There are few times you will hear us use the word devastating to refer to a piece of furniture. Oh, to find the dress, the suit that is the sartorial analogue of the Eames Lounge Chair and cause you to fall at our feet.
Charles and Ray Eames, Lounge Chair and Ottoman, 1956. Manufactured by Herman Miller Furniture Company.
You can’t sit on a Rauschenberg, but oh, you can recline on the museum-worthy Eames Lounge.
How do we love thee? Let us lay it out for you. It’s reductionist shape says all that needs to be said about chairs, sitting, and lounging without shouting. It’s delicious curved wood is both cradle and backbone. It’s a scotch and soda chair, the chair of a man’s man. And yet, there could be nothing finer than a stunning woman arrayed across chair and ottoman. She will wear red…or perhaps a camel-colored Halston Ultrasuede shirtdress. It’s a picture frame for sublime action: a minimalist, devil-may-care gesture or maybe just a glance delivered over the top of a Norman Mailer book.
Charles and Ray Eames, Untitled (sculpture), 1943. Molded plywood, 37 x 26 inches. Eames Foundation.
You may know that The Museum of Arts & Design is hosting an exhibition called The Eames Lounge Chair : An Icon of Modern Design (through September) that includes prototype models, drawings, adverts, and most interestingly (and a sculpture itself) an “exploded” version of the chair laying bare its components.
Perhaps you are not traveling to New York before September. Thanks to Design Within Reach’s twice annual Herman Miller sale–now through June 17–you can have your own Eames Lounge for 10% less than usual, enabling you to touch what the Museum might only have you view.
updated Sunday June 04 2006 22:38
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