Eames Institute Launches Exhibit: Ray’s Hand

The Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity Launches Ray’s Hand, Illuminating Her Contributions to the Iconic Eames Partnership

To celebrate Ray Eames’s 110th birthday, the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity has launched a new exhibit highlighting Ray’s influence within the office she co-founded and led with her partner Charles Eames. For almost four decades after Ray and Charles Eames were married in 1941, they were inseparable in work and in life. Despite the fact that Charles was always deferential to, and complementary of, Ray’s talents in interviews and public appearances — he is, in fact, known for saying “Anything I can do, she [Ray] can do better” — she still was viewed as the wife rather than the partner. This exhibit from the Eames Institute aims to help shift the way this relationship has traditionally been viewed, and illuminate the many ways in which Ray shaped what we understand as Eames designs.

This exhibit delves deep into Ray’s work as it uncovers her countless contributions that have been obscured for decades. Culled from the Eames Institute’s collection—much of which has never seen the light of day since the closing of the original Eames Office at 901 Washington in 1988—the online exhibit offers a new window into the Eameses’ partnership by highlighting a variety of different artifacts that illustrate Ray’s multi-faceted and multitudinous contribution to their iconic work including the House of Cards collection, Time Life Stool and the Sea Things Tray. The artifacts include intimate sketches, scraps, and tools that provide insight into her unique creative process. The goal of the exhibition is to demonstrate Ray’s active and continuous contributions to the partnership and in doing so have a greater understanding of the Eameses’ process and how it can inspire and inform a more participatory practice of design today.