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Ray Eames

Intro

Ray-Bernice Alexandra Kaiser Eames (née Kaiser; December 15, 1912 – August 21, 1988) was an American artist and designer who worked in a variety of media.

In creative partnership with her spouse Charles Eames and their Eames Office, she was responsible for groundbreaking contributions in the field of architecture, graphic design, textile design, film, and furniture design. The Eames Office is most famous for its furniture, which is still being made today. Together, the Eameses are considered one of the most influential creative forces of the twentieth century.  

During her lifetime, Ray Kaiser Eames was given notably less credit than she has been given posthumously in art and design literature, museum shows, and documentaries.

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Alma mater: Bennett College (New York)

Biography

Early Life

Ray Kaiser was born in Sacramento, California to Alexander and Edna Burr Kaiser, and had an older brother named Maurice. Edna was Episcopalian and Alexander was raised Jewish but did not practice; Ray and Maurice were raised as Episcopalians. Kaiser was known to her family as Ray Ray. Kaiser's father managed a vaudeville theatre, the Empress Theater (now the Crest Theatre), in Sacramento until 1920, when he became an insurance salesman, later owning a downtown office to better support his family.

The family lived in an apartment for much of Ray's early childhood and moved to a bungalow outside of town. Her parents taught her to value objects which induce joy which later led to inventions in furniture design and toys. Her parents also instilled the value of enjoyment of nature.

Work and Education

Education

Ray Kaiser graduated from Sacramento High School in February 1931. She was a member of the Art Club, the Big Sister Club, and was on the decorating committee for the senior dance.

In 1933, Kaiser graduated from the May Friend Bennett Women's College in Millbrook, New York (where her art teacher was Lu Duble), and moved to New York City to study abstract expressionist painting with Duble's mentor, Hans Hofmann.

New York Work

In the 1930s, Kaiser’s artistic career centered around her painting. In 1936, Kaiser became a founding member of the American Abstract Artists (AAA) group and displayed paintings in their first show in 1937 at Riverside Museum in Manhattan. The AAA group promoted abstract art at a time when major galleries refused to show it. She was a key figure in the New York art scene at that time and was friends with Lee Krasner and Mercedes Matter, who were important figures in abstract expressionism. Kaiser has a painting in the permanent collection of The Whitney Museum of American Art. Little remains of her art from this period as it was lost.

Kaiser lived alone in New York City until she left the Hoffman Studio to return home to care for her ailing mother. Edna died in 1940.

Cranbrook Academy

By September 1940, Kaiser was entertaining the idea of moving to and building a house in California. Her architect friend, Ben Baldwin, recommended that she would enjoy studying at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. It was there that Kaiser learned a variety of arts, moving beyond solely painting.

Life and Work with Charles Eames

It was also at Cranbrook where Kaiser met her husband-to-be, Charles Eames, who was the head of the department of industrial design there. Charles Eames was married at the time, with one child, but soon divorced his first wife. Charles and Ray were married in 1941, and Ray changed her name from Kaiser to Eames

Settling in Los Angeles, California, Ray and Charles Eames began a highly successful and lauded career in design and architecture.

The Eames House

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The Eames Office

Graphic Design

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Textile Design

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Leg Splint, designed for the Navy during WWII

Plywood Design

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The Eameses’ splint, specifically how it utilized bent plywood, was a significant breakthrough for their trademark design. They would use the same bent plywood in later seminal chairs, such as the Lounge Chair Wood (LCW) and the Eames Lounge Chair.

Lounge Chair Wood (LCW)

Notable Furniture

The following sections provide brief explanations for a few of the Eameses most notable pieces of furniture. Ray and Charles Eames worked together to create these objects.

Lounge Chair Wood (LCW)

Charles Eames, Ray Eames, and Eero Saarinen applied what they learned about plywood from making their Navy splints to chair-making. The chair they came up with won the Museum of Modern Art’s Organic Designs in Home Furnishings contest, and began being produced by Herman Miller in 1946.

Time Magazine called it the century’s best design in its December 31, 1999 issue. Time wrote that “Eames took technology to meet a wartime need (for splints) and used it to make something elegant, light and comfortable. Much copied but never bettered.”

Lounge Chair

Eames Lounge Chair

In 1956, the Eameses introduced their Lounge Chair. The luxurious chair combined molded plywood with cushioning. They are still produced today, and are largely understood as a status symbol. Charles Eames described the way the chair’s upholstery wears as “like a well-used first-baseman’s mitt.”

Eames Fiberglass Shell Chair

Shell Chair

The Eames Fiberglass Shell Chair was first available for purchase in 1950. It had been created in 1948 for the Museum of Modern Art’s “International Competition for Low-Cost Furniture Design.”The whole seat being made of plastic was a wholly novel creation, and the chairs were also made in distinctive colors, especially for the era

The very first shell chairs were released in three colors--Parchment, Greige, and Elephant Grey Hide. Less than a year later three more colors were added, Seafoam Green, Lemon Yellow, and Red Orange. These six colors made up the "first generation" of Eames shell chairs, made from 1950 to 1954.

Films

The following films were created by Charles and Ray Eames for the Eames Office.

• Traveling Boy (1950)
• Parade or Here They Come Down Our Street (1952)
• A Communications Primer (1953)
• Bread (1953)
• House (1955)
• Day of the Dead (1957)
• Toccata for Toy Trains (1957)
• Glimpses of the U.S.A. (1959)
• An Introduction to Feedback (1960)
• Symmetry (1961)
• Topology (1961)
• IBM at the Fair (1964)
• Aquarium (1967)
• A Computer Glossary (1968)
• Tops (1969)
• Alpha (1972)
• Computer Perspective (1972)
• SX-70 (1972)
• Powers of Ten (1977)
• Atlas (1979)

The Eames Office's Legacy

The Eames Office has historically been remembered primarily for its furniture. However, the design philosophy of Ray and Charles was much more holistic, and did not revolve around just furniture. The Eameses were also filmmakers, information designers, and design theorists. For example, the New York Times wrote in 2015 that “By the mid-1950s, the Eameses had become as indispensable to the American computer company I.B.M. as they were to Herman Miller,” the company which produced Eames furniture. Ray and Charles believed that design was “a way of life,” and they applied that belief to everything they did.

The Eameses also had an intense appreciation for craftsmanship, which was largely fueled by their research trips to India, Japan, and Mexico.

The Eameses were also known for their dedication to designing quality objects. Ray and Charles were “fellow workaholics.” In creating the Eames Lounge Chair, they tried 13 different versions of the armrest before finalizing the design.

Later Years

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Legacy

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Recognition

Ray Eames' contributions to the work of the Eames Office were severely overlooked during her lifetime. This often included actively stating that Ray was a hardly significant part of the Eames Office. When the Eameses were on The Today Show in 1956, the chair in question was “designed by Charles Eames,” not by Ray and Charles. The host of the show, Arlene Francis, then stated that “when there is a very successful man there is an interesting and able woman behind him.” Then, Francis introduced Ray, saying “This is Mrs. Eames, and she’s going to tell us how she helps Charles.” The media almost always stated that the work was Charles’, sometimes footnoting Ray.

In the past few decades, however, Ray's work has been given more attention. In 1990, the journal Furniture History published a thorough interview between design historian Pat Kirkham and Ray Eames. In the introduction to the interview transcript, Kirkham wrote that "in the case of Charles and Ray Eames, the interchange of ideas between these two enormously talented individuals is particularly difficult to chart because their personal and design relationship was so close." Charles Eames was consistent in stating that Ray's role was imperative to the work the two did together.

Ray Eames has also received posthumous recognition for her personal fashion sense, which the New York Times described as "too maidenly to be echt-bohemian, too saucy to be quaint."

Awards

100th Anniversary Gold Medal (craftsmanship and excellence in furniture design and execution): American Institute of Architects (AIA), with Charles Eames, 1957

Emmy Award (Graphics), "The Fabulous Fifties", with Charles Eames, 1960

Kaufmann International Design Award, with Charles Eames, 1961

Women of the Year 1977: California Museum of Science & Industry Muses, Los Angeles, 1977

25 Year Award: American Institute of Architects (AIA), with Charles Eames, 1978

Gold Medal: Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), with Charles Eames, London, 1979

Gold Medal: American Institute of Graphic Artists (AIGA), with Charles Eames, 1977

U.S. Postal Service Stamps, Charles and Ray Eames, 2008