She built a masterpiece, got zero credit, then outlived everyone who wronged her. Icon behavior.
Gray Matters explores the long, fascinating life and complicated career of architect and designer Eileen Gray, whose uncompromising vision defined and defied the practice of modernism in decoration, design and architecture. Making a reputation with her traditional lacquer work in the first decade of the 20th century, she became a critically acclaimed and sought after designer and decorator in the next before reinventing herself as an architect, a field in which she laboured largely in obscurity. Apart from the accolades that greeted her first building –persistently and perversely credited to her mentor–her pioneering work was done quietly, privately and to her own specifications. But she lived long enough (98) to be re-discovered and acclaimed. Today, with her work commanding extraordinary prices and attention, her legacy, like its creator, remains elusive, contested and compelling.
Direction
Orsini lets Gray's work speak—no overwrought dramatics needed.
Production
Gorgeous archival footage of E-1027, the house Le Corbusier couldn't stop touching.
Director
Marco Orsini
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Gray's E-1027 house name is code: E for Eileen, 10 for J (Jean), 2 for B (Bardet), 7 for G (Gray)—her then-lover and herself.
The documentary's 2016 release coincided with renewed interest in Gray's furniture selling for millions—she died in poverty, never profiting from her own revival.
US
GB
