RAR (Rocking Armchair Rod)

In the early 1940s, designers and newlyweds Charles and Ray Eames pioneered a production method to simultaneously bend plywood in more than one direction, using their homemade Kazam machine.With the RAR, the Eameses continued their efforts to design comfortable and affordable furniture using new industrial materials. They originally designed the RAR to be shaped in metal and sprayed with a neoprene coating (a synthetic rubber) for comfort. However, by the time the chair went into production in 1950, the manufacturer, Herman Miller Furniture, was able to make the seat in polyester, reinforced with strands of fiberglass and easily molded into an enveloping bucket shape. Customers could order the lightweight plastic chair in a range of bright, cheerful colors and with a variety of leg options in tubular steel or bent wire.This text was adapted from Ward, et al., MFA Highlights: American Decorative Arts & Sculpture (Boston, 2006) available at www.mfashop.com/mfa-publications.html.