CHARLES AND RAY EAMES ENTER THE CASSINA IMAESTRI COLLECTION


Cassina announces its partnership with the Eames Office for an upcoming Eames Lighting Collection to be launched in 2024, based on designs by Charles and Ray Eames, marking the addition of the influential American couple to the Cassina iMaestri Collection, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary.  The genesis of the Cassina Lighting Collection arises from the discovery of the lighting designs by Charles and Ray Eames conserved at the Eames Office, the design studio founded by Charles and Ray in 1941 and today led by their grandchildren, including Byron Atwood and Eames Demetrios, the latter a leading authority on the designers’ work. 

 

Cassina’s interest in the Modern Movement and expertise in authentically researching and editing heritage pieces, has led the company to explore these lighting designs and their related documentation in close collaboration with the Eames Office and Form Portfolios. Extraordinary philological research, in continuous development, that will bring these pieces to light with the launch of the first Eames Lighting Collection in 2024. 

 

A first preview prototype of an Eames lighting design, Galaxy, is on show at the Cassina Store Milan and will also be part of the celebratory exhibition Echoes, 50 years of iMaestri, that will take place at Palazzo Broggi from the 17th to the 21st of April, 2023. 

 

Charles & Ray Eames are among the most influential American designers of the 20th century, best known for their innovative contributions to architecture, furniture design, industrial design, photographic arts, film and exhibition design. While the use of natural light was a determining factor since their early work as an architect and painter respectively, their lighting designs were mostly made for specific buildings or exhibitions; some of these historic prototypes can still be seen on site today, while research is completed by archival materials conserved at the Eames Office over the years.