Ray and charles eames biography of martin

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The Case Study Houses came to define a new kind of Californian style, and the Eames House in particular captured public attention and helped define the image of what was modern and American in the postwar period, both within the United States and internationally. (1959), a multiscreen film presentation about everyday life in America, was commissioned by the U.S.

Department of State as part of a cultural exchange for the American National Exhibition in Moscow.

The Eameses began designing furniture in 1944, and in the 1950s and 1960s, they also produced a wide range of films and exhibitions.

Charles received many awards, including the AIA Gold Medal Award in 1957.

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CHARLES AND RAY EAMES
 
 

BIOGRAPHY / TIMELINE / FURTHER READING / RELATED

 
 
 Name Charles Ormond Eames, Jr.

Bernice Alexandra "Ray" Kaiser Eames

    
 Born Charles Ormond Eames, Jr.: June 17, 1907

Bernice Alexandra "Ray" Kaiser Eames:  December 15, 1912

    
 Died Charles Ormond Eames, Jr.: August 21, 1978

Bernice Alexandra "Ray" Kaiser Eames: August 21, 1988

    
 Nationality USA
    
 School  
    
 Official website www.eamesoffice.com
   
 
BIOGRAPHY    
  

Charles and Ray Eames believed that good design was a means to better living.

With two years of architectural training at Washington University in St. Louis, several years in architectural firms, and some experience with mechanics and manufacturing, Charles brought technical knowledge and engineering skills to the professional partnership. The Herman Miller Furniture Company began to manufacture, market, and distribute furniture from the Eames Office in 1946, and the designs soon gained international recognition.

The Case Study House Program, sponsored by the journal Arts and Architecture under John Entenza, was initiated in 1945 as a venue for architects to produce innovative prototypes for postwar American living. However, all the work was submitted solely under Charles’s name until 1947, at which time the design firm became known as the Eames Office.

ray and charles eames biography of martin

In recent studies, feminist historians have attempted to assert Ray’s importance in the partnership, claiming for her some of the recognition she did not receive during her lifetime. Two unrealized competition entries for public projects in the 1940s, City Hall (1943) designed with John Entenza, and a proposal for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (1997), attempted to create a spatial arrangement of elements that opened the channels of communication between government and citizens.

The Eames House was the first Case Study House to use a steel frame, and the innovative adaptation of prefabricated construction and industrial material to residential architecture proved very influential. With their architecture, furniture design, films, and exhibitions, the Eameses sought to change the way people thought about everyday objects and daily life.

While their architecture made an important contribution to the development of Californian mod ernism, the functionalist philosophy that informed it contributed to all of their design work.

He was also granted numerous honorary doctorate degrees.

Ray Kaiser was born in Sacramento in 1912.

From 1933 to 1940, she studied with Hans Hofmann, first in New York, and later at the Cranbrook Academy of Art.

During this time, she was involved with the group, American Abstract Artists.

It included the 1948 "La Chaise" chair, the "Dining Armchair Rod (DAR)", and the "Rocking Armchair Rod (RAR)", presented in 1948-1950. On the death of her mother, Ray enrolled at the Cranbrook Academy in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where she met Charles Eames, at that time head of the industrial design department.

Using steel-frame construction and a glass facade of windows and opaque panels, the exterior of the showroom, as well as the concept of a flexible interior space, was similar to the Eames House. The chair won a prize but proved too complex for mass production. Using new, low-cost, prefabricated construction materials, they set out to make good design inexpensive and accessible.

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