About exposition ‘Eames & Hollywood’, again.

Despite the fact that Charles and Ray Eames practiced photography throughout their lives, the pictures they took have always been stuck in the shadow of the duo’s much-celebrated furniture, architecture and film projects. Determined to bring these photographs into the spotlight, independent curator Alexandra Midal took a trip to LA to sift through the Eames’ photography archive – a vast collection that totals 750,000 slides. Following her research, in 2013 she put together an exhibition in Milan titled ‘Re-Think the Eames’ that showcased 700 of their previously unseen photographs.
Now, three years on, Midal is revisiting the photographs, this time focusing upon a particular series titled Movie Sets that Charles Eames placed into a montage sequence for a lecture in 1971. The photographs were taken between 1951 and 1970 on the film sets of Charles’ good friend, director Billy Wilder. Bonding over their mutual love of contemporary design, the Eames and the Wilders became firm friends early on. ‘You don’t go to watch Billy shoot to learn how make a picture,’ Eames once said, ‘but to learn how to write an editorial, how to make a chair, how to make a piece of furniture.’
Now, all 240 of the previously unknown and unpublished Movie Sets photographs are being presented in a new show called ‘Eames & Hollywood’ that opens today at the Art & Design Atomium Museum in Brussels – the first temporary show that has ever been hosted at the venue. Curated by Midal with the support of the Eames Foundation, the show provides a glimpse into the world of the Eames and their own very unique way of looking at the world.
From technicians clambering over scaffolds to lighting rigs and cameras, as well as the odd glimpse of a Hollywood star, the photographs are displayed backlit across two long walls, supported by a dramatic timber scenography-inspired set designed by Adrien Rovero.
‘What matters so much for the Eames was not the actresses or actors or the stars. Absolutely not,’ says Midal in reference to the exhibition’s set design. ‘What matters to them is the technicians, the extras, the make-up artist, the machinery, the different apparatus; it’s not really the technique but the way the cinema is constructed.’
‘As kids we would see these slideshows in the office all the time and we knew they were special,’ recalls Eames Demetrios, Ray and Charles’ grandson and director of the Eames office. 'What’s so compelling about them is that although they’re nostalgic, they’re actually very contemporary in form and in the way you experience them. So to me it was thrilling to see the exhibition come together and to begin the process of getting them appreciated.

Courtesy wallpaper.com

March 22, 2016 - Brussels

Eames & Hollywood: a temporary show at Brussels

For his first temporary show, the ADAM, Art & Design Atomium Museum Brussels (from March 10), is presenting an unknown and stunning collection of photographic works by Charles and Ray Eames: their photographic opera, amounting to more than 750,000 images is an exceptional, yet almost unknown, work of art.
"Movie-Set" is the name of a series of 233 pictures that Charles Eames took during years on the film sets and the natural settings chosen by his friend, the director Billy Wilder ("Some Like it Hot", "Seven Years Itch", …) for his own movies. Armed with his trusty camera, Charles was continuously taking photographs of very high pictorial quality. The photos explores the backstage, movie-sets, extras, cameraman, make-up artists, etc. of Hollywood productions. In some photos, you will recognize Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart in Sabrina, or young Kirk Douglas in "Ace in the Hole", Wilder's own favorite movie.
In the work of the Eames, photography is an art in its own right. Above all, for the Eames, life, cinema and design conjoins in photography.

More info at: www.adamuseum.be/exposition_temporaire-atomium-3-museum-en.html

Ph. Courtesy: eamesoffice.com

RayE (a tribute to Ray Eames) transforming shipping containers into experiential marketing events

The things veteran Chicago AD man Otis Gibson can tell you about shipping containers. Yes, Gibson and his boutique shop Gertrude Inc. are very into the humble shipping container and how it can be transformed into something Gibson is now catchily calling "branded architecture."
Shipping Containers are at the center of a new division at Gibson's boutique ad agency Gertrude Inc. called RAYE — a named derived from Ray Eames, part of the famed husband and wife design team Ray and Charles Eames. In an interview Gibson said he decided on the name RAYE to pay tribute to his favorite designer Ray Eames.
The launch of the new unit at Gertrude Inc., which is now in its 11th year in Chicago, came, Gibson said, after his firm got more and more requests from clients to develop experiential events. "Clients increasingly are looking beyond traditional television and print ads," said Gibson. So Gibson is doing a lot of experiential stuff with what is rapidly becoming his trademark, the shipping container.
Now Gibson may very well be the only Chicago ad agency that can say it specializes in premium-branded shipping container design, modification and activation.
One of RAYE's first projects was for the spirits behemoth Diageo's line of Studebaker premixed cocktails. Gibson and his RAYE team took a large 20-foot shipping container and transformed it into a custom-designed modern speakeasy with a burnt cedar-clad exterior, a wrap-around deck, video and sound system and a dry bar — all of it growing from a humble shipping container.
But if you weren't one of those invited to enter the exclusive Studebaker speakeasy, you can still see how much Gibson likes shipping containers at the Gertrude Inc offices at 2150 S. Canalport in Chicago, where Gibson has cleverly integrated a shipping container into the office entrance.

Read all at: www.bizjournals.com/chicago/news/2016/03/01/gertrude-inc-transforming-shipping-containers-into.html

News: A Virtual Look Into Eames and Saarinen's Case Study House #9, The Entenza House

ArchDaily and Archilogic contributor Christa Gerbert shares an in-depth, virtual look inside the Entenza House, a steel-framed home designed by Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen.
Conceived as part of The Case Study Program initiated by John Entenza in 1945, the model offered the public an example of modern housing at a low cost. It is sited a short distance away from the Charles and Ray Eames’ house, which was also constructed as part of the program.
The Entenza House was built in 1949 almost exactly the way it was published in Arts and Architecture, as a rigorous steel and glass construction with an open and adaptable space, which could be modified depending on the number of family members and guests. The architects placed four columns in the center of the structure with the goal of creating a spacious interior with as little obstruction as possible. In keeping with this principle, the communal area of the house, which was 11 meters long, could be divided into different relaxation, dining and meeting areas. The floor in the living room had different levels, which created steps that could be used as informal seats.

Read all at: www.archdaily.com/782646/a-virtual-look-into-eames-and-saarinens-case-study-house-number-9-the-entenza-house