Eileen Gray and Jean Badovici, “E.1027, Au Cap Martin Roquebrune, 1926–29,” from L’Architecture Vivante, no. 26 (Winter 1929), Paris: Éditions Albert Morancé, pl. 41. National Museum of Ireland, NMIEG 2000.256.

RESCHEDULED TO AUGUST 27


Eileen Gray has received widespread acclaim as one of the most accomplished woman designers of the twentieth century and one of the few women to practice architecture in France between the World Wars. Yet, despite her fame that largely came posthumously, Gray’s career, and in particular the legitimacy of her independent work as an architect, has endured extensive scrutiny.

In our second webinar in this series about Gray, Cloé Pitiot and Nina Stritzler-Levine, the co-organizers of the exhibition Eileen Gray at the Bard Graduate Center, will explicate and respond to the prevailing issues surrounding Gray and architecture. They will discuss the exhibition’s presentation of Gray as an architect and share their thoughts on the challenges associated with resolving some of the unanswered questions about her work. Among the most important of these issues is distinguishing the specific creative roles Gray and Romanian architect Jean Badovici each played in their collaborative projects which include E 1027 and the lesser-known residences at Vézelay, an artist community outside Paris. The discussion will also consider Tempe a Pailla and Lou Pérou, the houses Gray designed for herself in the south of France, as well as the unrealized modern and vernacular projects of the 1930s and late 1940s.

Please register here, and the zoom link will be emailed to you one day prior to the event.

Eileen Gray installation at Bard Graduate Center Gallery. Photo: Bruce White.

Meet the Speakers:

Cloé Pitiot is the curator of Art nouveau, Art déco, and modern and contemporary design at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Prior to that role she served as curator of design at the Centre Pompidou. In 2013, she curated Eileen Gray at Centre Pompidou and Eileen Gray: Architect Designer Painter at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. In 2016, she directed Pierre Paulin at Centre Pompidou. In 2017, she opened Éloge de la couleur at La Piscine in Roubaix and Eileen Gray, une architecture de l’intime in Cap Moderne near the Villa E 1027 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. Her 2018 exhibition Modern Couples at Pompidou Metz will travel to London in October. She has taught at the Ensci and at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, holds a PhD in the History of Contemporary Architecture from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and is a government-certified (DPLG) architect.