Charles Eames

Eames spent his childhood and youth in St. Louis, where he also attended high school. After graduating, he studied architecture at Washington University from 1925 to 1928. He then settled in New York. In 1936, Eames received a scholarship to the Cranbrook Academy of Arts in Michigan. He later took up a teaching position there. His colleagues included the well-known Italian painter and sculptor Harry Bertoia and the celebrated Finnish architect Eero Saarinen as well as the painter Ray Kaiser. In 1941, Charles Eames and Ray Kaiser (1916-1988) celebrated their wedding. In the same year they founded a joint design studio, which led to a successful professional collaboration from the 1940s to the 1970s, which made both of them one of the leading designers of the 20th century.

From 1941 to 1943 the first furniture designs were created together with Eero Saarinen. They also made arm and leg splints and stretchers out of plywood for the US Navy. To do this, they invented a new process to deform layered glued wood in three dimensions. In 1946, Eames took part in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York with some experimental works using this production method, after which he received a job as a furniture designer at Herman Miller. Charles Eames developed progressive furniture design with rational design. In the same year he had his first solo exhibition at the “Museum of Modern Art” under the title “New Furniture by Charles Eames”. Eames experimented with fiberglass as a material to make furniture.

In 1948 he presented a chair made of molded fiberglass, which later became the first piece of plastic furniture to go into large-scale production. Commercial series production offered the opportunity not only to produce designer objects economically and quickly, but also to copy them. Eames attracted international attention when he took part in the “Low-cost Furniture” competition at the Museum of Modern Art New York with his fiberglass chair. Eames won second prize with the innovative design. He gave new impetus to furniture design and construction, primarily through the use of fiberglass as a material. But his design designs in a timeless stylistic language also had a significant influence on the industry. Eames chairs are still in demand today.

In 1956, Miller created the legendary “Lounge Chair”, which is now one of Eames’ most popular works and stands for classic modernism like no other piece of furniture. It was presented to the public for the first time in March 1956. Pieces from the first series are now traded like works of art. Eames worked with his wife Ray on various projects in the fields of film, photography, industrial design, toys, exhibitions, books, architecture and fine art. The couple made over 85 films, including films about the painters Cézanne and Degas. The short film entitled “The Power of Ten”, in German: “Zehn hoch”, is considered one of the best. For the 1959 World’s Fair they made the multiscreen film called “Insights into the USA”, which made the couple known as filmmakers.

In addition to attractive designer furniture, the Eames couple also designed functional office furniture made of metal, plastic, molded wood, chrome and leather. In their work they combined quality with economy and aesthetics. Eames also applied these principles to architecture. He was interested in producing standard elements economically and with little material expenditure, with the aim of versatile and effective use. In this way, Charles and Ray Eames also built their own house from a steel and glass structure in Los Angeles. It is an example of an economical living space in an avant-garde style that combines industrially manufactured elements with handcrafted and handcrafted objects.

Charles Eames died on August 21, 1978 in St. Louis. His wife Ray Eames died exactly ten years later on August 21, 1988 in Los Angeles.