VOELZ CHANDLER: Beyond chairs

Eames' real legacy is their philosophy

Published August 18, 2007 at midnight

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The cliché police might not agree, but there really are people and objects worthy of the word "icon."

Especially when it is applied to "Eames 100: This Is the Trick," an exhibition at Emmanuel Gallery that marks the 100th anniversary of Charles Eames' birth.

"Eames 100: This Is the Trick" - the second phrase comes from a quote in which he describes an aspect of the creative process - is all about the work of designers and life partners Charles and Ray Eames. They gave their name to a chair, but their legacy survives in many other ways, as the exhibition demonstrates.

"It's not as much about the furniture as the philosophy that will go on for centuries to come," said their granddaughter, Carla Hartman.

Like her four siblings, Denver resident Hartman works for the Eames Office in Santa Monica, Calif. She's director of education - fitting, since she also is a contract teacher for the Denver Art Museum, and former master teacher in the museum's architecture, design and graphics department.

These tenets include the relationship between guest and host, and the blending of work and play. But nothing is more indicative of the Modernist view of design for all than the bottom line: "We want to make the best for the most for the least."

The exhibition includes a few references to Charles and Ray Eames' personal life: two small pencil sketches by Charles Eames made in the 1920s (one dates from his honeymoon with his first wife; he and Ray married in 1941), and a collaged wall panel reproducing personal correspondence, including notes he wrote his second wife and design partner.

The accent, instead, is on the work and its manufacture. Hartman loaned many personal pieces, as did the Eames Office and other collectors.

The upshot is that Emmanuel Gallery right now may rank as the sleekest showroom in town. Emmanuel director Shannon Corrigan - a former curatorial assistant to the museum's outgoing architecture, design and graphics curator, Craig Miller - uses a technique he employed in his galleries: placing objects on floating platforms that line the gallery walls. All lights - and eyes - are on the objects.

A direct view into "Eames 100" is obscured by what at first appears to be a hanging sculptural screen; instead, those long, slender molded plywood objects are leg splints the couple designed during World War II for the U.S. Navy to use.

The show then progresses through vignettes of chairs, tables and objects such as a screen, swaths of fabric, "house of cards" constructions, even miniature animals.

As expected, though, the chairs are the heart of the show, including molded plywood chairs, a white plastic "La Chaise" design, plastic shell chairs, a lounge chair and ottoman, wire chairs with a variety of bases, and two sofas, one a compact sofa covered with Girard fabric, the other in leather with a wooden back.

"I love chairs," said Hartman.

Upstairs, the exhibition continues with another lounge chair and ottoman and more than a dozen miniature chairs from Vitra. The short film Handwork by Eames Demetrios, Hartman's brother and Eames Office director, ties it all together, following the steps used to make one of these iconic wood and leather chairs. Other archival films screen downstairs.

Hartman the educator also included work made by students from the three schools on the Auraria campus during a design workshop last spring. And if I found it easy to pass by the "response card" constructions upstairs, the film of words that define the furniture has a fitting sensibility, screened as it is over a sleek chair and ottoman.

Don't look for any discussion of who influenced whom or a division of labor. For a reason.

"Charles started out as an architect, Ray as a painter," said Hartman. "It was an amazing collaborative effort. One can't unpack it as who did what."

Eames 100: This Is the Trick

• What: Exhibition on the work of designers Charles and Ray Eames, on the 100th anniversary of Charles Eames' birth

• Where and when: Emmanuel Gallery, Auraria Campus; through Sept. 7

• Of note: Carla Hartman, the couple's granddaughter, will speak at 3 p.m. Friday in the gallery; Richard Foy, who worked in the Eames' office, will speak at 5 p.m. Sept. 6 in North Classroom Building Room 1130, with a reception following at 6:30 p.m. in the gallery

• Information: 303-556-8337; emmanuelgallery.org

Denver Modernism Show

• What: Vendors from around the country with Modernist and neo-Modernist wares, plus music, art, a preview gala (5-7 p.m. Friday), and various presentations

• When: 5-10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 25, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 26

• Where: Denver Studio Complex, 241 S. Cherokee St.

• Of note: Eames Demetrios, director of the Eames Office and the designers' grandson, will sign books during Friday's preview

• Admission: $35 gala, $10 Friday night, $5 Aug. 25 and 26

• Information: 303-347-8252; denvermodernism.com

Mary Voelz Chandler is the art and architecture critic. Chandlerm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2677.

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