Irish Stylist Eileen Gray : Symbol Of Modern Design
December 15, 2009
In spite of being lesser recognized than Le Corbusier or Mies van der Rohe, no one could ignore that the Irish stylist Eileen Grayis also the greatest designers of the modern time. Familiar as one the top pioneers of the Modern design movement in the early 20th century, Eileen Gray were also the first to go beyond the edges of customary design and gave way to what is now recognized as the modern furniture style.
Born Kathleen Eileen Moray Gray on August 1878 near Enniscorthy, Ireland, Eileen Gray was the youngest daughter of the well-to-do Gray clan. James Maclaren Gray, Eileen’s father, was an amateur artist and would often encourage her fascination for the arts. In 1896, Gray was admitted to the well known Slade School of Fine Art of the University College London until her father’s death in 1900. Gray continued her studies at the Académie Julian and the Académie Colarossi in Paris, but returned to London in 1905 to watch over her mother. It was during her stay at London where she met and learned the art of lacquerwork from Seizo Sugawara, a known Japanese lacquer restorer working at the Exposition Universelle in France. Gray’s five years of study under Sugawara would later established with the famous “Block Screen” lacquered wall panels she introducedat Rue de Lota apartment in Paris in 1917.
Perhaps the design that Eileen Gray is best remembered for today is her Bibendum Chair. Designed between the years 1917 and 1921, the Bibendum Chair is a red leather chair made up of a groups of padded tubes. Gray named] the chair after the Bibendum company mascot of the Michelin tire company, which had a shape. The Bibendum chair is noted by many not only for its unconventional style but also for being quite comfortable to use, a feature made to the chair’s interwoven rubber support at the seat and Gray’s plan of soft leather as upholstery.
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