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Charles and Ray Eames Were Among the Greatest Designers of the 20Th Century, and Their Signature Creation,The Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman, Turned 50 This Year

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Charles and Ray Eames Were Among the Greatest Designers of the 20Th Century, and Their Signature Creation,The Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman, Turned 50 This Year Self-portrait of Ray Eames in 1928. Charles and Ray Eames WERE AMONG THE GREATEST DESIGNERS OF THE 20TH CENTURY, AND THEIR SIGNATURE CREATION,THE EAMES LOUNGE CHAIR AND OTTOMAN, TURNED 50 THIS YEAR. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG WOMAN AS A YOUNG OF THE ARTIST A PORTRAIT BUT Ray, WHO WAS BORN by Rob AND RAISED HERE, IS STILL A Turner RELATIVE UNKNOWN IN HER HOMETOWN. 76 DECEMBER/ JANUARY 06 | 07 DECEMBER/ JANUARY 06 | 07 77 Video clips from “Powers of 10” ally less rare than you might guess. Even (especially in a time before that was common), which would prepare pre-fabricated houses, with the idea that they could be inexpensively though few people here probably realize that them for their explorations into art, design and innovation. Ray’s mass-produced for returning soldiers and their families. The Eames entry If you were one of the one of America’s most important designers father, Alexander Kaiser, was Jewish, and her mother, Edna was Epis- became an almost instant architectural icon, a steel framed box with was born over at Sutter Memorial on F Street, copalian, the latter of which is how Ray was raised. vibrant colors that looked almost like a 3D Mondrian painting. Charles 17,000 fans who’d turned her presence looms large here. The lounge And despite the fact that Ray left Sacramento in 1931 for New and Ray moved in in 1949, and would never live elsewhere. chair she created with husband Charles is no York, it was in the Midwest that she met Charles. The two were study- But as celebrated as it was, it would pale in comparison to the work that doubt in hundreds, if not thousands of local ing at the acclaimed Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. They made them a household name. out to see Coldplay at Arco homes. Have you ever sat in one of those black got married 10 years later (Charles divorced his first wife Catherine rows of chairs at the Sacramento airport? shortly before that), and moved to Southern California, where they’d The Chair Arena earlier this year, you Then you’ve sat in an Eames chair. And since live for the rest of their lives. If it seems extraordinary that the Powers of 10 film is still relevant in it opened earlier this year, the new Design Their similar upbringings may have given them a shared phi- today’s pop culture, 30 years after its creation, it doesn’t hold a candle to might remember their per- Within Reach store on 16th Street in midtown losophy in life, but ultimately it was their different experiences in the the lasting relevance and outright popularity of the Eames Lounge Chair has had two giant pictures of Charles and Ray, arts that made them such a potent partnership. Charles was trained & Ottoman. A chair that was initially designed to be a mass-market piece formance of “The Scientist.” one in the window display and another inside. as an architect and Ray was primarily a painter, one who’d studied manufactured by Herman Miller in 1956, has taken on a life of its own, But there’s virtually no talk of one of our truly under the great modernist painter Hans Hoffman. And each informed having sold more than 100,000 units since it was released. But what about that great native daughters. the other, whether they were designing homes, furniture, films (like Charles famously commented that it was intended to have the There may, however, be a few reasons Powers of 10) or had other projects that made them some of the most “warm, receptive look of a well-used first baseman’s mitt.” Charles and mesmerizing video that why Ray’s not better known here. The fact is, prolific artists of their time. (In fact, in Ray’s final years, she helped Ray and their staff at the Eames Office spent years perfecting the design even though she lived here in Sacramento arrange the donation of over one million items from their estates to of the chair. And the very first one famously went to their friend, the accompanied it as Chris until she was 19, she really didn’t reflect the Library of Congress). director Billy Wilder. publicly on her younger years. In fact, the “People want to say that Charles was the architect and Ray was After gracing magazine covers in the ’50s, its popularity ebbed some- Martin sat playing Eameses didn’t reflect much at all. “Charles the painter, and that was true, of course, but they were a great team what in the ’80s, but never died. And then in the ’90s, as mid-century The film opens deep in space, and and Ray were always looking forward,” says because they both had a bit of both,” says Demetrios. “Charles would modernism came back into vogue in a big way, the Chair led the way. Even say Ray puts things in and I take things out. She always knew he Frasier Crane was making Eames references on Thursday nights on NBC. the piano begins its descent to earth, stars their grandson Eames Demetrios, sitting in the study of the celebrated Eames House in would take out what they really didn’t need, and he always knew that Early viewers will remember that Frasier had to move his beloved Eames flying by like fireflies. The United Pacific Palisades. “They hardly ever told those she’d put in things that they might not think they need. And that’s lounge chair to make room for his dad’s Barcalounger. States comes into focus, then Chi- stories [of their childhoods]. They were just what a good team is. You’re not doing the same thing. You’re helping But it wasn’t a passing ’90s fad. Open any copy of Dwell or virtu- cago, a lakefront park, and finally a so interested in what was going on; what new each other.” ally any other design magazine today and find the chair in its ads and man sleeping in a park. It continues thing was happening. I always asked every- Together, they pushed the envelope of modern design. At editorial pages. And Eames-mania has shown no sign of slowing down. In down to his hand and ultimately his body, Did they ever talk about the early days? Cranbrook, Charles became a close friend and collaborator with the fact, last year, Herman Miller sold more than 4,000 of the lounge chairs. skin, molecules and atoms dis- No.” architect Eero Saarinen, who designed modernist icons like the St. And not only can you buy the chair in the museum shop of the Museum of played across a panoramic screen. Another possible reason that she’s not Louis Arch and New York’s TWA Terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport Modern Art in New York (for a mere $3,500), it’s in the permanent collec- Science is humanized in one sweep- better known is that Ray herself has only (Saarinen actually named his son Eames in honor of his friend). And tion there. ing, simple sequence. The perfect been accorded the credit for her partnership meanwhile, Ray was studying painting, sculpture and color, her work It’s also a part of the permanent collection in the San Francisco Mu- complement to a 2006 modern rock with Charles in the last decade or so. It was finding its way into the Whitney Museum of American Art. seum of Modern Art, which is home to about 50 other pieces by Charles One of the most celebrated collaborations would result in their and Ray, says Ruth Keffer, a curatorial associate in architecture and de- ballad by the British supergroup. in 1995 that Pat Kirkham’s biography on the Eames, Charles and Ray Eames: Designers own home. In the late ’40s, a national competition was held to design sign. “She was a character,” says Keffer. “I think Ray was sort of the right Which is saying a lot, since the of the Twentieth Century, came out, and brain part of the equation. Of the two of them, I wish I could have met her. woman who co-created the film, Powers helped shed light on Ray’s equal contribu- She just seemed like a crazy woman—delightfully, wonderfully crazy.” of 10, was born in 1912. And she was tion to their body of work. In the 50s, when The fact is, both Charles and Ray were very much in touch with their born in Sacramento, only a few miles the Eames were at the height of their fame, inner child. Look no further than one of their fantastical classic films, south of where her film would enthrall society still found it hard to believe that a Toccata for Toy Trains. They also appeared to delight in every artistic thousands. woman could be an equal partner in such a endeavor they undertook. In fact, it was their films that first captured the Oprah would call this a full- celebrated entity of what was then known imagination of Dolph Gotelli, the founder of the design department at circle moment. as the Office of Charles Eames. To this day, UC Davis. Gotelli specifically remembers the film they made about their But when it comes to Ray Eames many people still believe Charles and Ray are home. “It was the first thing I saw as a design student,” he says. “They and Sacramento, this moment is actu- two men. In fact, in the May 2006 issue of were so innovative.” Vanity Fair, they were referred to as “broth- ers.” The Eames Lounge Chair Charles and Ray & Ottoman When scholars or even family try to connect Ray’s sketches the dots between what drew Charles and of chair concepts.
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