Wednesday, February 24, 2010

A Fair Day for Eileen Gray



At just about this time last year, Eileen Gray's Fauteuil aux Dragons became the second highest selling piece of decorative art ever sold at auction at the "sale of the century" - the Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé collection at Christie's. Estimated between 2 and 3 millions, it sold for 22 million euros to Parisian Gallery owner, Cheska Vallois for an unnamed client (erroneously reported as Henry Kravis). A table by Gray, Enfilade, also part of the collection, fetched a pretty penny as well. Gray is in the spotlight these days for continuing prowess in the auction house world and because of the renovation of her villa E-1027 at Rocquebrune.

It is interesting to see how history has bestowed a position of esteem on this stubborn rebel of the design world. She was a woman of her time - a fascinating and troubled time of the first decades of the 20th century when anything seemed possible and change in everything seemed necessary  - and yet she was apart. A woman in furniture design and architecture, an Irishwoman in France, an aristocrate in a bohemian setting - one has to believe she enjoyed setting herself apart. She was shy - and yet she intrepidly followed her own beliefs and interpreted her epoch as only she could. Her work is based on symbolic conceptions and ideals that went beyond form and surface and which gave fire to her exceptional design talent.



The Dragon Chair is an example of her interest in Oriental philosophy. Christie's lot description states,"the dragon has a history in Chinese iconography as a symbol of strength and goodness, with the power to protect and to guard. The dragon is often illustrated toying with a pearl (zhu) which in turn is a symbol of strength associated with the moon and with thunder.... The entire sculptural form of the present armchair could be interpreted as representing a pearl within its shell, encircled by the dragons." A designer really couldn't provide a client with better or more flattering comfort.
 

Eileen Gray came to settle in Paris in 1902 as a young Irish woman of 24 after attending the Slade School of Art in London as one of its first female students. She was from a somewhat forward-looking family of title and means with certain artistic propensities; her father was an amateur painter. She continued to study drawing in Paris at the Académies Colarosi and Julian, then made a turn toward the decorative arts by furthering her knowledge of lacquer techniques, her medium of choice during the first part of her career. What could be more suitable to her reserved, thoughtful personality than this ancient and painstaking method that requires a perfectly smooth surface as a base, then layer upon  layer of resine to achieve an exquisitely profound finish? Seizo Sougawara initiated Gray to this craft in 1907 making her the first of her generation  to use lacquer techniques for modern expression, rather than restoration of traditional chinoiserie  decors. Gray worked with  Sougawara for four years before leaving him to his next student, Jean Dunand ! (gazette-drouot). If Grey was reserved, she didn't let it stop her from doing the things she wanted to do. She was interested in new possibilities of her age and  piloted planes, drove fast cars, manned an ambulance during the beginning of WWI, but most importantly, she had the guts to march to her own beat as a designer.



Symbolism was important in her refined and luxurious early work. How appropriate that this picture in her tender youth shows her face elegantly framed by peacock feathers. With its numerous connotations, the very deorative peacock is symbol of immortality and ressurrection; its flesh was said never to decay, its eye-patterned feathers were supposed all-seeing and protective. Was it Eileen Gray's discretion then, reclusive character, that made it possible to forget her for a long period during her own lifetime? Or the fact than her limited production stayed in the hands of the few? She was known and recognized as an innovator until the late 1930s, then forgotten for most of the second half of her long life. In the years just prior to her death in 1976,  her work came out of hiding thanks to exhibits and sales which signaled the revival of interest in
"art deco" years.



The lacquer and mother-of-pearl panel Magicien de la Nuit or Om Mani Padme Hum was displayed at the 1913 Salon des Artists Décorateurs. It was here that Jacques Doucet, one of the foremost couturiers of the era and enlightened collector/bibliophile first saw Gray's work. The title  makes reference to one of the most famous Buddhist mantras. Tibetian monks believe that repeating it out loud or silently to oneself  invokes the powerful benevolent attention and blessings of Chenrezig, the embodiment of compassion (Dharma-haven). Doucet's knowledge of ancient Chinese art must have made him even more receptive to this work. He sought immediately to meet Gray; commissions and important introductions followed.

Le Destin

 
A duel-faced screen, Le Destin, is dated 1914 and was acquired by Doucet in that year. In 1912 he had sold off his 18th century antique furnishings in an historic auction and embarked on a creative collecting adventure with contemporary artists and designers.  Doucet is even credited with funding the budding Surrealist movement, since he hired Louis Aragon and André Breton to advise him in building his art collection and his library.  He chose Pierre Legrain and Paul Ruaud for his new interior decoration in order to harmonize new acquisitions and express his tastes for the avant-garde, integrating his collections of tribal and ancient oriental art.

The other side of the screen, Le Destin, shows swirling geometry 

Doucet was one of Gray's first and most important patrons. It was through his own sale-of-the-century, the 1972 auction of his collections by Hôtel Drouot, that Eileen Gray was rediscovered.
Yves Saint Laurent entered the competition for the screen which broke sales records of the time. My sources cannot confirm that he was successful in acquiring it.

Doucet's salon as shown in L'Illustration 1930

  He counted La Charmeuse de serpent by Douanier Rousseau and
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon de Picasso among his exceptional collection of paintings.
Pictured here is Gray's table Bilboquet next to a Marcel Coard canapé.




The Bilboquet table - it's name refers to the game of cup and ball.


 
Doucet's Cabinet d'Orient

Doucet had particular interest in ancient Chinese art and undoubtedly appreciated Gray's 
use of oriental symbols and iconography. The central piece is Gray's tasselled Lotus Table.
The screen, Le Destin was also placed in this room.


Lotus table

  The lotus is a recurrent theme for Gray and Doucet. The roots of a lotus are in the mud, the stem grows up through the water, and the heavily scented flower lies pristinely above the water, basking in the sunlight. This growth pattern indicates the progress of the soul from the primeval mud of materialism, through the waters of experience, and into the bright sunshine of enlightenment. (religionfacts)


Her most ambitious decoration project to date came in 1919 from Mme Mathieu Lévy, owner of a
celebrated millinery salon, Suzanne Talbot. Mme Lévy is photographed here by Baron de Meyer in her new surroundings. Gray had free run in her rue de Lota apartment and the result was spectacularly
glamorous and architectural.
The Dragon Armchair comes from this interior.


A clearer view of the dug-out canoe shaped daybed raised on twelve arched feet


and finished in textured brown lacquer and silver leaf. 


One of the most interesting inventions for the over-long hall of the apartment was the use of textured lacquer blocks set against the walls like bricks. Halfway down the room, the  blocks folded out perpendicular to the wall and broke up the otherwise awkward space.



This idea gave birth to free standing block screens which Gray was to use elsewhere. Hector Guimard
of art nouveau fame is said to have had one of these screens.
The road to architecture is not far off.
*
Eileen Gray was later to reject theses highly luxurious creations as she moved toward functional, socially-aware designs and even shuddered at the tassels on the Lotus table. That doesn't mean we can't enjoy it. Though her objectives changed, she was always a highly thoughtful and sensuous designer.
*
The Irishwoman who lived all her adult life in France and died as she wished, alone in her rue Bonaparte apartment, was buried in the famous cimetière Père-Lachaise. A telephone call to the cemetery has informed me that her plot was not renewed in 1998.
"Ca n'existe plus!"
With no offspring and a solitary life I guess it was to be expected,
but somehow, I don't think she'd mind.

***

What music was Eileen Gray listening to in these years? Probably to her close friend Damia
while wearing a Poiret gown.




for more on Eileen Gray:
Eileen Gray Designer and Architect by Philippe Garner
Eileen Gray by Caroline Constant
Apollo In Search of Eileen Gray
National Museum of Ireland

Photos: Christie's, Apollo, L'Illustration, Eileen Gray Designer and Architect

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Guiding Eiffel

for P-K


When in Paris, it's nice to be directed on your ambles and your scrambles through the city.


You may forget about about la Tour, then it comes right up on you and you you can't resist tilting your head back to see what's going on at the top. They meant to melt her down after 20 years of taking a stance along the Seine, recycle that metal, clear the view ! After all, she had served her purpose of commemorating the one hundred year anniversary of the Revolution that was 1889.


In these days of Grai Paris, as in all seasons, the Iron Lady continues to hold her ground - 
watching over, though you wander from her sight.


No, this beacon isn't visible from every one of the 20 arrondissements of the city, but a glimpse of it has reassured many in their wanderings.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

le Carnaval

Flower Market  the morning of the Flower Battle, a carnival tradition in Nice



La Grande Bataille des Fleurs sur Mer


le Grand Corso Carnavalesque
la Place Masséna Nice
9 février 1904

In mid-February the ancient Romans celebrated the Lupercalia, riotous circus very close to the carnival celebrations we know today. Before abstinence and fleshless days - Carne Levare (remove meat),  one last celebration is needed where all excesses of the flesh are permitted.  Another possible explanation of the origin of the word carnival comes from the term Carrus Navalis (ship cart), the name of the roman festival of Isis, where her image was carried to the sea-shore to bless the start of the sailing season. The festival consisted in a parade of masks following an adorned wooden boat, that would be comparable to the floats of modern carnivals. 


For today's Flower Battle and  Grand Corso dancing in Nice see Carnaval de Nice and for information on Mardi Gras and carnival history and traditions throughout the world see Carnival.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

The Magic Lanterns of Ombre Portée

moebius

Perhaps more than anything else, the quality of light determines the atmosphere of an interior. Nothing could be worse than uniformity. Luckily in a three-dimensional room, complete uniformity is rare - though overhead lighting on its own can be ghastly. Certain decoration magazines suffer from uniformly lit photos  that give an impression of vacuum-packed air; suffocation is the penalty for looking too long.  Most real life rooms have the benefit of old Sol's caressing beam through a window for at least a few hours a day and so much the better if it angles through a tangle of branches or winks through a billowing curtain.


The objects I'm illustrating today can't exactly be called light fixtures. Rather than lighting a room, the dynamic of these objects is shadow play. Like the light that filters into a room through the swaying branches before the window pane, they compose lively, expressive shapes in their surroundings. They are made by Ombre Portée (Cast Shadow), a company founded in 1998 by Eric de Dormael et Sylvie Janvier to create sculpture based on light effects. Individually they are well-made, highly seductive objects whose purpose is not to provide light so much as it is to decorate. They cast shadows, send reflections, sheen and shimmer into the surrounding space from cleverly constucted structures.


leo-g sconce

These light sculptures are made by hand in the owner's Paris atelier. Quality and creativity are key; they are one-of-a-kind pieces or small limited edition series, each one a combination of light, poetry, and technology. Sculpture, including monumental pieces, can also be made to measure for particular architectural projects.
le cardinal

zwartepik 3 sconce

dulcinée


lunes

sagaie lineaire

bois dormant


Sometimes the lines between fine arts and decorative arts become blurred. An emotion is created and we end up seeing things in a new light.

The Ombre Portée site illustrates many more styles of their work.

All photos from the site Ombre Portée

Monday, February 8, 2010

Musical interlude with Charles Trenet



"When we're short on idées, we say  la la la la la lay..."
Or so it goes in the song L'ame des poetes. And from someone who was never short on ideas or clever words. So - since I've been waiting for the right moment to share some wonderful songs -the time has come to  propose a musical interlude with songs from Charles Trenet, the singer song-writer who said
Je fais mes chansons comme un pommier fait ses pommes.
I make my songs like an apple tree makes its apples.

The nearly 1000 songs he wrote and performed over his 75 year career were joyful, fresh, and full of poetry. This be-hatted music hall legend was known as the Fou Chantant and his repertoire often included use of onomatopoeia and tongue twisters in lyrics as well as soulful poetry sung in his rich, round voice. He insisted on performing mostly his own songs at a time when this was rare. He did also perform songs he had composed with lyrics by the poet Verlaine.


photo alain2x

Charles Trenet was born in Narbonne on the 18th of May 1913 in this "dear old house with the green shutters" where "there are memories lying in every drawer."  The house was undoubtedly one of his great sources of inspiration and haunts some of his more nostalgic works. He said of his first home,
je dis toujours de mes autres maisons qu'elles m'appartiennent, mais celle de Narbonne, c'est la seule à laquelle j'appartiens...
I always say that my other houses belong to me, but the house in Narbonne is the only one I can really say I belong to...

You knew I would get something in about the HOME if I could, didn't you?

Here's a sampling of songs, some from films others that are simple recordings like this first one that is especially beautiful.

L'ame des poetes 
 
Longtemps, longtemps, longtemps
Long, long, long ago
Après que les poètes ont disparu
After poets are no more
Leurs chansons courent encore dans les rues
Their songs echo still through the streets
La foule les chante un peu distraite
The crowd sings them absent mindedly
En ignorant le nom de l'auteur
Without knowing the author's name
Sans savoir pour qui battait leur cœur
Without knowing who made their heart pound
Parfois on change un mot, une phrase
Sometimes we change a word, a phrase
Et quand on est à court d'idées
And if we're short on ideas
On fait la la la la la la
We say la la la la la la....



Romance de Paris   - le jeune et beau garçon !


Le soleil a rendez-vous avec la lune


Quand j'étais petit


Que reste-t-il de nos amours?


For more,  follow to  Mam'zelle Clio and click on animation flash.

Monday, February 1, 2010

to Market




Last Sunday's sale at Osenat saw some chic pieces offered to the crowd. The 130 objects date to around 1900 and go up to the 1980s. It was offered up as "design."


Carlo BUGATTI - circa 1905

Some well-known items were withdrawn from the sale.


ALVAR AALTO - Ed. Artek - circa 1950

Some more than doubled their estimate.


Hector GUIMARD - Fonderies de Saint Dizier - circa 1905

Some were a steal.


Jansen Décoration - circa 1970

 Doesn't this original flock of six make you want to chirp?


Maria Pergay box -circa 1965

In all, it was a sale to write home about.

for full catalogue and results: Osenat