Lets go back to the 1970s: with Charles and Ray Eames

I have been a fan of the series From the Vaults by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It presents materials from the Museum’s rich archives of films and documentaries, rarely seen. an amazing source of education in the arts. The new addition to this platform is particularly intriguing to those interested in design and architecture. Metropolitan Overview: A Proposal for a Central Guide to the Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a documentary by Charles and Ray Eames, created in 1975.

This film came to provide the public with an access to the Museum’s collections before the digital age. This documentary gives us a glimpse into the couple’s career in the 1970s, after the more famed chapter when they created modernist furniture in the years following the Second World War. The production coincided with the opening of a three-year, Eames-designed traveling exhibition celebrating the American Revolution Bicentennial. The World of Franklin and Jefferson (1975–77), which toured internationally from Paris to Warsaw to London, before opening at the Met in March of 1976. As Charles Eames died the following year, this was among his last projects in partnership with Ray.

The film, newly restored by the Library of Congress, has brought to public view for the first time by The Met in collaboration with the Eames Office and the Charles and Ray Eames Foundation, illuminates the rich activity of the Eameses across the board. An article by Kelsey Rose Williams on this fascinating project, is a great introduction before watching the film.

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