La Chaise Images on Aluminum Presentation Panel

In 1958, the Eames Office prepared several portable presentation panels displaying past projects. This one highlights a lounge chair, dubbed “La Chaise,” that the Eameses had submitted to the Museum of Modern Art’s “International Competition for Low-Cost Furniture Design” a decade earlier, in 1948. Specifications and technical drawings for the chair are accompanied by photographs that depict a range of potential users. Two small conical shells also appear, alluding to the organic inspiration for the chair’s striking form. Below, an irregular grid of photos contextualizes La Chaise within the rest of their work in molded plywood. The supporting panel itself is made of aluminum, a material the Eames Office had been working with intensively as it developed the Eames Aluminum Group, a collection of chairs and tables that combined cast aluminum supports with fabric seats. Aluminum was chosen for that project in part because of its light weight, and this same quality made it an ideal substrate for the presentation panels, allowing them to be easily packed, transported, and installed. Ease of installation was further ensured by holes drilled along the panels’ edges, so that they could be hung on the wall with nothing but a pair of nails.