↑ Erika and Willi Fehlbaum
visiting the Eames Office,
standing in front of the
‘History Wall’ from the
Mathematica exhibition
produced in 1961.
← Nora Fehlbaum and Eames
Demetrios represent the
third generation of the close
relationship between Vitra
and the Eames Office, 2023.
© 2023 Eames Office, LLC
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Eames
&
Vitra
The close relationship between
the two families continued when
Rolf Fehlbaum took over the
manage ment of Vitra in 1977. Now
Chair man Emeritus of Vitra, it is
with admiration that he declares:
‘Charles and Ray Eames are our
heroes: they are the figures who,
more than anyone else, have given
this company its defining form
and ideas. These were people of
incredible talent, very hard workers
and visionaries. They not only
made furniture but were architects,
filmmakers, photographers and
educators, thinking not only about
society, but also the greater world
around them.’
Following the death of Ray Eames
in 1988, exactly a decade after
Charles, the Vitra Design Museum
acquired part of the couple’s three-
dimensional estate. The collection
also encompasses some of the
surviving
experimental
models
and furniture prototypes and is
an important source of reference
for Vitra in the further development
of Eames designs.
The close ties between the Eames
Office and Vitra still endure today
in the third generation of the two
families. After initially working
with
Charles’s
daughter
Lucia
Eames, Vitra now consults with
Eames Demetrios – one of the
couple’s five grandchildren – on
the production of Eames designs.
On the Vitra side, the third
generation of the Fehlbaum family
is represented by Nora Fehlbaum,
who has headed the company
since 2014.
↑ Rolf Fehlbaum in the archive of
the Vitra Design Museum at the
Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein.
→
The book Eames & Vitra describes
the special relationship between
Vitra and the Eameses and
documents designs produced by
Vitra from the 1950s up to the
present, shedding light on topics
such as authenticity and archival
holdings.
For more details, visit
vitra.com/eames-and-vitra
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