Radio smow: An Eileen Gray playlist

The music by Peter Scherer, and music design by Daniel Hobi, play an important role in the film E.1027 – Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea; play an important role in enabling Beatrice Minger and Christoph Schaub’s film to allow us all to approach the differentiated and more probable appreciation of Eileen Gray E.1027 – Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea admonishes we all need must approach.

But can exploring Eileen Gray via music also allow one to approach that differentiated and more probable appreciation?

Only one way to find out………

Born in Enniscorthy, Ireland, on August 9th 1878 Eileen Gray‘s career, certainly her professional career, began with hand lacquered objects before moving over furniture and interior design to architecture. A move that in many regards stands proxy for the opening of the creative professions to females in the early 20th century, an opening in which Gray was an interesting and instructive, and not unimportant, protagonist.

If a career that, arguably, on account of the 1939-45 War, but equally arguably on account of the gender realities of architecture and design in 20th century Europe — ‘opening up’ isn’t the same as ‘open acceptance’ — advanced little, certainly in terms of realised projects, after the 1939-45 War. And thus as the 1940s gave way to the 1950s and 60s Gray slipped slowly into an unjust and unfair anonymity…. before being rediscovered in the late 1960s, not least through the villa E.1027, a project realised at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin on the French Côte d’Azur along with, and in many regards for, the Romanian born architect and journalist Jean Badovici.

A rediscovery that for all it has led to a much better popular visibility of Eileen Gray has tended to an appreciation based on limited examples of her work. And a reading of those limited works that has remained static for decades.

Which is not only as unfair and unjust on Eileen Gray as the anonymity into which she, her work and positions fell, but also unfair on us all, depriving us as it does of a fuller picture of the development of architecture and design in Europe, and thereby leaving us with an incomplete appreciation of the path thus far travelled and why and how we are where we are. And if we shouldn’t actually be somewhere else.

And thus the urgent necessity of a popular re-reading of the life and oeuvre of Eileen Gray, or perhaps more accurately, an extended reading.

By way of a small contribution to stimulating that necessary extended reading, and by way of providing a soundtrack to that process, and by way of continuing our, and your, musical education, a Radio smow Eileen Gray playlist…….

Jacques Pellen – Eileen Gray’s Table

It is a universal truth that designers and architects tend to be reduced to a limited number of projects which then popularly stand for their oeuvre. Regardless of how varied, complex and/or contradictory that oeuvre is and was.

A truth that is particularly problematic when your popularly known oeuvre is as limited as that of an Eileen Gray.

A restriction that means that aside from the villa E.1027 Eileen Gray is most popularly known for the occasional table E.1027.

An occasional table name chosen to evoke the villa, because the villa is known and the association can but help with the marketing; a villa for which, yes, the occasional table was very much designed, but which is far too limited a context in which to approach the work. If an informative context.

A occasional table from 1927 in tubular steel, you do the math; a table in tubular steel that is round, that breaks the strict quadratic popularly associated today with 1920s steel tube furniture, thus a formal expression that exists as a clear counterpoint to much of the sterility of the quadratic of the period, much as the villa E.1027 exists as a counterpoint to much late 1920s architecture, and in doing so reminds that the (hi)story of steel tube furniture (and of Functionalist Modernist architecture) is much more diverse and instructive than you may believe; a tubular steel table that is cantilevered, that defining development of the period, but not by way of creating a new formal language as a Mart Stam pursued it, nor by way of aiding resilience as a Mies van der Rohe further developed it, but by way of enabling it to be used in places and in manners that occasional tables often can’t through enabling the base to pass under things while the top remains available, to allow its use, for example, in bed or up close while sitting on a sofa. A tubular steel cantilevered table that is height adjustable thereby making it responsive to the needs of users, thereby further extending its functionality while openly challenging the tenets of Functionalist Modernism.

An occasional table that thus provides access to a great many paths to Eileen Gray. And a charming and convenient place for a cup of tea and petit four. Or the Krampouezhenn we’re stereotypically going to assume the Breton Jacques Pellen enjoyed from Eileen Gray’s Table

Damia – Tu ne sais pas aimer

One of our favourite Eileen Gray stories, even if we suspect it may be more apocryphal than true, is of Gray and her, then, partner, the chanteuse Damia a.k.a. Marie-Louise Damien, driving through Paris in Gray’s convertible with Damia’s pet panther on the back seat. A story that, whether real or not, is not only visually delicious, but reminds of the out-of-control reality of inter-War Paris, an out-of-control inter-War Paris in which Eileen Gray took her first professional creative steps, and established her reputation; if an out-of-control inter-War Paris its difficult to imagine an Eileen Gray feeling wholly comfortable in, if she without question enjoyed and was empowered by the atmosphere and spirit of the age freely unfolding in the French capital.

And a (possible) episode of the Eileen Gray biography E.1027 – Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea makes note of, as it must, in a scene backdropped by Damia singing the 1930 song, Tu ne sais pas aimer, You don’t know how to love.

A song one feels very deliberately chosen for the segment, and one that while it may have an element of truth is perhaps slightly unfair: while Eileen Gray without question was a very shy person, je suis horiblemente timide¹, as she once opined, and preferred her own company to that of others, we believe she did know how to love. Was just very careful and cautious whom she demonstrated and expressed that to.

An aspect of her character, and a suspicion that for all she enjoyed inter-War Paris she wasn’t comfortable in inter-War Paris, that tends to an appreciation of how important her private spaces were to her, for all her apartment on rue Bonaparte in Paris and E.1027. And thus also helps explain why Le Corbusier’s frescos on the walls of E.1027 had the effect on her they did. Not that we’re talking here about Le Corbusier and his frescos, being as they are a part of the study and understanding of E.1027 we’re all collectively moving on from.

If a song it’s important to note isn’t by Damia or about Eileen Gray; rather is by Maurice Aubret and Guy Zoka and was used in the 1931 film Sola, which starred Damia; a film whose tale of someone stranded and trying to make their home could, possibly, also be about Eileen Gray.

Elan Mehler – Scheme For Thought

🚨🚨🚨 Nerd Knowledge!!! 🚨🚨🚨

Released in 2006 with catalogue number BW004 Scheme For Thought is and was one of the first releases on London based label Brownswood Recordings.

Eileen Gray’s family home was Brownswood in County Wexford, Ireland.

We don’t believe the two are related, though it would be cool if they were; but as connection it not only takes us back to Eileen Gray’s childhood and challenges one to explore more closely those formative years as a member of the landed gentry in rural Ireland, a period that, inarguably, greatly informed what she became and how she approached her work, nor only takes us to a rural Ireland under English control, for lest we forget Eileen Gray’s time in the liberated, liberating, atmosphere of inter-War Paris coincided with Irish independence from England, ’twas a period of immense upheaval and re-ordering across Europe.

But also takes us to a house that when Eileen Gray was child was a reduced, reserved, respectful work very much of the Neoclassical, before it’s clear lines and smooth silhouette were augmented, transformed, disfigured, by all manner of Gothic affectations, and thus a transformation, disfiguration, that stands very much in context of the confusions of Historicism that Art Nouveau sought to bring into a more meaningful form before the Functionalist Modernism of the early 20th century sought to ensure such could never return. And amongst those at the forefront of crafting a path forward to a brave new world that didn’t want to return to mangled historic misrepresentation, and garbled quotation, one finds Eileen Gray.

In how far the experience of seeing her childhood home transformed to the degree it was influenced and informed her embracing of Functionalist Modernism, and in how far her memories of growing up at Brownswood influenced and informed her soft, more emotional, less abrasive, freer-flowing definition of Functionalist Modernism, we no know, but is a question well worth exploring. As is the context of the reworking of Brownswood. As is the catalogue of Brownswood.

The Proclaimers – Oh Jean

The subject of the song is admittedly a Scottish Jean as in gene/jeans and not a French Jean as in john, but we’re sure Eileen Gray would appreciate the intersection being as she was of Scottish parentage, if Irish by birth.

And a Jean, an Oh Jean

“Oh Jean, you let me get lucky with you”

and while the luck to which the narrator is referring isn’t the opportunity to develop architectural projects expressive of your interpretation of Functionalist Modernism, there is an argument to be made that Jean Badovici was key in Eileen Gray’s move from furniture and interior design to architecture. She may very well have made it without Jean, but Jean not only encouraged her and provided practical and theoretical stimulation and guidance, but Jennifer Goff argues that an important part of Eileen Gray’s architecture education was studying plans and draughts lent to her by Le Corbusier², a contact that while it may or may not have been facilitated by Badovici was invariably smoothed by Badovici’s contact with Le Corbusier.

Also an argument to made, one alluded to in E.1027, that the diametric juxtaposition in character and personality between Gray and Badovici was important in allowing, enabling, Gray to unfurl her architectural creativity as she did. That while she may have made the move without Badovici, elements of that which define her approach may have been missing.

And then there is the fact that Jean designed the vertical folding windows of E.1027, a key feature in allowing the villa to be that which it is and which Eileen wanted it to be.

Thus an argument to be made that Jean helped Eileen get lucky in architecture.

A harmony between Jean and Eileen, certainly in the mid-to-late 1920s, that finds an echo, pun intended, in the harmonising between Charlie and Craig.

In how far the

“The first time I met you, it did cross my mind
The next time I saw you, there wasn’t the time
The third time I saw you, I thought that I could
The fourth time I met you, I knew that I would”

refers to Eileen and Jean’s personal and professional convergence is another question, and one we’ll not be approaching today. But we’ve all been there, done that.

Slade – Mama Weer All Crazee Now

Founded in 1871 The Slade art school, the contemporary UCL Slade School of Fine Art, broke with the established convention of the period by admitting female students on equal terms with male students, and that some 50 years before the Bauhauses didn’t; a position, an empowering of females, a refusal to accept a difference between genders, in late 19th century England, that, arguably, contributed to the path that led to the successes of the gender equality movement in early 20th century England. And thus not only making Slade an interesting and important moment in the (hi)story of creative education but also in the social (hi)story of England.

A Slade art school to which Eileen Gray enrolled in 1901, remaining until 1903, and while, by all accounts, the method of studying, essentially the copying old forms and old objects that constituted creative eduction of the period, wasn’t to her liking, and may have influenced her later determination to break with the past, something, again, well worth exploring in more detail, she did meet numerous individuals at Slade who would play a role, some more importantly than others, in her development in the Paris they all appear to have moved to. Thus making Slade an interesting and important moment in the Eileen Gray biography.

A Slade art school thoroughly unrelated to the cheeky, chirpy Black Country glamsters; but a Slade also popularly known for but one or two greatest hits, after Merry Xmas Everybody most struggle to a name Slade song, yet much as a careful study of Eileen Gray’s wider oeuvre is instructive and informative in terms of the (hi)story of architecture and design, a wider immersion in the music of Slade is instructive and informative in terms of the (hi)story of music.

And a Slade who had as much truck with the established conventions of English spelling and grammar as Eileen Gray had with the established conventions of the grammar and spelling of architecture and design.

And while Mama Weer All Crazee Now is about the perils of hard alcohol, it could be the perils of any obsession, any obsessive behaviour, which, yes, brings us back to the Le Corbusier we’re not supposed to be considering any more in context of E.1027, but who is indelibly there in the post 1932 biography of the work. And thus here is not his only presence in this playlist. See if you can spot him, or more accurately his character in E.1027, elsewhere.

Elvis – Johnny B. Goode

Yes, Johnny B. Goode is and was and always must be a Chuck Berry song, but

E.1027 E 10(J) 2(B) 7(G)

E.1027: Elvis Johnny B. Goode

E.1027: Eileen Jean Badovici Gray

A nomenclature for their joint refuge on the Mediterranean coast that, as noted in our post on E.1027, for all it is often referred to as an inter-twinning, interlocking, entangling et al of the names Eileen Gray and Jean Badovici, it’s not, that would be E.1072.

E.1027 implies more either a possessing of ‘102’ by ‘E7’, or that ‘E7’ dominates ‘102’, or that ‘102’ has sought sanctuary in ‘E7’, or that ‘E7’ is cocooning ‘102’, or that ‘102’ is at the centre of ‘E7’, amongst many, many other possible interpretations very far removed from the harmonic co-existence implied by E.1072.

Which poses the question as to the reason for the decision for E.1027 over E.1072; a decision was, one suspects, very much made. Why? Who thought the symbolism of E.1027 was better than that of E.1072? And what does that teach us?

The Radio smow Eileen Gray playlist and all Radio smow playlists including the not unrelated Le Corbusier playlist and Bauhaus playlist can be found on the smowonline Spotify page.

1. Eveline Schlumberger, Eileen Gray, Connaissance des arts, 258, Août 1973, page 72

2. see Jennifer Goff, A Tale of Two Houses: Eileen Gray and Le Corbusier, in Jennifer Goff, Eileen Gray: Her Work and Her World, Irish Academic Press, Sallins, 2015, pages 335 – 371