum armchair were inspired by the recent tubular steel experiments of Marcel Breuer at the Bauhaus (who had been inspired, in turn, by Mart Stam ). The house is now in poor repair. In , Dublin opened a permanent exhibition of her work. PERSONAL LIFE Gray was Bisexual . She mixed in the lesbian circles of the time, to include associations with Romaine Brooks , Gabrielle Bloch and her lover Loie Fuller , the singer Damia , and Natalie Barney . {Link without Title} EXTERNAL LINKS |
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