Eames: The Architect & The Painter

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CHARLES EAMES:
An artist is

a title that you earn.

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And it's a little embarrassing

to hear

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people refer to themselves

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as artists.

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It's like referring to

themselves as a genius.

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MAN:
This was a man who was

a Merlin of curiosity.

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He was driven by his curiosity.

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MAN:
We weren't sure

quite what he was.

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Was he an architect?

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Was he a designer?

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Was he a filmmaker?

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But what he was, obviously,

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was something

we all wanted to be.

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RAY EAMES:
I had been trained

as a painter,

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but when we were working

on furniture,

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and again in film,

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it never seemed like leaving

painting in any way,

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because it was

just another form.

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WOMAN:
She made paintings out of

what she was surrounded by.

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Everything she touched, she

turned into something magical.

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MAN:
Everything that they did

in design, she saw as

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an extension of her painting.

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And everything they did in

design, he saw as an extension

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of his architecture.

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For them, these names like

painter and architect,

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they weren't job descriptions.

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They were ways of looking

at the world.

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WOMAN:
They were

introducing people

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to look at the world

differently.

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Life was fun, was work, was fun,

was life.

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WOMAN:
People would say

it was childlike behavior,

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but what's wrong with that?

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The Eameses have put

all this joy back in life.

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You know that modernism,

let's face it,

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was getting boring.

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MAN:
Had they just designed

the furniture,

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they'd be in the pantheon.

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It's the multifaceted nature

of the career

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that is extraordinary.

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They give shape to America's

20th century.

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MAN:
I came from

an architectural office

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where there were individual

tables with a conference room,

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and there was carpet

on the floor.

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There were lights.

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We had drafting tables,

and all the equipment

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that you needed,

et cetera, et cetera.

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I walk into Eames Office,

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and it was like walking

into a circus.

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WOMAN:
I walked in the door, and

of course I immediately thought,

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"Got any jobs here?"

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MAN:
I'm just totally blown away

by the patina on every surface

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of graphics, and there were

models everywhere,

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and there was just stuff.

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I was just overwhelmed.

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MAN:
I saw this incredible

apparition

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of animation stands

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and photographs

spread out on tables.

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Models being lit

for photography,

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a screening room,

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and a wonderful wood shop.

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Salt water tanks.

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WOMAN:
There were Eames chairs

with Steinberg drawings on them.

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Every kind of visual treat

you can imagine.

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And I thought, "I've come

to work in Disneyland."

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ASHBY:
If you had taken

the roof off of it,

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you would see that place

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changing constantly.

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So we'd just go around

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and take everything

out of the middle

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of the studio,

to put up a movie set

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to take pictures tomorrow,

and then the next day,

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you'd take out all the movie set

and put the tables all back up,

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and everybody's

back at work again.

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WOMAN:
It was very informal.

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I mean, there wasn't ever

any kind

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of routine.

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There were no

"regular meetings."

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WOMAN:
Because I did not have

a design degree,

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many of the people

in the Office thought

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I probably shouldn't be there,

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but Charles had

a differentattitude.

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And he said this to me...

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"I can teach you

how to draw.

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"If you can think

and you can see,

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and you can prove that to me,

you can work here."

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[Tune chiming]

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FRANCO:
For four decades,

901 Washington Boulevard

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in Venice Beach, California,

was one of the most

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creative addresses on Earth.

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Dozens of gifted young designers

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cut their teeth within the walls

of the studio.

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But the vision for the Office

came from the top.

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CHARLES EAMES:
We have to have

a place where you can recognize

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where you're going

when you start out.

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FRANCO:

Modern design was born

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from the marriage

of art and industry.

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