Can you imagine a designer today who would treat the coating of furniture with air from a bicycle pump? Perhaps not. But in the 1940s the famous couple Ray and Charles Eames, partners in both work and life, did exactly that when creating their “organic chair”.
New York’s Museum of Modern Art had set a competition to design an item where hard material would assume curved shapes in layers, all under careful adherence to organic design. The US-wide contest was named “Organic Design in Home Furnishings”, and Charles Eames and his design-colleague Eero Saarinen ended up winning – making this newly-designed piece into a classic of design history. Up until the present day the chair, which has been re-released many times, still bears the name “Organic Chair Mod. A3501″. Its cover was designed by the textile designer and Bauhaus pupil Marli Ehrmann. Dorotheum is expecting a price of between €35,000 and €50,000 for this rare, early example of a historical piece of furniture, one of the first accomplishments of design from the early 1950s.
Design Auction
16 June 2016
Palais Dorotheum, Vienna