The World of Charles And Ray Eames

Charles (1907-1978) and Ray (1912-1988) Eames are among the most important designers of the 20th Century. This extensive new exhibition surveys their careers and the extraordinary work of the Eames Office: a ‘laboratory’, active for over four decades and where the Eameses and their collaborators and staff produced an array of pioneering and influential designs - from architecture, furniture and product design to film, photography, communication design, multi-media installation and exhibitions, as well as new models for arts education.

The work of the Eames Office is characterised for most people by designs for furniture and products, yet their interest in addressing the needs of any given problem led them to design and communicate using a variety of tools and media. The story of the Eames Office is that of the trajectory of visual and material culture in the post-war period. Charles and Ray Eames moved fluidly between the mass-production of objects for everyday use and the transmission of ideas through exhibition, film or installation, in anticipation of the global Information Age. They were driven by philosophical ideals; embraced the potential of technology and science for the common good; and saw no separation between life and work.

Charles and Ray Eames collaborated and associated with the leading artistic figures of the 20th Century and their immediate circle included Saul Steinberg, Alexander Girard, Billy Wilder, George Nelson, Buckminster Fuller, Eero Saarinen, Isamu Noguchi and Sister Corita Kent, among many others. Alongside a rich array of Eames designs the exhibition includes material which highlights the importance of these relationships to the Eameses life, philosophy and working processes.