Eileen Gray, Designer and Architect
Cloé Pitiot and Nina Stritzler-Levine (Editors)
Bard Graduate Center, February 2020

Paperback | 8-1/2 x 10-1/2 inches | 500 pages | English | ISBN: 978-0300251067 | $55.00

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:
Eileen Gray (1878?1976), an Irish architect-designer who worked primarily in France, was a pioneer in modern design and architecture and one of the few women to practice professionally in those fields before World War II.
Born in Ireland and educated in London, Gray proceeded to Paris where she opened a textile studio, studied the Japanese craft of lacquer that would become a primary technique in her design work, and owned and directed the influential gallery and store known as ?Jean Désert.? Gray struggled for acceptance as a largely self-taught woman in male-dominated professions. Although she is now best known for her furniture, lighting, and carpets, she dedicated herself to many architectural and interior projects that were both personal and socially driven, including E 1027, the iconic modern house designed with Jean Badovici, as well as economical and demountable projects, such as the Camping Tent. Essays in the exhibition catalogue are organized in three sections: ?Beginnings,? which focuses on Gray?s early life and training; ?Being a Designer,? which examines her career as a designer of furniture, rugs, and interiors; and ?Being an Architect,? which responds to the prevailing question of whether Eileen Gray was an architect with a r...