San Diego Architectural Foundation

SDAF is pleased to sponsor the ModernSanDiego.com screening of Charles & Ray Eames: The Architect and the Painter, along with Balboa Park's Museum of Photographic Arts and Mingei International Museum.

Join us in celebration of the work of pioneering designers Charles and Ray Eames. The couple’s groundbreaking work transformed photography, architecture, as well as interior, industrial, furniture and graphic design fields. This unique cross-­disciplinary partnership reflects the Eames’ diverse interests and expertise that created a lasting legacy of their very productive lives.

Charles & Ray Eames: The Architect and the Painter is the first film made about America’s most important and influential designers, Charles and Ray Eames, since their deaths in1978 and 1988, respectively —  and the  only film that explores the  link between their artistic collaboration and sometimes tortured marriage. Jason Cohn and Bill Jersey’s definitive documentary delves into the private world the Eameses created in their Renaissance-­‐style, Venice Beach, California studio, where design history was born. The film is narrated by James Franco.

From 1941 to 1978, this husband-­‐wife powerhouse brought unique talents to their partnership. He was an architect by training; she was a painter and sculptor. Together their work helped shape the second half of the 20th century, and remains culturally vital and commercially popular today. Best known for their beautiful and functional, yet inexpensive furniture, most notably their signature plywood "Eames chair," Charles and Ray's influence on significant events and movements in post World War II American life, from the development of modernism to the rise of the computer age, is less widely understood.

The Architect and the Painter crafts a fascinating, complex blueprint of two great American artists, and provides a candid view of their emotional lives as they apply their genius to practical problems and innovation. The film draws extensively from a virgin cache of archival material, visually stunning films, love letters, photographs and artifacts produced in mind-boggling volume during the hyper-creative epoch of Eames Office. Interviews family, friends and associates guide viewers on an intimate voyage through the “Eames Era,” shining a light on the genuine legacy of their design – that which elevated aesthetic refinement and functionality to a higher plane.

Starting with a 6PM reception at Mingei International Museum’s ‘Craft Revolution’ exhibition. Guests will then enjoy a 7PM film screening at Museum of Photographic Arts’ 226-seat Joan & Irwin Jacobs Theater.

Please note that due to limited seating, an RSVP is required by December 14 to jyork@mingei.org. Tickets for RSVP’d guests will be sold at the door for $10, $8 for SDAF, MOPA and Mingei International members.