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From 1941 to 1978, this husband-wife powerhouse brought unique talents to their partnership. He was an architect by training; she was a painter and sculptor. Together their work helped shape the second half of the 20th century and remains culturally vital and commercially popular today. Best known for their beautiful and functional, yet inexpensive furniture, most notably their signature molded plywood “Eames chair,” Charles and Ray’s influence on significant events and movements in post-World War II American life – from the development of modernism to the rise of the computer age – is less widely understood.

The Architect and the Painter crafts a fascinating, complex blueprint of two great American artists and provides a candid view of their emotional lives as they apply their genius to practical problems and innovation. The film draws extensively from a virgin cache of archival material, visually stunning films, love letters, photographs, and artifacts produced in mind-boggling volume during the hyper-creative epoch of the Eames Office. Critics may argue about how to delineate Charles and Ray’s respective roles in their prodigious design output, but American Masters reveals how they and the Eames Office designers actually dealt with questions of authorship and control. Interviews with Charles’s daughter Lucia, his grandson Eames Demetrios, Eames Office designers, director/screenwriter Paul Schrader, TED founder Richard Saul Wurman, noted architect Kevin Roche, design historians, and others guide viewers on an intimate voyage through the “Eames Era,” shining a light on the genuine legacy of their design – that which elevated aesthetic refinement and functionality to a higher plane.

The Eameses applied the same process of inquiry to large-scale exhibitions and their quirky, beautiful films, which pushed the envelope for communicating complex ideas to mass audiences. The Architect and The Painter tours their landmark house in the Pacific Palisades and incorporates clips from their films (“Tops”) and exhibitions for clients like IBM (“Powers of Ten”), Westinghouse, Polaroid, and the U.S. government (“The World of Franklin and Jefferson”). The technique known as “information overload,” was one of the most lasting Eamesian innovations, as seen in 1959’s Cold War project “Glimpses of the USA,” featuring thousands of images of American life projected simultaneously on seven enormous screens.

“This is a particularly personal project for me,” says Susan Lacy, series creator and executive producer of American Masters, “because I had the great privilege of knowing Ray and Charles Eames. They introduced me to the concept of design through their magical, whimsical and beautiful work – their artistic vision affected everything they touched. I am thrilled to have these true masters as part of American Masters.” This year the series earned its eighth Emmy® Award for Outstanding Primetime Non-Fiction Series in 11 years.  American Masters is a production of THIRTEEN for WNET, the parent company of THIRTEEN and WLIW21, New York’s public television stations, and operator of NJTV. For nearly 50 years, WNET has been producing and broadcasting national and local documentaries and other programs to the New York community.

Charles & Ray Eames: The Architect and the Painter is produced by Quest Productions and Bread and Butter Films. The film is co-directed by producers Jason Cohn and Bill Jersey. Don Bernier is editor. James Franco is narrator with narration written by Jason Cohn. Camille Servan-Schreiber is co-producer and Arwen Curry is associate producer and archivist. Michael Bacon composed the musical score. Shirley Kessler is executive producer. Susan Lacy is the series creator and executive producer of American Masters. This program is made possible with major funding from The National Endowment for the Humanities and The IBM corporation. Additional funding for this program is provided by The National Endowment for the Arts, The Renate, Hans and Maria Hofmann Trust, OXO, and the Beverly Willis Architectural Foundation.

American Masters is made possible by the support of the National Endowment for the Arts and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding for American Masters is provided by Rosalind P. Walter, The Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation, Rolf and Elizabeth Rosenthal, Cheryl and Philip Milstein Family, Jack Rudin, Jody and John Arnhold, Vital Projects Fund, The André and Elizabeth Kertész Foundation, Michael & Helen Schaffer Foundation, and public television viewers.

All photos on this page by Kerun Ip.

Macao Science Center
Macao
2002-2009
(in association with Pei Partnership Architects)

Museum of Islamic Art
Doha, Qatar
2000-2008

Suzhou Museum
Suzhou, China
2000-2006
(in association with Pei Partnership Architects)

Musée d’Art Moderne
Luxembourg
1995-2006

Deutsches Historiches Museum
Zeughaus
Berlin, Germany
1996-2003

Oare Pavilion
Wiltshire, England
1999-2003

Bank of China Head Office
Beijing, China
1994-2001
(in association with Pei Partnership Architects)

Basil & Elise Goulandris Museum of Modern Art
Athens, Greece
Design completed

Republic of Korea Permanent Mission to the United Nations
New York
1995–2000

Buck Center for Research in Aging
Marin County, California
1993–1999

Miho Museum
Shiga, Japan
1991–1997

La Caixa Headquarters
Barcelona, Spain
Design completed

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
Cleveland, Ohio
1987–1995

Grand Louvre
Paris, France
Phase I: 1983–1989
Phase II: 1989–1993

Four Seasons Hotel
New York, New York
1989–1993

The Kirklin Clinic
Birmingham, Alabama
1988–1992

The Mt. Sinai Medical Center Modernization
New York, NY
Phase I:  1981–1989
Phase II: 1989–1992

The Gateway
Singapore
1981–1991

Shinji Shumeikai Bell Tower
Shiga, Japan
1988–1990

Creative Artists Agency Headquarters
Beverly Hills, California
1986–1989

Choate Rosemary Hall Science Center
Wallingford, Connecticut
1986–1989

IBM Office Building Complex
Somers, NY
1983–1989

Bank of China Tower
Hong Kong
1982–1989

The Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center
Dallas, Texas
1982–1989

Miami World Trade Center (CenTrust Tower)
Miami, Florida
1980–1987

Raffles City
Singapore
1973–1986

The Wiesner Building
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts
1978–1984

IBM Office Building
Purchase, New York
1977–1984

Texas Commerce Tower/United Energy Plaza
Houston, Texas
1978–1982

Sunning Plaza
Hong Kong
1977–1982

Fragrant Hill Hotel
Beijing, China
1979-1982

Museum of Fine Arts/West Wing
Boston, Massachusetts
1977–1981

The John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library
Boston, Massachusetts
1965–1979

National Gallery of Art/East Building
Washington, D.C.
1968–1978

Dallas City Hall
Dallas, Texas
1966–1977

Ralph Landau Chemical Engineering Building
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts
1972–1976

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Centre
Singapore
1970–1976

Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY
1968–1973

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
Toronto, Canada
1967–1973

Paul Mellon Center for the Arts
The Choate School
Wallingford, Connecticut
1968–1972

Cleo Rogers Memorial Library
Columbus, Indiana
1966–1971

The Wilmington Tower
Wilmington, Delaware
1963–1971

Master Plan/Columbia University
New York, NY
1968–1970

Camille Edouard Dreyfus Chemistry Building
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts
1964–1970

Air Traffic Control Towers
Federal Aviation Agency
Various airports, USA
1962–1970

National Airlines Terminal
(now TWA Domestic Terminal)
Kennedy International Airport, New York, NY
1960–1970

Bedford-Stuyvesant Superblock
Brooklyn, NY
1966–1969

Des Moines Art Center Addition
Des Moines, Iowa
1966–1968

Southwest Washington Redevelopment
Washington, D.C.
1953–1968

National Center for Atmospheric Research
Boulder, Colorado
1961–1967

New College
Sarasota, Florida
1963–1967

University Plaza/New York University
New York, NY
1961–1966

Central Business District Plan
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
1963–1964

Everson Museum of Art
Syracuse, NY
1961–1964

School of Journalism/Newhouse Communications Center
Syracuse University
1961–1964

Green Center for the Earth Sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts
1959–1964

Washington Square East/Society Hill
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1957–1964

The Luce Chapel
Taichung, Taiwan
1954–1963

Kips Bay Plaza
New York, NY
1957–1962

Government Center Plan/City of Boston
Boston, Massachusetts
1960–1961

U.S. National Bank of Denver/Mile High Center
Denver, Colorado
1952–1956

What first got you interested in doing a film of I.M. Pei?

The project traces back ten years – when PACEM, the company that I co-own with my sister Anne Shirley, wanted to do a film or series on China’s modern development.   The issue we were interested in exploring was the tension between modernity and traditional Chinese culture.  Problem was, we had an important theme but no story.

T’ing Pei, I.M. Pei’s eldest son – to whose memory the film is now dedicated – helped us find the story we were looking for in his father’s return to his ancestral home to build a modern museum in the ancient city of Suzhou.  T’ing arranged for us to join his father and the rest of the design team on the first site visit in the spring of 2002 – and we followed the story as it unfolded over the next eight years.

The story of I.M. Pei designing and building the Suzhou Museum became the microcosm through which we could view the entire world of our theme.

And the story worked on so many levels – whether it was a matter of architecture, garden design, or Pei’s own personal story, the issue was one of bringing together old and new in way that moved forward without denigrating the past.

When did you first become aware of Pei?

In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, I tried unsuccessfully to launch a series on postmodernism.  The architectural historian Charles Jencks and the philosopher John B. Cobb, Jr. (both of whom play important interpretive roles in the Pei film) were key to that project.

John gave me the tools needed to do a better job of “reading” culture philosophically.  Charles helped me interpret architecture – and broadened my awareness of the history of architectural form.

By 2002 when I had the opportunity to make a film with I.M. Pei, I already had a strong interpretive framework in place for using his story to examine some of the cultural tensions between modernity and tradition that I had been so interested in exploring.

While making the film, did you learn anything that surprised you about the subject?

Pei constantly surprised me.

I remember flying 16 hours to meet up with him in China – arriving at approximately the same time he did – only to find our crew, in their 30s, 40s and 50s, running throughout the day to stay up with him, when he was in his late 80s.  It seemed he had extraordinary energy.  And it seemed to be the case, too, among some of his Chinese contemporaries whom I also had the pleasure to meet – architects and developers.

I remember the first time we were in Suzhou in 2002 – following Mr. Pei was like following after an American rock star.  There was the police escort.  Tons of photographers and journalists (we were right in there with them, of course).  And big crowds.  How he could focus in the midst of all those people I’ll never know.

I remember accompanying Mr. Pei to the Four Seasons Hotel/Shanghai one time for lunch, in 2004 or ’05, and by chance a major conference of leading international business leaders was being held there – with bankers, heads of multi-national insurance companies, etc.  Of course, no one was expecting Mr. Pei to walk through the lobby because no one knew he was in town.  But as we entered the hotel and began to walk toward the restaurant, a receiving line spontaneously sprung up.  Every one of the great and good shot to their feet just waiting to shake Mr. Pei’s hand and say a few words.  (I know for a fact who these people were because I was standing right next to Mr. Pei and collected their business cards.)

And I was surprised at the way Mr. Pei so boldly took on landscaping the garden areas at the Suzhou Museum – such a difficult challenge, so late in his career, with so many risks.  The risks of failure were very real.  I think that some of the challenge, and the way Mr. Pei faced the challenges, comes through in the film.

Are there any interesting anecdotes about the filming or the interviewees?

It took something like 17 trips to China to make this project happen.  Many trips had to take place at the last minute – and visas secured at a moment’s notice.  Nothing like this could have been possible without the strong support of our colleagues and co-producing partners in Beijing.

We were very fortunate that one of our key consultants had had a major position at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing some years back and knew how to connect us in China.  He directed us to what he said was the best organization in China to work with on these matters – the China Intercontinental Communication Center, or CICC as they are listed in the credits.

The group is organized under the Ministry of Information, and of course they were careful to make sure that we abided by Chinese law.  Sometimes there were tensions, certainly.  But the film simply could not have happened without them.

I forged many strong friendships with wonderful people at the CICC over the years who helped us out of tough spots over and over again.  Given that we came into the project not knowing the culture, and that we were dealing with high-profile material – that is, Pei returning to China to build this museum – the CICC’s involvement was absolutely essential.

And they stayed with us throughout the course of what became an incredibly long and trying project.  We wound up working together for nine full years on this project (including a year prior to when Pei became involved).

Please describe your approach to the film.

I.M. Pei working with model of Suzhou Museum. Photo courtesy Pei Partnership Architects.

I was fundamentally interested in a theme – modernity and tradition – and using Pei’s story to illuminate that theme.  So every choice I made was to try to bring this theme into sharp focus.

The first choice was to focus our story about modernity and tradition in China through the lens of I.M. Pei designing and building the Suzhou Museum.  This wasn’t easy.

I fought and lost some very tough and expensive battles at the beginning of this project – because not all of my early collaborators on the China-based project I had initially launched wanted to focus on Pei’s story.  It’s not that they didn’t appreciate Pei.  It’s that they didn’t understand the filmic necessity of focusing a large theme through the lens of a highly specific story – and didn’t see how Pei’s story could do this.

I staked a lot on this choice and ruined some relationships as a result.  But I thought that a film about China facing modernity couldn’t do any better than to look at this theme the way I.M. Pei would.

The second big choice was to ask Anne Makepeace to be director.  I had directed the film myself for the first two-and-a-half years or so – with my long-time collaborator George Adams serving as Director of Photography.  But I felt that the film needed a full-time producer – which I’m pretty good at – and a truly great director – which wasn’t me but it was Anne.  Then George and Anne started working together as George stayed on as DP throughout.

The third big choice was to keep the project going when, years in, it had sapped all of our energy and resources and was proving remarkably difficult in ways we never foresaw.  The darkest period for this project came after roughly five years.

The film was expensive and taking place half a world away.  And every design or construction delay delayed us – in a way that we had no control over.

I made a big mistake thinking that funding a project like this would be relatively easy.  It was in fact excruciatingly difficult.

Early on we found wonderful, generous, and unwavering support from our major sponsor the Miho Museum in Japan – and they remained behind us every step of the way.  Co-Executive Producer Caroline Courtauld was fabulous and a big help throughout, as were members of our advisory board and board of consultants who played key roles at times.  But no one expected the project to go on as long as it did.  Or face the sheer number of challenges that a project must face when it goes on year after year after year in a foreign country.

Relationships of various kinds strained – as normal for a project that seemed to go on without end.  At one point, Years Six and Seven, we had to augment the team, bring in some new energy, and push ahead.  Brian Funck, editor and writer with Anne, was at the vanguard of that new energy

What were some of the obstacles in achieving your vision of the film?

Time.  Eight years of production on top of two years of development took its toll.

Distance – our story was happening half a world away.

Money – there’s never enough for documentaries given all that must go into them.  Short projects can make do – whatever the financial pain will all be over soon.  Long projects are torture.

This begs the question of how the project survived and got completed in the end.  In fact, tons of people stepped in at every step along the way – from the woman who loaned us the startup funds in 2002 to the lab that donated its digibeta deck to us in 2010.

This also says something about Mr. Pei – how everyone wanted to be a part of tipping their hats to him as it were.  Artists and craftsmen and businesspeople and scholars of every stripe wanted to do what they could – not for the credit, but to join with others in drawing attention to what he has done and likely just to say thank you.

I’m thinking of that knife-blade edge at the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art that Mr. Pei designed.  Four feet up from the ground the limestone is dulled and the color is nearly black from all the people – myself included – who have rubbed the edge.

Perhaps this film became for many, many people another way of rubbing the edge of creativity and design that Pei has bequeathed to us all.

Please describe your background credits, how maybe they led to this film.

This is the thirteenth film I’ve made with WNET – the other twelve as parts of stand-alone series.  All dealt with big ideas – and this project is another of the big ideas that I’m passionate about.

I started off my career making films in the Soviet Union, and produced six films there (two stand-alones and one four-part series).  Moving on to China seemed almost inevitable.

But whereas in the Soviet Union I was documenting something that was coming to an end, in China I’ve felt I was documenting something much more vital and rising up.

And having tried once to produce a series on postmodernism put me in a position to investigate how China was attempting to bring together modernity and tradition – in the person and work of I.M. Pei.