The Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity Launches Toys & Play, an exploration of the toys and games that inspired Ray and Charles Eames
The Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity is thrilled to announce its ninth exhibition, Toys & Play, an exploration of the toys and games that Ray and Charles Eames acquired and collected throughout their careers, and whose whimsy and fun weaved their way into the Eameses design process. The exhibition reveals the more unknown side of these diverse objects and explores how, for Ray and Charles, toys and games were serious business. For them, playing wasn’t just about having fun, but offered a means of approaching life through a new lens.
Toys & Play features a variety of ephemera from the Eames Collection including spinning tops, a circus mirror, tricycles, kites, and even a barrel organ. To the Eameses, these objects were both highly evocative and instructive. Unlike the bulk of mass-market commercial products, and even other contemporary designs by their peers, these toys offered examples of design that were free from self-expression, self-consciousness, and pretensions on the part of the maker. This sort of anonymity was, in the eyes of the Eameses, the paragon of “good design.”
To accompany the opening of the Toys & Play exhibition, The Eames Institute will be releasing the next catalog in their series, which provides further insight into the way in which these objects inspired the Eameses. Those items highlighted in the exhibition are comprehensively documented and complemented by archival photographs, artwork, and an essay from Sam Grawe.
To explore the entire Toys and Play exhibit, please visit eamesinstitute.org. The Toys and Play catalog is available to order online via William Stout Architectural Books.
Please contact eames@alphakilo.com for more information.