to expose previously repressed feelings and images, visualising the whole human existence, which included its absurd contradictions, its terrors and underlying humour. Breton pronounced that it was pure psychic automatism, that is to say that the Surrealist artist would delve below the conscious mind with its controls and inhibitions and reproduce what his or her subconscious inspiration dictated. Besides a copy of the manifesto Gray also had two issues of the periodical Le Surréalisme au Service de la Révolution, 1931 and Le Surréalisme en 1947.100 Le Surréalisme en 1947, also known as Prière de toucher (Please touch) was the limited edition catalogue that accompanied the Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme – the first post-war Surrealist art exhibition to be staged in the Galerie Maeght in Paris in July-August 1947. Centred upon the theme of myth, the exhibition was organised by Marcel Duchamp and André Breton. The venue was transformed by Gray’s friend and architect Frederick Kiesler (1890-1965) into a complex labyrinth of orchestrated rooms intended to spiritually reawaken French society after the horrors of World War II. Inset in the catalogue are 24 original prints by leading Surrealist artists including Max Ernst (1891-1976), Joan Miró (1893-1983), who Gray knew and Yves Tanguy (1900-1955). The catalogue was covered in hand-painted, pre-fabricated foam and rubber breasts that were adhered to a circular piece of black velvet and affixed to the cardboard slip-cover of the catalogue. In the typically mischievous manner of Surrealism, the back of the catalogue playfully read ‘please touch’; inviting the readers to fondle the artificial breast adorning the cover before accessing the pages of the manuscript. The Surrealist movement interested Gray, and though her artwork never displayed surrealist tendencies, their influence was felt in her treatment of her subject matter in her artistic photographs. This was seen in artistic photographs by Breton and Éluard which she saw in Le Surréalisme au Service de la Révolution.
Throughout her career Gray had composed a visual photographic anthology of her furniture, interiors and her architecture, comprising of 1,070 images. This was not just a portfolio of her work – there were subtle details in the photographs which became Gray’s trademark. As a result pieces – for example tables – had objects placed on them, cups and saucers, or books. Her photographs had a humanist element to them as if someone had just left the room. She was an excellent commercial photographer, taking photographs of her furniture displays at her shop Jean Désert, and often placing objects on furniture to give them a human touch and make the objects appear as if they were used. Many of these commercial images she treated as though they were still lifes. She also took all the photographs of her house for the magazine L’Architecture Vivante and for her portfolios of work which she compiled in 1956.101
Beginning in the 1920s Gray began taking artistic photographs which concentrated on light and shade. Inspired by the photographs taken of Rodin’s sculptures by her friend Stephen Haweis and Henry Coles (b.1875) Gray embarked on a series of Still Life and Tablescapes in the 1920s. Haweis and Coles were the first of Rodin’s photographers to experiment with artificial lighting using acetylene gas lamps for example. This type of lighting provided a strong contrast in their images which was reinforced by the biochromated-gelatin print. Now associated with the Pictorialist movement, the two British artists took about 200 photographs for Rodin in under two years. Pictorialists manipulated the photograph, by ‘creating’ an image not just recording it. Some of Gray’s still life portraits of the 1920s follow this strain, appearing to lack a sharp focus with blurred shadows. She at times treated these photographs like paintings, creating an atmosphere by way of projecting an emotional intent into the viewer’s realm of imagination. Other still life photographs are clearly modernist in style and are sharply focused, recording minutiae in a picture. Then in the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s two other movements had a profound effect on her photographs. The first was Surrealism. Gray owned a copy of Le Surréalisme au Service de la Révolution – a periodical issued in Paris from 1930 and 1933. Gray owned a copy of the issues no.3 and 4 from 1931.102 Issue no. 3 had a numbers of Illustrations, including photographs of Surrealist objects by Breton, Gala Éluard (1894-1982), Valentine Hugo (1887-1968), Joan Miró, Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) and Salvador Dalí (1904-1989). Gray’s Tablescape, dating from the 1920s and consisting of an African mask hanging on the wall and a still life composed of inanimate objects, directly looks to Breton and Éluard’s still life studies in this issue. Her treatment of the composition and the choice of subject matter are directly inspired by their work. The other movement was the Bauhaus, which directly inspired her photographs of the 1930s, especially the work of László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946). Gray owned a copy of Malerei, Fotografie, Film (Painting, Photography, Film).103 This landmark Bauhaus publication highlighted the debate between the media of painting, photography and film, especially in the recognition of the two latter being considered as art forms. In 1937, 35mm Kodachrome film first became available and Gray embarked – especially during the war years – on a series of images, creating fluid abstract compositions. In this series of images Gray emphasised photography as an extension of human sight, which compensated for the shortcomings of retinal perception, notably in the works Anneaux de rideaux, 1930s, and Torse en marbre du 21 rue Bonaparte, 1930s. Then by the 1950s Gray began to concentrate on natural and industrial landscapes, which were empty and devoid of human contact, with the series Église à Saint Tropez and Port Grimaud. By the late 1950s she had returned to outdoor still life compositions consisting of wood in the series Bois pétrifié.
3.24 Still Life, 1950, black and white photograph © Private Collection
3.25 Tablescape, 1920, black and white photograph © Private Collection
3.26 Still Life, 1920s, black and white photograph © Private Collection
3.27 Torse en marbre du 21 rue Bonaparte, 1930s, black and white photograph © Private Collection
3.28 Port Grimaud, 1950s, black and white photograph © Private Collection
3.29 Bois pétrifié, late 1950s, black and white photograph © Private Collection
3.30 Photographic collage, circa 1920, photographic paper, paint © NMI
From the 1930s through to the 1960s Gray also produced a series of photographic collages. The earliest dates from 1935 and consists of a photograph of white scratched lines haphazardly arranged in accordance with three adhesive black, plastic curvilinear and straight cuts running through the centre.104 It recalled the Paul Klee-like lines on the back of the 1913 red lacquer screen Le Destin, and the swirling line motifs on the walls of the salon of the Rue de Lota apartment. With this early photographic collage she was simply exploring abstraction through the use of photographic forms. The collage, unfinished, also appears in photographs on Gray’s desk in her home, Tempe à Pailla.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s she returned to photographic collage, producing two large collages,
