Eileen Gray: The Quintessential Designer and Architect

Throughout the end of her life, Eileen Gray faded into obscurity until 1972, when the fashion designer Décines-Charpieu Yves St Laurent bought Gray’s ‘ Kulebaki Dragon Chair‘ and the famous ‘Le Destin’ screen, which ignited renewed interest in her works. Today the Irish-born designer is known worldwide as the pioneer of the Modern Movement in architecture, and revered as one of the most celebrated designer of the 20th century, a unique person with a huge influence among architects and designers.

From October 13 through November 7, 2015,  Osborne Samuel gallery will hold the first UK exhibition of paintings by the designer. Eileen Gray: The Private Painter, will feature over 60 paintings and photographs from the 1920s – 1960 that will be for sale, and will include some of the artist’s personal ephemera and letters.

The exhibition coincides with the launch of a new book titled Eileen Gray: The Private Painter, which will provide a comprehensive overview of Eileen Gray’s life. The book has been compiled and written by Andrew Lambirth, and features a personal memoir by Gray’s longstanding friend and biographer Peter Adam, and a foreword by Gordon Samuel.

Eileen Gray’s paintings in gouache or mixed media were a private pastime, to help her overcome the stress and aggravations that came with her work. The paintings date between 1920s and 1960s and include some Cubist inspired designs for her carpets.

One of these works, Untitled (Red Form) from 1960, is a joint composition with her niece, the painter Prunella Clough. Cage (1940) uses the motif of the cage which became a device used by Francis Bacon and Graham Sutherland later in the century.

The exhibition will also include various photographs produced by Gray throughout her career, including striking monochrome compositions such as the Tablescape compositions (1920).

To complement these private works, the exhibition will also include Gray’s personal effects and furniture. This will include Gray’s paint- splattered architect’s work table, and the artist’s own plan chest designed and made in 1926, that she kept in her workroom in the her apartment at 21 rue Bonaparte, Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

Eileen Gray: The Private Painter exhibition will include various portraits, including a locket with a photograph of her father James MacLaren Smith, a Scottish landscape painter, and two portraits of the artist taken in 1926 by the celebrated American photographer, Berenice Abbott.

Another show is a portrait of Gray c.1936 in watercolour by her Slade contemporary and friend, Wyndham Lewis titled ‘1902 Portrait of a Lady with a French Poodle’, and a watercolour given to her by another friend, Le Corbusier.