"DCW" Side Chair

Charles Eames

1946 · Birch plywood, ponyskin, rubber mounts · Modern and Contemporary Art

The husband-and-wife team of Charles and Ray Eames, who collaborated in the design of hundreds of chairs, tables, and other pieces of furniture that combined mass production with a high sense of style and comfort, were among the most innovative American designers of the mid-twentieth century. Their most significant innovation was bending lengths of plywood in two planes. In contrast to Alvar Aalto's bending a flat sheet of plywood into one or more curves, the Eames were able to mold a single sheet of plywood in different directions, on different planes, at the same time. Other innovations include rubber shock mounts that give a chair its resiliency and newly developed glues that were used to attach the mounts to the back and seat so that the joints were not visible on the front surface.

Artist

Charles Eames

Date

1946

Medium

Birch plywood, ponyskin, rubber mounts

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. I. Wistar Morris, III, 1984