Eileen Gray.
THE Eileen Gray retrospective from the Centre Pompidou in Paris is moving to Dublin next October. It will be at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) from October 12 to January 19, 2014. The exhibition features drawing, lacquering, interior decorating, architecture and photography. It includes lacquer work, several of her carpet designs, samples from her Paris shop Jean Désert and key items of furniture from her work on the apartment of Madame Mathieu Levy and Gray’s own home, Tempe à Pailla.
Significant focus is given to her landmark piece of modernist architecture the French villa E-1027, built in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin in 1929, in close collaboration with Romanian architect Jean Badovici. The exhibition includes examples of furniture for E-1027, including the tubular steel designs with which Gray’s name has become synonymous.
Eileen Gray (1879-1976) was born near Enniscorthy, Co Wexford and spent most of her childhood between Ireland and London. After World War I, Gray moved to Paris. She died in France at the age of 98.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for February 20, 2013).