Shades of Gray

Paris-based Galerie Historismus recently held an exhibition of 62 works on paper by the 20th-century Irish-born designer Eileen Gray (1878–1976), who is better known for her furniture designs and architecture. The show, which ran from November 15 through February 2, featured an ensemble of gouaches, collages and photos from the 1920s through the ’50s—the majority of which had never before been shown in public.

Gray had given the works to her friend Peter Adam shortly before her death in 1976. Although she died a forgotten recluse, a landmark late ‘70s auction in Paris of items Gray had created for the couturier Jacques Doucet ignited fresh interest in her oeuvre. Adam, a documentary filmmaker for the BBC, brings further attention to Gray’s career this month with the release of his book Eileen Gray—Architecture & Design (Schirmer/Mosel).

According to the gallery’s artistic director, Roberto Polo, about half the pieces on display sold—a percentage made all the more impressive by the fact that until now, the market for Gray’s works on paper has been virtually unexplored. Chief among the buyers were decorators; Swiss, English and Irish collectors; and three New York museums, which Polo won’t name. Prices ranged from €12,000 ($17,400), for small sketches, up to €90,000 ($130,400), for three abstract gouache rug designs—one of which, L’art noir, 1922, in the form of a circular target, is pictured. Thirteen of Gray’s little-known photographs, evocative of those by Man Ray and Andre Kertesz, all sold; three Constructivist shots from the 1920s were “the first to go,” according to Polo.

Although Gray kept her pictorial work private, Polo declares her penchant for abstraction to be visionary, heralding the canvases that Jasper Johns and Kenneth Noland would create several years later. The Havana-born dealer—who opened his gallery in 2006—is already in talks with Adam to sell the architectural drawings Gray generously bequeathed to him as well.

"Shades of Gray" originally appeared in the March 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's March 2008 Table of Contents.