Archive for February, 2012

« Older Entries  |  
February 27, 2012

Frederick Hammersley

Frederick Hammersley (January 5, 1919 – May 31, 2009) was a critically acclaimed American abstract painter whose participation in the landmark 1959 Four Abstract Classicists exhibit secured his place in art history.

His studies later took him back to Idaho, at Idaho State University in Pocatello from 1936 to 1938 and then to Los Angeles for the Chouinard Art Institute starting in 1940.  There he studied everything from figure painting to letteringand his instructors included Rico Lebrun.  His artistic training was interrupted by a stint in the U.S. Army Signal Corps and Infantry as a graphic designer.  His World War II service in England, Germany, and France was from 1942 to 1946.  Fortuitously, he was stationed in Paris near the end of his service, and he took the opportunity to attend the École des Beaux-Arts in 1945. During this period, Hammersley met Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Constantin Brâncuşi, visited their studios, and made sketches.  Hammersley returned to the U.S. and resumed his studies at Chouinard (1946), with financial assistance from the G.I. Bill.

A year later, he continued his art education at the experimental Jepson Art Institute for another three years.  He began a teaching career at Jepson in 1948, staying until 1951. Subsequent teaching positions included Pomona College (1953–62), Pasadena Art Museum (1956–61), Chouinard (1964–68), and University of New Mexico (1968–71).  Hammersley died on May 31, 2009 at his home in Albuquerque.

His work is in the collections of museums across the country, including LACMA, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, N.Y., and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

  • Hammersley first gained widespread acclaim when his paintings were featured in the landmark Four Abstract Classicists exhibit, which also showcased the work of Karl Benjamin, John McLaughlin, and Lorser Feitelson.  This 1959 exhibit was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and curated by Jules Langsner, who, with Peter Selz, coined the term “hard-edge painting” to describe the work of these artists.
  • The exhibit, which traveled to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, was praised for its presentation of cool abstractions which were very different from the emotional ones of the established abstract expressionist movement.
  • He moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1968 and took a teaching position at the University of New Mexico; he stopped teaching in 1971 so that he could concentrate full-time on painting.
  • In 1973 he was honored with a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in painting
  • He received National Endowment for the Arts fellowships in 1975 and 1977
  • “Hunch” paintings, produced from 1953 to 1959, start by laying down an initial shape.
  • “Geometrics” are orchestrated compositions of sharp geometric forms, painted from 1959 to 1964, and from 1965 to the mid-’90s.
  • “Organics” consist of freely curving shapes inspired by the natural world. These works, produced in 1964 and from 1982 into the 2000s, and also contain interlocking shapes.
  • In addition to paintings, Hammersley also produced photographs, computer-generated art, prints and drawings.

Posted in Art & Design, Artists, Graphics, Illustrator, Painter, Photography | Comments Off

Tags: , , , , ,
February 24, 2012

Vivienne Westwood


Dame Vivienne Westwood, DBE, RDI (born Vivienne Isabel Swire on 8 April 1941) is a British fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.

Westwood was born Vivienne Isabel Swire in the village of Tintwistle, Derbyshire on 8 April 1941,the daughter of Gordon Swire and Dora Swire (née Ball), who had married two years previously, two weeks after the outbreak of World War II. At the time of Vivienne’s birth, her father was employed as a storekeeper in an aircraft factory; he had previously worked as a greengrocer.

She studied at the Harrow School of Art – University of Westminster, taking fashion and silversmithing, but she left after one term saying, “I didn’t know how a working-class girl like me could possibly make a living in the art world”.  After taking up a job in a factory and studying at a teacher-training college, she became a primary school teacher. During this period, she also created her own jewellery, which she would sell at a stall on Portobello Road.

In 1961, Vivienne Swire met Derek Westwood, a Hoover factory apprentice, in Harrow.They married on 21 July 1962 and Vivienne made her own wedding dress for the ceremony. In 1963, she gave birth to a son, Benjamin Westwood.

When she met Malcolm McLaren, it signified the end of Westwood’s marriage to Derek. Westwood and McLaren moved to a council flat in Clapham. Westwood continued to teach until 1971 when Malcolm decided to open a boutique at 430 King’s Road called “Let It Rock” (later known variously as “Sex”, “Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die”, and “Seditionaries”) and now Worlds Ends, where Westwood sells her Vivienne Westwood label clothing.

Westwood created clothes which McLaren conceived, drawing inspiration from bikers, fetishists and prostitutes. During this period, McLaren became manager of the punk band Sex Pistols and subsequently the two garnered attention as the band wore Westwood and McLaren’s designs. While living in their flat in Clapham, Westwood and McLaren had a child, another son, named Joseph.

Westwood was deeply interested in the punk fashion phenomenon of the 1970s, saying “I was messianic about punk, seeing if one could put a spoke in the system in some way”.The “punk style” included BDSM fashion, bondage gear, safety pins, razor blades, bicycle or lavatory chains on clothing and spiked dog collars for jewellery, as well as outrageous make-up and hair. Essential design elements include the adoption of traditional elements of Scottish design such as tartan fabric. Amongst the more unusual elements of her style is the use of historical 17th and 18th century cloth cutting principles, and reinterpreting these in, for instance, radical cutting lines to men’s trousers. Use of these traditional elements make the overall effect of her designs more shocking.

  • Westwood has five exclusively-owned shops; three in London, one in Leeds, and one in Milan.
  • Franchise stores are located in Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow, three in Manchester and most recently, in FH Mall, Nottingham (20 March 2008), and in Blake Street, York (11 September 2008).She also has showrooms in Milan, Paris and Los Angeles.
  • Her first catwalk show was presented in 1981, featuring the collaboration of Westwood and McLaren. The theme that year was Pirates.

“Sometimes you need to transport your idea to an empty landscape and then populate it with fantastic looking people.”

She dubbed the period 1981 to 1985 New romantice and 1988 -1991 “The Pagan Years” during which “Vivienne’s heroes changed from punks and ragamuffins to ‘Tatler’ girls wearing clothes that parodied the upper class.”

The period from 1993 to 1999 she called “Anglomania” and from 2000 to the present – “Exploration”.

Her Autumn/Winter 2005/06 Propaganda Collection drew inspiration from her archive, reinterpreting designs using Wolford’s exclusive knitting technology.

  • Westwood has worked in close collaboration with Wolford since 2003.
  • In 2006, she collaborated with Nine West, whose shoes are not designed directly by Westwood, however the Nine West brand name shares its label with Westwood.
  • Westwood’s Gold Label and MAN hats are created by Prudence Millinery.
  • In December 2003, she and the Wedgwood pottery company launched a series of tea sets featuring her designs.

The first major retrospective of her work was shown in 2004–5 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. The exhibition, created from approximately 145 complete outfits grouped into the themes from the early 1970s to the present day, was drawn from her own personal archive and the V&A’s extensive collection. The designs ranged from early punk garments to glamorous “historical” evening gowns.

In July 2011 her collections were presented at the catwalk of The Brandery fashion show in Barcelona.

  • Westwood has influenced the launch of the careers of other designers into the British fashion industry. She employed the services of Patrick Cox to design shoes for her Clint Eastwood collection in 1984. The result was a prototype for nine-inch-heeled shoes like the ones worn by supermodel Naomi Campbell when she fell during a Westwood fashion show in Paris in 1993.
  • Westwood’s designs were featured in the 2008 film adaptation of the television series Sex and the City.
  • Westwood is widely known as a political activist.
  • In April 1989 Westwood appeared on the cover of Tatler dressed as then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The cover, which bore the title “this woman was once a punk”
  • In September 2005, Westwood joined forces with the British civil rights group Liberty and launched exclusive limited design T-shirts and baby wear bearing the slogan I AM NOT A TERRORIST, please don’t arrest me. The sale of the £50 T-shirts raised funds for the organisation.
  • In a 2007 interview she spoke out against what she perceive as the “drug of consumerism”
  • Westwood attended the première of The Age of Stupid, a film aiming to motivate the public to act against climate change. She later created a manifesto of Active Resistance to Propaganda, which deals with the pursuit of art in relation to the human predicament and climate change. In her manifesto, she “penetrates to the root of the human predicament and offers the underlying solution. We have the choice to become more cultivated and therefore more human – or by muddling along as usual we shall remain the destructive and self-destroying animal, the victim of our own cleverness.”
  • Against the claim that anti-consumerism and fashion contradict each other, she said in 2007 that “I don’t feel comfortable defending my clothes. But if you’ve got the money to afford them, then buy something from me. Just don’t buy too much.”
  • In January 2011, Westwood was featured in a Canadian-made television documentary called Vivienne Westwood’s London in which she takes the viewer through her favourite parts of London, including the Courtauld Institute of Art, the Wallace Collection, Whitechapel (accompanied by Sarah Stockbridge), Hampton Court, the London Symphony Orchestra, Brixton Market and Electric Avenue, and the National Gallery. Her purpose, she said, was to share her love of high culture and to impress its importance on the current generation: “I love this city and its culture. I want to encourage people to love art and believe that culture can save the world. Culture is about people’s outlook on the world and along with art, is the anchor that holds us together as a people and gives life greater meaning.”

  • In 1992, Westwood was awarded an OBE, which she collected from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.At the ceremony, Westwood was knicker-less, which was later captured by a photographer in the courtyard of Buckingham Palace. Westwood later said “I wished to show off my outfit by twirling the skirt. It did not occur to me that, as the photographers were practically on their knees, the result would be more glamorous than I expected”, and added “I have heard that the picture amused the Queen”.Westwood advanced from OBE to DBE in the 2006 New Year’s Honours List for services to fashion, and has thrice earned the award for British Designer of the Year.

  • Dame Vivienne Westwood is currently married to her former fashion student, Austrian-born Andreas Kronthaler. For 30 years Westwood lived in the council flat in Clapham until, in 2000, Kronthaler convinced Westwood to move into a Queen Anne style house built in 1703, which once belonged to the mother of Captain Cook.

  • Westwood does not watch television or read newspapers or magazines, however she is a keen gardener.

  • Ben Westwood, son of Vivienne and Derek Westwood, is a photographer of erotica.
  • Joseph Corré, son of Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, is the founder of lingerie brand Agent Provocateur.

Posted in Art & Design, Artists, Fashion, Icons, Textiles | Comments Off

Tags: , , , , , ,
February 19, 2012

Florence Maud Broadhurst


Florence Maud Broadhurst (28 July 1899 – 15 October 1977) was an Australian designer and businesswoman whose 1977 murder remains a mystery. A striking-looking woman, Broadhurst was renowned for her flamboyant clothes, antique jewellery and coiffed, hennaed hair.

Broadhurst was born in rural Queensland, at Mungy Station, near Mount Perry. She became a singer, winning local eisteddfods, and joined a group known as the Diggers who performed in Toowoomba. In 1922 she joined a comedy sextet known as the “Globe Trotters” and later the “Broadcasters”, who toured South East Asia and China. In 1926 she established the Broadhurst Academy in Shanghai, offering tuition in violin, pianoforte, voice production, banjolele playing, modern ballroom dancing, classical dancing, musical culture and journalism.

After her return to Queensland in 1927, she sustained head injuries in a car accident. She then went to England and married Percy Walter Gladstone Kann, an English stockbroker; they co-directed Pellier Ltd, Robes & Modes. Kann and Broadhurst separated, and Broadhurst became involved with diesel engineer Leonard Lloyd Lewis, living in Banstead from 1939. During World War II she joined the Australian Women’s Voluntary Services, offering hospitality to Australian soldiers.

In 1949, the couple and their son moved to Australia. She travelled widely and produced 114 landscape paintings, which were first shown as “Paintings of Australia” in 1954 at David Jones Art Gallery, Sydney, then later in Brisbane and Canberra. She was a foundation member of the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales and a member of the Society of Interior Designers of Australia, was a teacher of printmaking and sculpture at the National Art School and was also involved in a variety of charitable activities. Her husband left her and their son in 1961.

She travelled to England in 1973 to receive treatment for her failing eyesight and hearing. She returned to Sydney and was murdered in her Paddington studio at 12-24 Roylston Street, in 1977. The murder was never solved, but there has been some speculation that Broadhurst was a victim of serial killer.

In Gillian Armstrong’s Unfolding Florence, friends and employees of Broadhurst stated that they believed the killer may have been known to her and that the motive may have been financial. This was due to the presence of two cups of tea near her body, suggesting a meeting or appointment, and the killer’s apparent knowledge of her factory’s layout.

In 1959 Broadhurst established Australian (Hand Printed) Wallpapers Pty Ltd., which later became Florence Broadhurst Wallpapers Pty Ltd, advertised as “the only studio of its kind in the world”.  Her brightly-colored geometric and nature-inspired oversized designs were all hand printed. Technical advances made in her studio included printing onto metallic surfaces, the development of a washable, vinyl-coating finish and a drying rack system that allowed her wallpapers to be produced in large quantities.  By 1972, her wallpapers reportedly contained around 800 designs in eighty different colors, while by the mid-1970s she monopolised the quality end of the Australian market and was exporting worldwide.

Broadhurst’s library of wooden silk-printing screens and film positives was sold to Wilson Fabrics and Wallcoverings in 1978, just one year after her death. However, the decline of wallpaper as a popular form of home furnishing in the 1980s saw the collection languish, and it was later re-sold to Signature Prints Pty Ltd. Signature Prints in turn was purchased by a conglomerate led by current CEO David Lennie in 1989. Lennie had previously run a small wallpaper company in Auckland, New Zealand and briefly met Florence Broadhurst before her death.

In the late 1990s, Chee Soon & Fitzgerald, a small but influential Sydney design store, held the wholesale and retail distribution rights for Broadhurst wallpaper. This led to some popularity in Sydney design circles but little media attention. In the early 2000s, Signature Prints made a conscious decision to promote Broadhurst’s designs overseas, specifically in the UK. This effort, coupled with an international resurgence of interest in wallpaper, greatly increased the designer’s profile and led to distribution deals being struck for both the UK and the US in 2003.

Five-hundred and thirty Broadhurst designs are in the company’s collection but only a small proportion are printed by the company as wallpaper and fabric. The company retains strict control over the designs and insists printing take place in its inner-city Sydney factory. Some licences have been granted for other uses, such as high-end fashion pieces by designers Akira Isogawa, Nicky Zimmermann and Karen Walker. In late 2008, Cadrys Handwoven Rugs (based in Sydney, Australia) launched The Florence Broadhurst Rug Collection in Australia & the US featuring 10 designs with many more to follow, featuring Tibetan handspun wool, pure silk and other natural fibres. Their Florence Broadhurst Rug Collection was to be launched in Asia in 2009.

Florence Broadhurst: Her Secret & Extraordinary Lives

Posted in Art & Design, Artists, Furniture, Graphics, Illustrator, In the studio, Interior Designer, Lifestyle, Painter, Textiles | Comments Off

Tags: , , , , ,
February 18, 2012

Osamu Tezuka

Osamu Tezuka was born in 1928, in Toyonoka, in Osaka, Japan. He is known as the “Godfather of Anime” and was a Japanese cartoonist, manga artist, animator, producer, activist and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine.  He is known for Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, and the Buddha series of manga–to name only a few achievements in his long and prolific career. Tezuka died in 1989.

The distinctive “large eyes” style of Japanese animation was invented by Tezuka, drawing inspirations on cartoons of the time such as Betty Boop and Walt Disney’s Bambi and Mickey Mouse.

When he was younger, Tezuka’s arms swelled up and he became ill. He was treated and cured by a doctor which made him want to be a doctor. However, he began his career as a manga artist while a university student, drawing his first professional work while at school. At a crossing point, he asked his mother whether he should look into doing manga full time or whether he should become a doctor. At the time, being a manga author was not a particularly rewarding job. The answer his mother gave was: “You should work doing the thing you like most of all.” Tezuka decided to devote himself to manga creation on a full-time basis. He graduated from Osaka University and obtained his medical degree, but he would later use his medical and scientific knowledge to enrich his sci-fi manga, such as Black Jack.

His creations include Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atomu in Japan, literally translated to “Iron-armed Atom”), Black Jack, Princess Knight, Phoenix (Hi no Tori in Japan), Kimba the White Lion, Adolf and Buddha. His “life’s work” was Phoenix — a story of life and death that he began in the 1950s and continued until his death.

In January 1965, Tezuka received a letter from Stanley Kubrick, who had watched Astro Boy and wanted to invite Tezuka to be the art director of his next movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Tezuka could not afford to leave his studio for an entire year to live in England, so he refused the invitation.

Though he could not work on it, he loved the movie, and would play its soundtrack at maximum volume in his studio to keep him awake during the long nights of work.

Tezuka headed the animation production studio Mushi Production (“Bug Production”), which pioneered TV animation in Japan.  The name of the studio derives from one of the kanji used to write his name.

Many young manga artists once lived in the apartment where Tezuka lived, Tokiwa-sō.  The residents included Shotaro Ishinomori; Fujio Akatsuka; and Abiko Motou and Hiroshi Fujimoto (who worked together under the pen name Fujiko Fujio).  He was a personal friend  of Brazilian comic book artist Mauricio de Sousa.

The city of Takarazuka, Hyōgo, where Tezuka grew up, opened a museum in his memory.  Stamps were issued in his honor in 1997. Also, beginning in 2003 the Japanese toy company Kaiyodo began manufacturing a series of figurines of Tezuka’s creations, including Princess Knight, Unico, the Phoenix, Dororo, Marvelous Melmo, Ambassador Magma and many others.  To date three series of the figurines have been released. A separate Astro Boy series of figurines has also been issued, and continuing popularity for fans throughout Japan are annual Tezuka calendars with some of Tezuka’s most famous artwork.

His legacy has continued to be honored among Manga artists and animators and many artists including Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away), Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball), and Kazuki Takahashi (Yu-Gi-Oh!) have cited Tezuka an inspiration for their works. Tezuka is known for his imaginative stories and stylized Japanese adaptations of western literature. He loved reading novels and watching films that came from the West. Tezuka’s early works included manga versions of Disney movies such as Bambi.   His work, like that of other manga creators, was sometimes gritty and violent. However, he stayed away from graphic violence in some titles such as Astro Boy.

Jumping

Posted in Animator, Art & Design, Artists, Illustrator, Visual Artist | Comments Off

Tags: , , , , ,
February 16, 2012

Ellen von Unwerth


Ellen von Unwerth (born 1954 in Frankfurt, Germany) is a photographer and director, specializing in erotic femininity.

She worked as a fashion model for ten years herself before moving behind the camera, and now makes fashion, editorial, and advertising photographs.

Ellen von Unwerth found fame when she first photographed Claudia Schiffer. Her work has been published in top magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair, Interview, The Face, Arena, Twill, L’Uomo Vogue and I-D, and she has published several books of photography. She won first prize at the International Festival of Fashion Photography in 1991.

Von Unwerth did promotional photography for Duran Duran from 1994–1997 and did some photography for their 1990 album Liberty and 1997 album Medazzaland.

Her work has been seen on other album covers, such as Bananarama’s Pop Life (1991), Cathy Dennis’ Am I the Kinda Girl? (1996), Janet Jackson’s The Velvet Rope (1997), British R&B group All Saints’ Saints & Sinners (2000), singer-songwriter Dido’s Life for Rent (2003), Britney Spears’ comeback album Blackout (2007), Christina Aguilera’s 2006 album Back To Basics and her 2008 greatest hits album Keeps Gettin’ Better: A Decade of Hits and R&B singer Rihanna’s Rated R and Talk That Talk.

Von Unwerth has also directed short films for fashion designers, and music videos for several pop musicians. She has directed many commercials and web films for top brands like Revlon, Clinique, Equinox and others, many featuring celebrities.

 

 

Posted in Art & Design, Artists, Documentaries, Fashion, Filmmaker, Photography | Comments Off

Tags: , , , , ,
February 16, 2012

Ellen von Unwerth

 

“Wendybird” (short film of Erin Fetherston’s Fall/Winter collection) – Kirsten Dunst

 

 

By Ellen von Unwerth

Posted in Art & Design, Artists, Documentaries, Fashion, Filmmaker, Photography | Comments Off

February 16, 2012

Lillian Bassman

 

Lillian Bassman (June 15, 1917 – February 13, 2012) was an American photographer and painter.

Her parents were Jewish intellectuals who emigrated from Russia to the United States in 1905 and settled in Brooklyn, New York. She studied at the Textile High School in Manhattan with Alexey Brodovitchand graduated in 1933.

While there, she met the photographer Paul Himmeland they were married in 1935. Himmel died in 2009 after 73 years of marriage.

From the 1940s until the 1960s, Bassman worked as a fashion photographer for Junior Bazaar and later at Harper’s Bazaar where she promoted the careers of photographers such as Richard Avedon, Robert Frank, Louis Faurer and Arnold Newman.

Under the guidance of the Russian emigrant Alexey Brodovitch, she began to photograph her model subjects primarily in black and white. Her work was published for the most part in Harper’s Bazaar from 1950 to 1965.

By the 1970s, Bassman’s interest in pure form in her fashion photography was out of vogue. She turned to her own photo projects and abandoned fashion photography. In doing so, she tossed out 40 years of negatives and prints – her life’s work.

Over 20 years later, a forgotten bag filled with hundreds of images was discovered. Bassman’s fashion photographic work began to be re-appreciated in the 1990s.

Into her 90s, she worked with digital technology and abstract color photography to create a new series of work. She used Photoshop for her image manipulation.

The most notable qualities about her photographic work are the high contrasts between light and dark, the graininess of the finished photos and the geometric placement and camera angles of the subjects.

Bassman is now one of the last great woman photographers in the world of fashion.

Bassman died on February 13, 2012, aged 94.

Posted in Fashion, Painter, Photography, Visual Artist | Comments Off

Tags: , , , , ,
February 15, 2012

Pierre Koenig

Pierre Koenig (San Francisco, California October 17, 1925  – April 4, 2004) was an American architect.

Pierre Koenig was born in San Francisco, California in 1925. He studied at the University of Utah, School of Engineering in Salt Lake City, at the Pasadena City College and at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles where he received his Bachelors of Architecture. In 1950, he built his own small steel-frame house, as a kind of proof of principle. In 1952, after short stints with Raphael Soriano in Hollywood and Kistner, Wright and Wright in Los Angeles, he established a private practice in Los Angeles.

Koenig used steel frame structures and industrial technology to generate his own architectural style. He believed that truth in architecture lies in the natural expression of materials without ornamentation. He approached architecture in terms of simplicity based on economy in terms of money spent and energy consumed. He used passive cooling and solar heating techniques to create energy efficient buildings.

Koenig’s houses became prototypes for his large-scale projects. He believed that floor plans could be evolved from the structural plan, and that the simple multiplication of standard structural parts can produce almost unlimited variations. He used steel in his buildings as much for aesthetic reasons as to maintain the economy of mass production that he envisioned from standard structural parts.

Posted in Architecture, Art & Design | Comments Off

Tags: , , , , ,
February 15, 2012

The Architect and the Painter

Posted in Architecture, Art & Design, Artists, Ceramics, Documentaries, Filmmaker, Furniture, Graphics, Industrial Designer, Interior Designer, Lifestyle, Lighting, Metalwork, Painter, Photography, Product Design, Sculpture, Textiles, Video Artist, Visual Artist | Comments Off

February 13, 2012

Charles and Ray Eames

Charles and Ray Eames are among the most important American designers of this century.  They are best known for their groundbreaking contributions to architecture, furniture design (e.g., the Eames Chair), industrial design and manufacturing, and the photographic arts.

Charles Eames was born in 1907 in St. Louis, Missouri. He attended school there and developed an interest in engineering and architecture.  After attending Washington University on scholarship for two years and being thrown out for his advocacy of Frank Lloyd Wright, he began working in an architectural office.  In 1929, he married his first wife, Catherine Woermann (they divorced in 1941), and a year later Charles’ only child, daughter Lucia was born.  In 1930, Charles started his own architectural office.  He began extending his design ideas beyond architecture and received a fellowship to Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, where he eventually became head of the design department.

Ray Kaiser Eames was born in Sacramento, California in the middle of the century’s second decade.  She studied painting with Hans Hofmann in New York before moving on to Cranbrook Academy where she met and assisted Charles and Eero Saarinen in preparing designs for the Museum of Modern Art’s “Organic Furniture Competition.”  Charles and Eero’s designs, created by molding plywood into complex curves, won them the two first prizes.

Charles and Ray married in 1941 and moved to California where they continued their furniture design work with molding plywood. During the war they were commissioned by the Navy to produce molded plywood splints, stretchers and experimental glider shells.  In 1946, Evans Products began producing the Eameses’ molded plywood furniture.  Their molded plywood chair was called “the chair of the century” by the influential architectural critic Esther McCoy.  Soon production was taken over by Herman Miller, Inc., who continues to produce the furniture in the United States to this day.  Another company, Vitra International, manufactures the furniture in Europe.  In 1949, Charles and Ray designed and built their own home in Pacific Palisades, California as part of the Case Study House Program sponsored by Arts and Architecture Magazine.  Their design and innovative use of materials made this house a mecca for architects and designers from all over the world. It is considered one of the most important post-war residences built anywhere in the world. [ Case Study #8]

In the early 1950s, the Eameses extended their interest and skill in photography into filmmaking.  They created over eighty-five short films (2-30 minutes) ranging in subjects from tops to the world of Franklin and Jefferson, from simple sea creatures to the explanation of mathematical and scientific concepts, such as the workings of the computer.

Great documentary

The husband-and-wife team of Charles and Ray Eames are widely regarded as America’s most important designers. Perhaps best remembered for their mid-century plywood and fiberglass furniture, the Eames Office also created a mind-bending variety of other products, from splints for wounded military during World War II, to photography, interiors, multi-media exhibits, graphics, games, films and toys. But their personal lives and influence on significant events in American life – from the development of modernism, to the rise of the computer age – has been less widely understood. Narrated by James Franco, Eames: The Architect and the Painter is the first film since their death dedicated to these creative geniuses and their work.

 To purchase :  firstrunfeatures.com

Posted in Architecture, Art & Design, Ceramics, Documentaries, Filmmaker, Furniture, Graphics, Illustrator, Industrial Designer, Interior Designer, Lifestyle, Lighting, Painter, Product Design, Textiles | Comments Off

Tags: , , , , ,
« Older Entries  |  
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 671 other followers

%d bloggers like this: