Since 1929, MoMA has sought to find designers and artists whose work is original and long-lasting in its influence—true pioneers who can combine a love of design with practicality and innovation. The husband and wife design team of Charles and Ray Eames defines this combination.
“The details are not the details. They make the design.”—Charles Eames
A Storied Relationship
The Museum of Modern Art’s history with the Eameses goes back to their very early days. At the beginning of their careers, they traveled on different paths: Charles had an architectural background and Ray studied painting; they met while both studying at Cranbrook School of Art in Michigan. During the course of his studies there, Charles and his colleague, architect Eero Saarinen, collaborated on a series of experimental molded plywood chairs, which won the Museum’s "Organic Design in Home Furnishings Competition" in 1940.
After this initial success, the next year Charles and Ray married and moved to Los Angeles, where they continued their experiments with molded plywood. Together, the designer couple would go on to show their work in a number of subsequent MoMA design exhibitions and competitions in the 1940s and ‘50s.
Charles and Ray
at MoMA
Charles (1907–1978) and Ray (1912–1988) Eames became two of the most influential designers of the 20th century, and their groundbreaking work has appeared in dozens of exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art. The work of this husband-and-wife team has been featured in such MoMA shows asNew Furniture Designs by Charles Eames(1946),International Competition for Low Cost Furniture(1950), the Good Design exhibition series (1950-1955), and, more recently,Plywood: Material, Process, Form(2011–2013) andThe Value of Good Design(2019).
Material Innovators
One of the Eameses’ most famous innovations was their experimentations with the evolving craft of molding plywood. Their experiments were so groundbreaking that during World War II, the United States Navy commissioned them to produce molded plywood splints, stretchers and experimental glider shells.
They created a wafer-thin glider noseas a study in aerodynamic precision, leveraging their new ability to create multidimensional curves in wood. After the War, Charles and Ray adapted these body-hugging, biomorphic forms for their furniture designs. Their sense of design was exceptional: Their original molded plywood chair, the LCW, was called “the chair of the century” by the influential architectural critic Esther McCoy.
The Eames®Hang-It-All Coat Rack
Before the arrival of the Eameses’ whimsical Hang-It-All in 1953, coat racks were mostly a humdrum affair. Evoking the era’s Atomic Age atom models, the design’s 14 colorful balls seem suspended in air. Ray Eames applied this playful sense of color in a sophisticated reinterpretation of a conventional coat rack. The Hang-It-All uses the same wire welding techniques the Eameses developed for manufacturing their wire chairs and table bases. The Hang-It-All Coat Rack, an object in the Museum’s collection, was featured in MoMA's 2012 exhibitionCentury of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900-2000and is an authorized product manufactured by Herman Miller®.
The Eames® Lounge Chair with Ottoman™
Before the arrival of the Eameses’ whimsical Hang-It-All in 1953, coat racks were mostly a humdrum affair. Evoking the era’s Atomic Age atom models, the design’s 14 colorful balls seem suspended in air. Ray Eames applied this playful sense of color in a sophisticated reinterpretation of a conventional coat rack. The Hang-It-All uses the same wire welding techniques the Eameses developed for manufacturing their wire chairs and table bases. The Hang-It-All Coat Rack, an object in the Museum’s collection, was featured in MoMA's 2012 exhibition Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900-2000 and is an authorized product manufactured by Herman Miller®.
