Charles and Ray Eames
Michiyo Okabe  Vice Director, Chief Curator, Gallery A4

In the post-war period of remarkable American growth and modernization called “Mid-century,” there was not only a strong demand for housing for returning soldiers but also a need for new lifestyle models and aspirational icons of a fulfilling life. The Eameses responded to these social demands by creating new “forms” that challenged the standards of modernism. These forms would become the timeless model known as Eames Design.
“Anything I can do, Ray can do better.” Charles Eames
The success of Charles Eames cannot be discussed separately from the presence of his wife Ray. Ray Kaiser was born in Sacramento, California in 1912. Raised by loving parents who fostered her creative talents and love of nature, she went on to pursue an artistic education. After her father’s death when she was 17, she moved with her mother and older brother to New York. She entered an arts school in New York founded by the abstract artist Hans Hofmann, where she studied painting for 6 years. At the age of 24, she became a founding member of the American Abstract Artists group. She later developed an interest in other forms of artistic expression besides painting, an interest that led her to enter the Cranbrook Academy of Art on the recommendation of a friend when she was 28. It was here that she met her lifelong partner, Charles Eames. She first worked with Charles on the Museum of Modern Art’s Organic Furniture Competition in 1940, providing assistance for the work submitted by Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen. Their idea of molding plywood into 3-dimensional curves for a chair that fits the human body was the first new endeavor of its kind since the Paimio Chair designed by Alvar Aalto in 1932, a chair whose back and seat are integrated using plywood molded into beautiful 2-dimensional curves. The results of the competition were announced the following year; they won first prize. Charles and Ray married in 1941 and moved to Los Angeles. Through the Organic Furniture Competition, they met John Entenza, editor-in-chief of Arts & Architecture magazine. Ray eventually designed the cover of almost every issue of the magazine from 1942 to 1944. After this, nearly all of her time was devoted to collaborative work with Charles, work that would expand in range to include not only molded plywood splints but also sculptures, furniture, architecture, toys, films, and exhibitions in their pursuit of design that “contributes to a better society.”
Ray made her own clothing. Her design and style of dress, occasionally complementing that of Charles, became in itself an icon of Eames Design. The memos left behind by Ray include many drawings of dresses. She also left behind small patterns with intricate origami-like folds that had movable collars and sleeves, suggestive of the joy that she took in the design process. (These are currently stored at the Library of Congress.) Ray’s chair and dress designs show a faithfulness to the “push and pull” technique of Hans Hofmann, from whom she learned abstract art. She applied this technique of overlap, movement, change, physical movement, complex curves, and color balance to three-dimensional works.
This approach was also applied to architecture, in the Eames House. Ray believed that abstract art is based on lively spatial expression. Without doubt, she felt the “push and pull” of sunlight, trees’ shadows reflecting on glass, and other spatial phenomena like waves coming in, or like the rhythm of breathing. In other words, “That in a Hofmann canvas. Sculpting space with form, she set the forms free in interiors, where they behave like flock of mobiles, pushed and pulled by the people who use them. Rooms with this furniture come alive”＊1
Ray had an unflagging interest in familiar everyday objects, and loved small, simple objects (even candy box wrapping, stickers, and ribbons!). Her bulging skirts were like a drawer from which she could take out ideas. She had a sense of humor, and would surprise and entertain people by drawing things out of her skirt, like a magician. ＊2
Charles and Ray were dedicated to bringing design that had an element of playfulness to society, and created a new vocabulary of images.
After Charles passed away, Ray spent her later years writing and giving talks about their work while carefully going through their collection, a collection that was too massive to put away. Her own life drew to a close 10 years to the day after Charles’ death.
When they were alive and “mid-century” and “Eames design” were making their mark on the world, it was Charles who was in the spotlight as Ray stood discreetly by his side. But Ray was by no means a moon that was simply illuminated by the light of Charles’ sun. Ray herself shone throughout their lives, illuminating Charles with her brilliant spatial sensibility and sense of color.
In modern society, as we think about sustainable global environmental conservation and the role of design, which has expanded to encompass both visible and invisible worlds such as AI and life in outer space, there is an ever-growing need for design that fuses science and art. One can’t help but wonder: what kind of answers would they have found? It is my hope that this exhibition, along with the words Charles and Ray have left behind, will help us find our own answers.
“Here is more than a prediction - but a sincere hope that tomorrow’s design will see less and less of the designer himself reflected in it.” Charles Eames

＊1 Joseph Giovannini, The Office of Charles and Ray Kaiser, The Work of Charles and Ray Eames: A Legacy of Invention, 1997
＊2 “When Ray came to visit, she would first take one picture after another of the items in my room with a small camera. She wore a large, bulging skirt that apparently had pockets underneath it with the tools she required, and she would surprise us with the various objects that she took out of them, like a magician.” Genichiro Inokuma, The Painter’s Toy Box, 1984