When documentary film maker Peter Adam published his biography of Eileen Gray in 1987, her work was still obscure and her life little researched. Translated into French, German, Spanish and Japanese, this biography brought Eileen Gray to the attention of many and her furniture and architectural designs became more widely known. Since 1987, architects and scholars have studied and written about her work, examining every surviving scrap of paper. This new revised edition updates the original biography with the major findings of scholars. The bibliography has been extended and also a new catalogue raisonné of all her architectural projects has been included.
The major source for Adam’s biography was Eileen Gray herself, whom Adam met in 1960, when Gray was 82 years old and living as a recluse in obscurity. During the 1920s and 1930s; however, Eileen Gray had been regarded as a pioneer of modern design. Interest in her work was revived after the sale of a lacquer screen for an unexpectedly high price at a Paris auction in 1972 of personal effects of the late designer, Jacques Doucet. During the last years of Gray’s life, there were exhibitions of her work in Paris, London, Los Angeles, Brussels, Vienna and New York.
Gathering information for a biography was not an easy task for Peter Adam, not only because Gray outlived many of her contemporaries, but also due to her private nature. Shortly before her death in 1976, Gray burned many of her personal letters and photographs, leaving her biographer only the work to speak for itself, plus unidentified architectural drawings, a sales ledger from her shop, some work notes and an old address book. Peter Adam recounts Eileen Gray’s life with sensitivity and insightful comments on her work. He follows her life from family and upbringing in Ireland, studies at the Slade, her move to Paris, the years spent in the south of France, the Second World War and back to Paris.
Despite the small nature of Eileen Gray’s output, many of the pieces she created have become design classics; for example, the E.1027 table, the Transat deck chair, the non‐conformist sofa and the Bibendum. During the later 1920s Gray began her architectural work and was one of the few women in this field at the time. Gray produced only two houses, one in 1929 at Roquebrune (known as E.1027) for Romanian architect, Jean Badovici, editor of the influential journal L’Architecture Vivant. Most of Gray’s projects only exist as sketches, ideas with no dates or clients.
Peter Adam’s biography is likely to be of interest to architects, designers and all who admire Eileen Gray’s work. Illustrated throughout, Adam recounts Eileen Gray’s life story with insight and traces the development of her projects using photographs, plans and sketches.
The book is well written and will remain the key biographical text on this previously obscure artist.
