CHARLES & RAY

A tribute to the playful, creative husband-and-wife team who, as icons of midcentury modern design, brought us tiny tables and bent plywood chairs.

Rather than lay out specific biographical details, Yang focuses on the overall approach and sensibility that architect Charles Eames and painter Ray Eames brought to their artistic careers. Charles liked to work with structures; Ray was sensitive to color and shape. Together, Yang writes, “they made a perfect team.” They were “always looking for a problem to solve.” “Is there a way to make hanging up your clothes fun?” “Why do tables have to be big?” “How can we make toys both kids and adults will love?” Many of their designs are still manufactured, but the formfitting modern chair (which will probably always be their best-known work) gets pride of place as the product of a long process of trial and error that suggests how much hard work goes into the seemingly simple design of common objects. Incorporating colors and forms associated with their work, Yang depicts the couple as hands-on sorts, fiddling with wire, balls, and blocks in bright, airy workspaces or, in one scene, lying flat on the floor to appreciate a painting suspended from the ceiling. Readers may come away with an inkling of the Eameses’ artistic methods but will need to look elsewhere for more than a handful of actual examples of their creations.

Evocative, though light on factual detail.