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emitya's review
4.0
“Memories cling to things so it’s better to start anew.”
I really enjoyed this beautifully illustrated graphic novel/biography depicting fragments of Eileen Gray’s life, particularly her Modernist masterpiece E-1027.
Having very little knowledge about the designer before reading, I’ve come away wanting to learn lots more. She clearly had a wonderful eye for interiors and felt quietly passionate about connecting living space to its human inhabitants, reflecting their need for flexibility and growth.
What I blindly didn’t expect was her connection to the 1920s Left Bank scene in Paris, nor did I know she frequented Natalie Barney’s salon (I honestly didn’t know a thing about her!). It was really beautiful how I heard of her work on a radio programme unbeknownst to her private life and she ended up being woven into lesbian/sapphic history, I’m really looking forward to researching her further and was thankful for the reading list at the end of the book.
As far as providing great detail about her life, this book isn’t the place to go; but for a gorgeously visual journey to quench an initial intrigue, it did the job perfectly.
I really enjoyed this beautifully illustrated graphic novel/biography depicting fragments of Eileen Gray’s life, particularly her Modernist masterpiece E-1027.
Having very little knowledge about the designer before reading, I’ve come away wanting to learn lots more. She clearly had a wonderful eye for interiors and felt quietly passionate about connecting living space to its human inhabitants, reflecting their need for flexibility and growth.
What I blindly didn’t expect was her connection to the 1920s Left Bank scene in Paris, nor did I know she frequented Natalie Barney’s salon (I honestly didn’t know a thing about her!). It was really beautiful how I heard of her work on a radio programme unbeknownst to her private life and she ended up being woven into lesbian/sapphic history, I’m really looking forward to researching her further and was thankful for the reading list at the end of the book.
As far as providing great detail about her life, this book isn’t the place to go; but for a gorgeously visual journey to quench an initial intrigue, it did the job perfectly.
mariannaks's review
2.0
Very hard to follow. I didn't understand anything because I wasn't familiar with the person and her life. But art was beautiful.
600bars's review
3.0
I refuse to pay 22 dollars for a lyft, and it wouldve taken 1.5 hour to get home via public transport, and so I decided to walk to my gf's work and wait the 1.5 hours for her to get done. There was a library next door so I got 3 books, 2 of which were graphic novels. I basically chose blindly with no clue what was inside.
The structure of this story was extremely confusing to someone who knew nothing. It jumps around in time but not in a way that makes any sense. I read all the bios at the end and then went back, and that helped. This is not a good book for someone who is totally unfamiliar with the events in Eileen Gray's life and work. I think the bios should have been first. I was under the impression that the e-1027 lover was also a woman up until she got mad at him for having the underage girls over, because Eileen seemed like a lesbian to me. So I had to go back and re read it which totally changes the context of the mural part with le corbusier as a male intrusion into a feminine space etc, I was confused on a couple quotes in the book before I realized this.
Regarding the murals: the intro speaks of the painting as a defacement. And later when I got home I watched some youtube videos that referred to the murals as a "rape" of the house. So it was weird that in the scene where he paints them, corbusier mostly seems like he is just vibing so hard that he gets in the mood to dance naked and paint. It doesn't come off as malicious in the scene, but everything I read both in the intro and online said it was a very intentional slight to both Elileen and the house. I have never liked Corbusier ever since a class I took junior year, so I am absolutely not defending him, I am more struck by the almost nonchalant scene when it's pretty explicit in the intro and public memory how fucked up it was. Though maybe the fact that it was such a meaningless/thoughtless action to paint on something that she had worked so hard on is the whole point.
this book put Corbusier's drowning in such a weird point in the story. That could've been included at a different time for greater effect. But maybe that would be leaning a bit too much into "the house had its revenge"? Idk I would have found that narratively satisfying especially since it really happened.
Though this particular Graphic novel had a lot of flaws and the dialogue was odd, I learned about someone I had never heard of. The point was to learn about a queer woman whose work was always overshadowed by men, and it succeeded!
Can anything be new and exciting these days? I watched a house tour on Youtube of e1027 and this house looks brand new and very contemporary to me. Crazy that it is almost 100 years old! I could see this house being in the background of a Vogue 73 questions while some lengthy celebrity walks around trying not to look scripted
The structure of this story was extremely confusing to someone who knew nothing. It jumps around in time but not in a way that makes any sense. I read all the bios at the end and then went back, and that helped. This is not a good book for someone who is totally unfamiliar with the events in Eileen Gray's life and work. I think the bios should have been first. I was under the impression that the e-1027 lover was also a woman up until she got mad at him for having the underage girls over, because Eileen seemed like a lesbian to me. So I had to go back and re read it which totally changes the context of the mural part with le corbusier as a male intrusion into a feminine space etc, I was confused on a couple quotes in the book before I realized this.
Regarding the murals: the intro speaks of the painting as a defacement. And later when I got home I watched some youtube videos that referred to the murals as a "rape" of the house. So it was weird that in the scene where he paints them, corbusier mostly seems like he is just vibing so hard that he gets in the mood to dance naked and paint. It doesn't come off as malicious in the scene, but everything I read both in the intro and online said it was a very intentional slight to both Elileen and the house. I have never liked Corbusier ever since a class I took junior year, so I am absolutely not defending him, I am more struck by the almost nonchalant scene when it's pretty explicit in the intro and public memory how fucked up it was. Though maybe the fact that it was such a meaningless/thoughtless action to paint on something that she had worked so hard on is the whole point.
this book put Corbusier's drowning in such a weird point in the story. That could've been included at a different time for greater effect. But maybe that would be leaning a bit too much into "the house had its revenge"? Idk I would have found that narratively satisfying especially since it really happened.
Though this particular Graphic novel had a lot of flaws and the dialogue was odd, I learned about someone I had never heard of. The point was to learn about a queer woman whose work was always overshadowed by men, and it succeeded!
Can anything be new and exciting these days? I watched a house tour on Youtube of e1027 and this house looks brand new and very contemporary to me. Crazy that it is almost 100 years old! I could see this house being in the background of a Vogue 73 questions while some lengthy celebrity walks around trying not to look scripted
snivets's review
5.0
They sure didn't teach me this about Corb in architecture school...
A beautiful work examining someone who had the audacity to speak against the machine forms of Le Corb's vision of Modernism, and dared do so while being a woman. Very cool - glad the structure and her legacy were not totally lost.
A beautiful work examining someone who had the audacity to speak against the machine forms of Le Corb's vision of Modernism, and dared do so while being a woman. Very cool - glad the structure and her legacy were not totally lost.