‘In Conversation with Eileen Gray’ is a film following a conversation that Andrew Hodgkinson recorded in 1973 with Eileen Gray, at her Paris apartment.
Now recognised as one of the greatest Modernist designers and architects of the 20th Century, this film allows us to hear her assessment of her career, of which she was characteristically modest.
Andrew enquires into the spike of interest for her work in the early 70s and she passes it off as simply a phase that will pass in a month. 50 years later interest in her work has only intensified.
‘In Conversation with Eileen Gray’ is directed by Michael Pitiot, Musée des Arts Décoratifs curator Cloé Pitiot, and Eileen Gray expert Philippe Garner, with assistance from the renowned Jennifer Goff of the National Museum of Ireland.
Premiered at the Bard Graduate Center, New York in February 2020 with a panel discussion and invited audience, the event ran alongside a retrospective exhibition of her life and work. It is a rare opportunity to listen to a champion of modernism and this charming film depicts Gray as a versatile and non-conformist innovator.
The second screening of the film followed by a Q+A, took place at the Design Museum in London in September 2021. Aram Design kindly sponsored the reception afterwards. Further screenings are currently being organised around Europe for 2022.
Eileen Gray was Ireland’s greatest designer and architect of the 20th century. Hugely accomplished in a wide variety of mediums she created lacquered and tubular steel furniture, lighting, decorative rugs, interiors and architecture, including her modernist villa – E1027 in the South of France at Roquebrune. E1027 has recently been fully restored and is open to the public.
