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Vitra x Herman Miller Launch Limited-Edition Eames Fiberglass Armchair with Steinberg Cat
Vitra and Herman Miller partner with the Eames Office to launch a limited-edition Eames Fiberglass Chair hand painted with the artwork of artist Saul
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[{"type":"text","content":"Vitra and Herman Miller partner with the Eames Office to launch a limited-edition Eames Fiberglass Chair hand painted with the artwork of artist Saul Steinberg; only 500 pieces will be offered \nZEELAND, Mich., June 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- On June 14, 2023, Vitra and Herman Miller, in partnership with the Eames Office, will release a limited edition of 500 Eames Fiberglass Armchairs featuring the hand-painted cat originally sketched by renowned midcentury artist and Eames friend Saul Steinberg. \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \nUpon their debut in 1950, the Eames Shell Chairs were the world's first industrially mass-produced chairs with the seat and backrest formed from a one-piece shell. Resting on a variety of different bases, the curved, organically shaped shells offer a sensation of free-floating lightness unlike anything experienced before. \nShortly after Charles and Ray Eames developed the Shell Chairs, their good friend, artist and architect Saul Steinberg, came to visit the Eames Office in Venice, California at 901 Washington Boulevard. Steinberg had already made a name for himself with his humorous and occasionally provocative drawings of people and animals–especially cats–with which he repeatedly traversed the boundaries of traditional media.\nDuring his visit to the Eames Office, Steinberg spontaneously picked up a brush and drew a number of lively figures on the furniture, floors and walls of the studio. Steinberg was particularly taken with the newly designed Shell Chairs and drew flowing lines on a succession of chairs. A small, imaginative cosmos of characters and animals took shape within the Eames Office premises, and Charles and Ray Eames and several Eames Offices employees enthusiastically documented the spectacle with a series of photographs.\nOne of the drawn figures was a sleeping cat: Steinberg had it take a nap in one of the armchair shells. Relaxed, with its eyes closed, it seems to have found the perfect spot to rest and remain united with the chair forever.\nFrom this universe of expressive drawings, only two vintage specimens still exist today: the cat on the armchair shell and part of a female nude, also on an armchair shell. The chair with the cat is owned by the Eames Office and archived in the Eames Institute; the chair with the female nude is on permanent loan from the Eames Office to the Vitra Design...