A wall that can admit a glimpse
The blocks in Gray’s screen do not form an ordinary solid wall. Seven horizontal rows are threaded onto thin vertical rods. Individual panels can pivot, letting darkness, reflection and glimpses of the space beyond enter the composition.
MoMA dates its example to 1922 and relates it to a larger screen developed for Suzanne Talbot’s apartment, commissioned by Juliette Mathieu-Lévy. It is furniture that occupies space like architecture while retaining the possibility of movement.1
Imagine its effect beside a chair. Turn some panels towards the light and their surfaces become more prominent. Turn them away and the gaps matter more. The person on the other side has not moved, yet the relationship between the two places has changed.
Learning what a surface could do
The screen’s lacquer is central to that effect. It gives each block a dark, concentrated presence, making the small interruptions between them particularly noticeable. The precision of the finish belongs to a long process of learning and making.
The V&A records Gray studying with the Japanese lacquer worker Seizo Sugawara in Paris by 1906. That training preceded the opening of her gallery in 1922. Her later move towards tubular metal and architectural interiors did not begin with an indifference to craft; it followed close involvement with demanding surface work.2
This makes the familiar division between luxurious early furniture and austere modern furniture less satisfying. Both can require exact attention to the way a hand, an eye or a body meets an object. The materials change, but small decisions continue to matter.
The house makes room for withdrawal
At Villa E-1027, designed with Jean Badovici and built in 1927–29, Gray considered how ordinary activities could coexist within a compact home. The Cap Moderne account describes direct outdoor access from bedrooms, adaptable furnishings and carefully concealed service functions, including a shower screened within the living area.3
A shared room has to accommodate more than a collective photograph. Someone may want to read while another person moves through it. A guest needs a place to sleep and a degree of independence. A small surface close to a chair can save a journey across the room.
Seen in this context, the adjustable table in the opening photograph belongs to a larger way of thinking. The useful object approaches the person, while partitions and routes help people avoid being continually exposed to one another.
Privacy is something a room does
A floor plan can label a space private without making it pleasant to inhabit. A view through a doorway, a route to the outside or the position of a movable screen can make a greater difference than the label.
Gray’s work gives those modest decisions physical form. Return to the screen and turn one block in your imagination. The room remains the same size. What it allows its occupants to do has changed.
