Eileen Gray

Monika Kinley, London
Collection of Keith Lichtenstein, London
Collection of Andrew Crispo, New York
DeLorenzo, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 2000

Monika Kinley, London, 1975

Other screens from the same edition exhibited:
Eileen Gray:  Designer 1879-1976, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, January 23, 1979-April 22, 1979
Scottish Art Council Galleries, Edinburgh, June 1979-July 15, 1979
Museum of Modern Art, New York, February 7-April 1, 1980
Eileen Gray:  Architect, Designer, Painter, Centre Pompidou, Paris, February 23, 2013-May 19, 2013 (for the Bristol Museum's screen)
Irish Institute of Modern Art, Dublin, October 12, 2013-January 19, 2014 (for the Bristol Museum's screen)

Deyan Sudjic, "Shades of Gray," Interiors, June 1982, p. 191
Peter Adam, Eileen Gray, her Life and Work, London, 2009, p. 175 (for a photograph from the 1979-1980 exhibition) and p. 178 (for an alternate photograph from the 1975 Kinley exhibition)
Eileen Gray, exh. cat., Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2013, p. 204 (for the Bristol Museums and Art Gallery's screen) and p. 207 (for the catalogue note)
Cloé Pitiot, Eileen Gray, L'Exposition, Paris, 2013, p. 59 (for the Bristol Museums and Art Gallery's screen)

Overall in very good condition. The cork throughout in very good condition showing gentle signs of age and very slight variation in color across the individual tiles. The cork throughout with some minor irregularities consistent with the material that serve to add depth to the overall presence of the work. A few very minor and possibly original spots of retouching adjacent to the hinges and some signs of excess glue deposits which have seeped from the joint onto the tile fronts. One tile with a small area of water damage, located on one of the center panels, at the level of the top of the lower rectangular opening. One hinge missing a pin (and one portion of the hinge is as a result on the wrong side of the screen) and another hinge missing one small flat element and two pins. The screen with some minor warping which is only visible upon close inspection. The wood surrounds that frame the cork panels in overall very good condition with a few minor areas of old fill covering the fastening hardware. The color of the screen when viewed in person is more vibrant and saturated than it appears in the catalogue illustration. A wonderful modernist sculpture that epitomizes Gray’s unique aesthetic and re-interrupts one of her most iconic works, the free-standing screen.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

In a 1929 interview with Jean Badovici, Eileen Gray stated "sometimes a beautiful material alone, designed with sincere simplicity, is itself enough.”  The present screen, with its clean lines and lack of ornament, epitomizes Gray’s modernist design ideology.  Yet the material and priority of function also reflect a far more personal side of the designer’s philosophy.

Gray’s designs early in her career comprised magnificent panels, objects and furniture rendered in richly lacquered surfaces heavily influenced by the cubist aesthetic of the period.  As her career evolved, the influence of abstraction and functionalism became evident and revealed Gray’s unique approach to spaces as both a designer and an architect. 

Autodidact and intuitive, yet very precise, Gray dared to be independent by using materials that others avoided.  In her first house, E.1027, built between 1926 and 1929, she introduced cork on the top of a table so that the clatter of glass and tablewares would not disturb the sound of the ocean.  With this choice of  material, Gray demonstrated two important foundations of her design ideology:  the belief in the modern utopian ideal of design that enabled large scale production for a wider audience and her focus on the function and physical interaction with objects.  Cork is a simple and living material, yet also confers a tactile power that appeals to our senses and, as this screen demonstrates, can add to the poetry of pure line.

Gray would return again to cork when she purchased Lou Perou in 1939, a Provençal cottage in the heart of a vineyard near Saint-Tropez.  The proximity to nature and the regional cork oaks were likely a further influence on the designer as evidenced by her inclusion of the material prominently in the simply designed interior.  On the wall was a piece of cork with a Victory sign on it salvaged by the designer from a nearby beach.

The present lot is from an edition of five edited by Eileen Gray’s niece, the artist Prunella Clough, in 1973.  At this time, Clough was working very closely with her friend, Monika Kinley, a collector and curator.  In 1975, Kinley held an exhibition that included drawings and furniture chosen by Eileen Gray and her niece, including the present lot documented in the photographs of the exhibition.  In her diary entry for May 10^th 1975, Prunella Clough’s notes: “Take E to her [MK] show.”  Eileen Gray’s letters to Monika Kinley express how close they were to eachother:  “Dear Monika thank you ever so much for all your help, I am very grateful, with all my love, Eileen.”

Three of the five screens of two variant heights with vertical or horizontal panel orientation were purchased from Monika Kinley and are now in the collections of the Portsmouth City Museum (ACC no. 220/1975, 72 7/8  inches high), the Leicester City Art Gallery (ACC no. LD59.1976.0, 83 1/2 inches high) and the Bristol Museums and Art Gallery (Object no. Na222, purchased in 1980, 83 1/2 inches high).  The fourth screen is in a private New York collection.