Charles Eames, Ray Eames - ICF - Office chair - EA 108

The EA 108 aluminum chair is a key member of the aluminum chair group, a classic collection that has won numerous awards around the world and is considered by many to be one of the greatest design achievements of the 20th century. The Aluminum Chair is one of the greatest design pieces of the twentieth century. Charles and Ray Eames conceived and designed this chair in 1958 for the private residence of an art collector in Columbus, Indiana (United States) . For its realization, the pair of designers abandoned the principle of the shell seat, instead stretching a panel of fabric or leather between two lateral elements in aluminum to create a taut but elastic seat. The chair adapts to the person's body and is very comfortable, even in the absence of complex padding. The EA 108 chair presented in this auction is of post-2000 ICF production. It is the swivel model, with a stable 5-star base and with armrests. The chair carries black leather upholstery. The structure is in polished aluminum. The armchair is in excellent condition of use with slight signs of age. It has been cleaned and sanitized, the skin treated with nutritive products, the polished aluminum. Armchair dimensions in cm: height 82 - width 59 - depth 62 "Design Radicale" includes transport insurance for Italy / Europe in the shipping costs indicated. For the "rest of the world" shipment the cost is indicative. We will formulate a quote at the end of the auction according to the destination. Through the creation of authentic design icons, the experimental spirit and the continuous attention to the mediation between concept development and communication, Charles and Ray Eames have embodied at the same time the design of the twentieth century and a certain independence of the American context from European dynamics and influences. . Charles and Ray Eames married in 1942 and moved to California: he works on the sets for MGM, but soon they begin their experiments - as Plyformed Wood Company - with curved plywood for prosthetics and medical equipment, which guarantee them state funds. and advanced means of production. In the post-war years, this experimentation evolves into a season of great successes, in which the Eameses create their most iconic pieces, destined to become milestones in the history of design: exhibited at Mo. MA in 1946 in the New furniture designed by Charles and Ray Eames exhibition. , will be chosen by Herman Miller to be produced and marketed, opening a historical production collaboration still in progress. In the research phase preceding the exhibition, the prototypes developed consist of curved plywood (with a machine called Kazam!) In several separate pieces, a technique that is preferred to that of the single piece for reasons of cost-effectiveness of maintenance and versatility: the DCW appears (Dining Chair Wood) , the LCW (Lounge Chair Wood) and the LCM (Lounge Chair Metal) . The following steps saw the integration of new materials and techniques, in particular the printable plastics, or the glass fiber of the one-piece armchair with crossed metal feet (1948) , or La chaise (1949) which, however, went into production only in 1990. Metal, its combinability with other materials and in spatial structures is another point of great importance in this research, as demonstrated by the combinations with wood of the Eames Storage Units (1950) and the LTR Low Table Rod Base, or the plasticity of the net. metal that structures the Bikini chairs (1953-56) . After a decade of studies, in 1956 the definitive version of the Lounge Chair and Ottoman will be presented, a design icon and the only exception to the Eames philosophy of "maximum quality at the lowest price", with its metal and rosewood structure and leather upholstery. . Charles and Ray Eames also developed architecture, and at the origin of their most famous construction, the Eames House (1945-49) , there is the collaboration with the magazine Arts & Architecture and its director John Entenza. He launched the Case Study House Program in 1945, involving big names in the architecture of the time in the development of housing prototypes in Santa Monica (California) . Case Study House # 8, designed with Eero Sarinen, is the Eames House, and extends the principles of its designers and residents to a building scale: "wanting to obtain the maximum volume with the minimum of materials", the steel profiles arrangement for the realization are organized in a neutral grid in which glass infill panels or panels of different colors are then combined, according to Ray's design, “the inevitable result of organic design”, as she herself defines them. The result is the coupling of a residential volume with one used as a studio, perfectly modern and at the same time integrated into the nature of their site. The design concept of the Eames is vast, and also covers the fields of education and communication. It is expressed in games, such as the House of Cards (1952) , The Toy (1950) , the Revell Toy House in full Eames-style (1959, not commercialized) . It also passes through the creation of shows and exhibitions, in which the popular spirit of many of their creations is realized, such as the Mathematica exhibition (1961) , or the many collaborations with IBM for films, editions and exhibition pavilions (over 50 projects) . Films are one of the most fertile grounds in the production of the two designers: between 1950 and 1978 Charles and Ray Eames made over 100 films - "attempts to convey an idea" as they define them - of different subject and duration: from The information Machine (1957) for IBM, which extends A communication primer (1953) - a film that explains the functioning of computers and which had prompted IBM to start a long collaboration with designers - up to Banana Leaf (1972) on the value of objects in the diversity of social classes and the famous Powers of Ten: A film dealing with the Relative Size of things in the universe and the effect of Adding Another Zero (1977) , scientific exploration of the relative measure of things and the role of distance in observation. Charles Eames dies in 1978, and Ray Kaiser Eames will dedicate the next ten years, until his death, to organize and disseminate their production.