1950 - POWERS OF TEN
Charles and Ray Eames are among the most important American
designers of this century. They are best known for their groundbreaking
contributions to architecture, furniture design (e.g., the Eames
Chair), industrial design and manufacturing, and the photographic
arts.
Charles Eames was born in 1907 in St. Louis, Missouri. He attended
school there and developed an interest in engineering and architecture.
After attending Washington University on scholarship for two years
and being thrown out for his advocacy of Frank Lloyd Wright, he
began working in an architectural office. In 1929, he married his
first wife, Catherine Woermann (they divorced in 1941), and a year
later Charles' only child, daughter Lucia was born. In 1930, Charles
started his own architectural office. He began extending his design
ideas beyond architecture and received a fellowship to Cranbrook
Academy of Art in Michigan, where he eventually became head of the
design department.
Ray Kaiser Eames was born in Sacramento, California in the middle
of the century's second decade. She studied painting with Hans Hofmann
in New York before moving on to Cranbrook Academy where she met
and assisted Charles and Eero Saarinen in preparing designs for
the Museum of Modern Art's "Organic Furniture Competition."
Charles and Eero's designs, created by molding plywood into complex
curves, won them the two first prizes.
Charles and Ray married in 1941 and moved to California where they
continued their furniture design work with molding plywood. During
the war they were commissioned by the Navy to produce molded plywood
splints, stretchers and experimental glider shells. In 1946, Evans
Products began producing the Eameses' molded plywood furniture.
Their molded plywood chair was called "the chair of the century"
by the influential architectural critic Esther McCoy. Soon production
was taken over by Herman Miller, Inc ., who continues to produce
the furniture in the United States to this day. Another company,
Vitra International , manufactures the furniture in Europe. In 1949,
Charles and Ray designed and built their own home in Pacific Palisades,
California as part of the Case Study House Program sponsored by
Arts and Architecture Magazine. Their design and innovative use
of materials made this house a mecca for architects and designers
from all over the world. It is considered one of the most important
post-war residences built anywhere in the world.
In the early 1950s, the Eameses extended their interest and skill
in photography into filmmaking. They created over eighty-five short
films (2-30 minutes) ranging in subjects from tops to the world
of Franklin and Jefferson , from simple sea creatures to the explanation
of advanced mathematical and scientific concepts, such as the workings
of the computer.
Toccata for Toy Trains and Powers of Ten are two brilliant examples
of the Eameses' skill, creativity and far-reaching interests. The
scores for both those films and some thirty others were written
by their friend and collaborator, Elmer Bernstein.
The Eameses continued to create new furniture designs into the 1970s.
Examples include the molded plastic or fiberglass chairs from the
early 1950s and the famous Lounge Chair and Ottoman from 1956. Sturdy,
comfortable and elegant office furniture was created in the 1960s,
as well as seating designed for Dulles and O'Hare Airports. This
Tandem Sling Seating is still in use in airports around the world
today.
The Eameses designed numerous museum exhibits for IBM (Mathematica,
The World of Franklin and Jefferson, Copernicus, and the 1964 New
York World's Fair), the Smithsonian Institution, and others. They
created a huge seven-screen slide show for the Moscow World's Fair
in 1959. Charles and Ray received many honorary degrees and awards
from universities and organizations across the country. Charles
was an appointee to the National Council of the Arts and held the
Charles Eliot Norton Professorship at Harvard in 1970-71. Ray served
on the panel of "The Arts, Education, and Americans" set
up by the American Council for the Arts in Education.
Charles died August 21, 1978. Ray died ten years later to the day.
The Eames Office still operates today, run by Charles' daughter,
designer Lucia Eames, and one of her sons, Eames Demetrios, releasing
their designs in furniture, film, video and other media as well
as creating new products.
© 1999 Lucia Eames dba Eames
Office
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