Seizo Sugawara, Eileen Gray’s enduring collaborator

Ruth Starr

• 📅Tuesday, April 30, 2024
• 🕥10:30 – 12:30
• 🏟Newtownpark Pastoral Centre (map)

This presentation will consider the influence of the Japanese sculptor and lacquer specialist, Seizo Sugawara (1884 – 1937) on Eileen Gray (1878 – 1976) in the context of the pervasiveness of Japonisme. Gray is best known for her pioneering work in early modernist architecture. Less well known is her acclaimed earlier career as a lacquer furniture designer. The presentation reveals Gray’s fine appreciation of the unique characteristics of Japanese lacquer.

Ruth is a historian of Japanese art (including Japanese crafts) from the earliest times to the 20th century. Starr’s current research seeks to untangle the web of connections linking Japanese art and European art, following the common thread of lacquerware. Her major interest is how these links were manifest in Ireland during the Japonisme movement of the late 19th Century, particularly the Japanese influence on Eileen Gray, (1878- 1976); also Japonisme in 19th and 20th century Ireland and lacquerware in Japan and Europe.