Ray Eames

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ray Bernice Alexandra Eames ( pronunciation : [ ˈiːmz ]), née Kaiser (born December 15, 1912 in Sacramento , California , † August 21, 1988 ) was an American artist and designer. Together with her husband Charles Eames (1907–1978), she influenced the lifestyle of post-war America and Europe with her furniture design. Her most famous designs include the Lounge Chair and La Chaise .

Life, education

In 1931, Ray Kaiser left Sacramento, the town where she was born, to attend the May Friend Bennet School in Millbrook , New York . After graduating, she moved to Manhattan in 1933 . Lucinda Duble, her art teacher at the Bennet School , studied with Hans Hofmann in Munich in the 1920s and opened the way for Ray to Hofmann's class in New York. She studied painting with him until 1939, took part in the flourishing cultural life of New York and used these years of study primarily to develop her talent for composition . Hofmann promoted the plasticity of painting. Ray was described by his friend, architect Ben Baldwin, as "Hofmann's favorite" student. She soon developed her own style, which was not entirely abstract and yet followed Hofmann's guidelines.

From 1949 until her death, she lived and worked at the Eames House in Pacific Palisades , Los Angeles.

plant

Eames House in Pacific Palisades

In 1937 Ray participated as a member of the American Abstract Artists in the first exhibition at the Squibb Galleries in New York City annually until 1940. In 1940 Ray moved to California "to build a house". During a stopover at the Cranbrook Academy of Art with four months of design studies, she worked with Don Albinson and Harry Bertoia for Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen on the panels for the exhibition boards for the "Organic Design in Home Furnishings" competition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. There she got to know Charles Eames better and the two married in 1941. In this partnership, Ray got involved as a creative part, but was hardly or not at all noticed by the public. However, there are some statements from employees and contemporary witnesses who assign Charles the technical part of the work and Ray the aesthetic. First they designed greaves together, then furniture made of bent plywood and later used plastics.

The design of the lounger “ La Chaise ” (1948) is definitely assigned to her. The design of this chaise longue is based on a sculpture " Floating Figure " designed by Gaston Lachaise , which leans back in a cloud-shaped seat shell. Only a prototype was built for the “Organic Design in Home Furnishings” competition of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and it wasn't until the 1980s that vitra started series production . Graphic and commercial graphic work such as title pages for the magazine “ Arts & Architecture ” (1942–48) as well as most of the advertising graphics for Eames design at Herman Miller (from 1948) are also attributed to her .

Until the 1970s there was little evidence or sources of Ray Eames' contribution to the success of the Eames Office - her husband was too interested in the media. After Charles died in 1978, the office was closed. Ray implemented a number of projects that had already started, including a German version of the “Mathematica” exhibition, worked in an advisory capacity at IBM , devoted himself to book projects and was the chief archivist in charge of the estate. In the foreword to the standard work that Ray published with her former colleagues John and Marilyn Neuhart, it says: “Ray was largely responsible for the Eames look. Her exceptionally good eye for shape and color [...] often made the difference between good, very good and 'Eames'. "

At a celebratory event of the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein on her 100th birthday in December 2012, it was said that the role of Ray Eames in the work of the duo Charles and Ray Eames had to be reassessed: “Ray knew what art was. And Charles knew that she knew it. ”On the occasion of the Vitra AG architecture park Vitra Campus , a street in Weil am Rhein was named Ray-Eames-Straße , which now crosses with Charles-Eames-Straße .

literature

documentary

  • Ray and Charles Eames - The designer couple of the 20th century. (OT: Eames: The architect and the painter. ) Documentary, USA, 2011, 52 min., Script and direction: Jason Cohn and Bill Jersey, production: Quest Productions, Bread and Butter Films, German-language first broadcast: February 23, 2014 at SRF , series: Sternstunde Kunst , summary from SRF.

Web links

Biographies

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jochen Eisenbrand: Ray Eames. In: Gerda Breuer , Julia Meer (eds.), Women in Graphic Design , Jovis, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86859-153-8 , pp. 152–163.
  2. ↑ Gerda Breuer , Julia Meer (ed.): Women in Graphic Design , Jovis, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86859-153-8 , p. 437.
  3. ^ Marilyn Neuhart and John Neuhart: The Story of Eames Furniture . Die Gestalten Verlag , Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-89955-230-0 .
  4. ↑ Michael Baas: The artistic eye of the office. In: Badische Zeitung , December 15, 2012.
      "alb": Keyword. In: Badische Zeitung , December 15, 2012.
  5. ↑ Michael Baas: “The Eames were formative.” In: Badische Zeitung , December 15, 2012, interview with Rolf Fehlbaum , beginning of the article.
      Vitra opens Ray-Eames-Strasse. ( Memento from February 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). In: vitra.com , December 17, 2012.
  6. ↑ Review of Eva Hepper: Catherine Ince: "The World of Charles and Ray Eames". Insight into a style-forming cosmos. In: Deutschlandradio Kultur , January 13, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Eames, Ray
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Eames, Ray Berenice Kaiser (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American artist and designer
DATE OF BIRTH December 15, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Sacramento , California
DATE OF DEATH August 21, 1988