On May 18, the Museum of Arts & Design (MAD) will premiere a focused exhibition on the design, production, social history and cultural impact of the Eames lounge chair, designed by husband and wife team Charles and Ray Eames and first produced in 1956. Featuring unpublished drawings, three-dimensional studies and early advertisements, “The Eames Lounge Chair: An Icon of Modern Design” offers an intimate exploration of this pivotal chair that came to represent the epitome of both Modernist style and luxurious comfort.

Marking the 50th anniversary of the Eames lounge chair’s production by Herman Miller, the exhibition will include one of the earliest extant examples of the design, a 1956 production lounge and ottoman from the collection of the Grand Rapids Art Museum that belonged to D.J. DePree, the founder of Herman Miller. Another dramatic element will be a full-scale “exploded” version of the chair, based upon an earlier diagram of the components. Eames Demetrios, grandson of Charles Eames and director of the Eames Foundation, also created a special film on the chair’s production for the exhibition. A catalog titled The Eames Lounge Chair: An Icon of Modern Design will complement the exhibition.

“The incomparable Eames lounge chair set a high standard for design innovation and elegance in affluent, postwar America,” says Holly Hotchner, director of the Museum of Arts & Design. “Half a century later, this iconic work continues to influence the international design world.”

Organized by the Grand Rapids Art Museum, the exhibition will be on view at the Museum of Arts & Design through September 3.

Following its inaugural presentation at MAD, “The Eames Lounge Chair” will travel to the Grand Rapids Art Museum in Michigan (October 6-December 31) and to The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Mich. (February 3-April 29, 2007).

The Eames lounge chair represented the culmination of Charles and Ray Eames’ experimentation in molded plywood furniture. The Eameses, recognized as pioneers in the field, epitomized a new era of modern design and helped bring this aesthetic to a wider American and international audience. The leather upholstered, rosewood veneer chair with matching ottoman was unveiled to the public by Arlene Francis, host of NBC’s Home show, on March 14, 1956. The exhibition includes taped footage of that segment, originally aired live from the NBC studios in New York.

Charles and Ray Eames, lounge chair and ottoman (“Component Blowup” for design installation), designed 1956 (current production), 2005, molded plywood, black leather upholstery, aluminum. Designed by Vince Faust, Invironments, Herman Miller, Inc. -Nick Merrick, Hedrich Blessing photo, courtesy Herman Miller

Eames began exploring the possibilities of using plywood forfurniture when he collaborated with Eero Saarinen on prize-winningsubmissions to the Organic Design in Home Furnishings competitionorganized by the Museum of Modern Art in 1940-41. Their moldedplywood furniture marked a radical breakthrough in chair design andled to further commercialized designs by both architects.

Following that competition, Ray and Charles Eames pursued their goal of producing molded plywood furniture throughout the 1940s. Although the furniture work was curtailed during World War II, Eames was able to continue his experiments with molded plywood by designing and making leg splints for the US Navy and, later, airplane parts. Selections of the early experimental furniture, along with Ray Eames’ molded plywood sculpture of the same period, are included in the exhibition. Unpublished and little-known design drawings by Ray Eames from the Library of Congress will complement the three-dimen-sional studies on view. Graphic designs by the Eames Office and the advertising and promotional ephemera associated with the lounge chair will document its popularity over the ensuing decades. Visitors will be able to sit in this famous chair.

Lenders to the exhibition include: the Library of Congress: The Work of Charles and Ray Eames (Eames archive), the Eames Foundation, Cranbrook, The Henry Ford and the Herman Miller Archive.

The illustrated, 190-page hardcover catalog published by Merrell and the Grand Rapids Art Museum available in bookstores, explores multiple aspects of the Eames’s iconic design with essays by five contributors: design critic and historian Martin Eidelberg explores the history of the lounge chair in Twentieth Century design and locates it in the history of modernism in the United States. Pat Kirkham, Eames expert and professor of design at New York’s Bard Graduate Center, analyzes the design development of the chair within the collaborative careers of Ray and Charles Eames. David A. Hanks, guest curator, interviews important contemporaries of Charles and David Eames who offer insights about the chair’s creation and immediate impact. Social historian Thomas Hine traces the chair’s popular and critical success and explains how this lavish seating has retained its cachet to the present. C. Ford Peatross, curator of architecture and design for the prints and photographs division at the Library of Congress, outlines the contents of the library’s Eames archives, illustrated in this book for the first time.

The Museum of Arts & Design is at 40 West 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. For information www.madmuseum.org or 212-956-3535.