Adam's MID-CENTURY MODERN Tuesday 22nd October 2024

38 Tuesday 22 nd October 2024 65 EILEEN GRAY (1878 - 1976) Brick Screen by Eileen Gray. c.1980. 153 x 172.5cm(h) € 12,000 - 16,000 This Brick Screen is a smaller iteration of a piece Eileen Gray originally designed in 1922 for the Paris apartment of Madame Mathieu-Lévy, a prominent milliner. It exemplifies Gray’s unique ability to merge furniture, architecture, and sculpture, a hallmark of her work. Constructed from black lacquered wood, it consists of eight horizontal rows of panels joined by slender vertical metal rods, functioning both as a movable partition and as an art object. Its design, with alternating sol- ids and voids, carries a subtle Cubist influence, reflecting Gray’s affinity for modernist aesthetics. Gray’s fascination with traditional lacquerware, a craft she mastered under the guidance of a Japanese artisan, Seizo Sugawara. Gray refined her lacquer techniques, creating pieces that balance functionality with decorative beauty. This screen stands as one of her most significant designs and is part of the permanent design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Eileen Gray collection in the National Museum of Ireland.