EAMES

The Enduring Revolution

Clara Sturak

Associate Editor

   Most people were probably not introduced to the work of Charles and Ray Eames the way I was. 
   In the mid-seventies, when I was very young, my mother took me to dozens of consciousness-raising seminars run by a man who called himself Leo Sunshine (sort of a slapstick Werner Erhardt). To end the first night of these weekend-long workshops, Sunshine would show a film: "Powers of Ten." This film -- a mind-blower, to use the language of the time -- began with a couple on a picnic blanket, and in increments of powers of ten, moved farther and farther away from the couple, passing the earth, solar system, and milky way, until the galaxies in the universe looked like tiny dots. Then, speeding up, the film raced backwards to the couple, focusing on the hand of the man, and then proceeded to travel, by powers of ten, into the skin, cells, DNA, and finally the nucleaus of an atom inside this man's body. The whole trip, outer edge of the universe to tiniest particles known to man was covered in 10-or-so minutes, in 36 powers of ten. Wow. Talk about consciousness raising. And to think I was only eleven. 
   Of course, I have since sat in many Eames chairs, and played with their House of Cards. Like just about everyone else, I have also been affected by their mission of bringing elegant and extraordinary designed things -- ranging from playing cards to houses -- to the public through their use of affordable, modern materials. 
   The Husband and wife team of Charles and Ray Eames are perhaps the most important and influential modern American designers. They also happen to be local heroes, having in worked and lived in Venice and the Pacific Palisades for close to 50 years. As a team, Ray Eames, who began her career as a painter, and Charles Eames, who was an architect, became much more than the sum of their parts. Over the course of the second half of this century, they created beautifully designed, but more importantly, comfortable and affordable furniture (including the famous Eames chairs and chaises), built a house out of entirely pre-fabricated materials (as a case study of how to affordably house returning GIs after WWII), and made dozens of short films on subjects ranging from toy trains and tops, to the workings of the universe.
   Eames Demitrios, grandson of Ray and Charles Eames, is the director of the Eames office, now located at the Eames house in the Palisades, after 46 years at 901 Washington Blvd. in Venice. He carries the torch for his grandparents, preserving and displaying their work, as well as adding to it with his own films. 
   This year has been a particularly busy one for the Eames Office. A travelling exhibit of Ray and Charles' work has hit Washington, D.C., New York and St. Louis, and opens at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art this week. The Eames Office Gallery (on Main Street in Santa Monica) is presenting an exhibit of Ray Eames' early paintings, and the Eames House is celebrating its 50th year, with tours and seminars. 
   The LACMA exhibit expands on the travelling tour with its own collection of Eames work, including a complete reproduction of their Venice studio. Demitrios explains, "the exciting thing is that the work is coming home. The vast majority of their work was done here in Los Angeles, and the reproduction of the 901 office (in Venice) makes the LA leg of this tour very different." Demitrios has fond memories of spending time at his grandparents' studio as a child. "Until I was older I thought everybody who visited their grandparents had a little film festival every weekend." As an adult, he is moved their work on a different level, "since my office is at the Eames House, I appreciate the serenity and the comfort in nature they created there."
   The Eames' interest in science led them to consider physics, biology and new technologies as art forms. They saw the beauty in scientific principles, and they used film to translate sometimes complicated ideas into images that the public could absorb in a new way (just ask the eleven-year-old, who suddenly wanted to become an astronomer after seeing "Powers of Ten"...) The short film, "Tops," (with lots of toy tops spinning), was used by Scientific American Book Critic Philip Morrison during a lecture about the mathematics of rotating galaxies, "I have some friends who made a film about objects that behave in the same way," he told his audience.
   When asked about the current resurgence of interest in his grandparents' work, Demitrios is thoughtful. "The interesting thing about that, is that even though there has been a lot of increased interest lately -- you see it in the magazines -- their furniture has been selling steadily throughout the years (through the furniture manufacturer Herman Miller). People are connected to their work in a very deep way."
   The LACMA exhibit, "The Work of Charles and Ray Eames: A Legacy of Invention," which includes holdings from the Vitra Design Museum in Germany and the Library of Congress Collection, opens on June 25th (member preview days are June 22nd -24th). 
   A symposium, "Charles and Ray Eames: Celebrating the Legacy," will be held on Saturday, June 24th from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Bing Theater at LACMA. Speakers include Demitrios, architects Craig Hodgetts, Ming Fung, and other designers and artists who worked with the Eames. The day will conclude with a showing of several of the Eames' influential films. 
   "Changing Her Palette," an exhibit of Ray Eames' painting continues at the Eames Office throughout the summer, as does the celebration of the Eames' House 50th Anniversary (tours of the house are available by appointment only.) There are several other exhibits and activities scheduled around the LACMA and Eames Office exhibits, for more information, please call the Eames Office at (310) 396-5991, or visit the website: eames.org.
Photos courtesy of the LA County Museum of Art. Top Left ConceptChair, Bottom Left Lounge Chair, Right Eames House.