Herman Miller’s New Mexico collection bottles the friendship between three creative geniuses

You’ve probably heard of Charles and Ray Eames, the designers behind the iconic Eames chair and ottoman, and Georgia O’Keefe, the trailblazing artist. But you might not know about how these artists were connected during their careers—or the art that came from their camaraderie. 

Herman Miller, in collaboration with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, is bringing that history to light with a new limited-run furniture line. The New Mexico Collection, set to be released on May 20, celebrates the Eameses, O’Keeffe, and designer Alexander Girard, the founding director of Herman Miller’s textile division. Included in the launch are 300 special Eames Wire Chairs, retailing for $1,995, and 100 iterations of the never-before-sold Girard Snake Table, retailing for $895.

Both of the items offer a look into the intertwined artistic legacies of three designers whose work continues to shape the art world today.

An oft-overlooked network of friends

Georgia O’Keeffe first met Alexander Girard and his wife, Susan, when the couple moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1953. O’Keeffe had already been living in the remote rural town of Abiquiú, New Mexico, since the 1940s, and was already a household name across the country at the time of their meeting for her lush and evocative depictions of the natural world, many of which were inspired by flora and fauna native to her local surroundings. 

“[The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum] can’t say for sure exactly when and how they met, but suffice it to say there weren’t too many world renowned artists and designers living in that area, and apparently they felt a real kinship,” says Kelsey Keith, brand creative director at Herman Miller. 

For the New Mexico collection, Keith visited the museum’s archives, where she learned that there are records of 20 to 30 years of correspondence between the Girards and O’Keeffe—not just to advise each other on artistic projects, which they did plenty of, but also to trade the kinds of casual stories that maintain a decades-long friendship.

“They ended up traveling together all over the world,” Keith says. “Girard and his wife would go on these folk art collecting trips to Central and South America and to Japan, and [O’Keeffe] actually accompanied them on some of those trips. I think you have to be pretty good friends with someone to take those kinds of trips together.”

It was through the Girards that the Eameses entered the picture. Girard was already close to the Eameses; in fact, the design duo had actually landed him his job. When the Eameses first began to design furniture for Herman Miller in the ‘40s (the company has now owned the exclusive distribution rights to Eames designs for decades), Charles and Ray asked for Girard to be brought on with them as “a real design partner, not just someone to sort of decoratively apply fabrics after the fact,” Keith says. Through this professional collaboration, the Girards and the Eameses became both close colleagues and friends. 

The Girards soon introduced the Eameses to O’Keeffe. While their friendship wasn’t as close, since the Eameses lived a state away from O’Keeffe in Los Angeles, they also kept up a correspondence, and were known to attend the Girards’ annual Christmas parties. At the heights of their careers, the personal links between Girard, O’Keeffe, and the Eameses informed the work of all four creatives. 

A new design and a revived prototype

The new Eames Wire Chair Low Base and Girard Snake Table both serve as a window into this period of artistic cross-pollination.

The chair is inspired by a wire chair originally gifted by Ray Eames to O’Keeffe as decor in her Abiquiú home and studio. O’Keeffe’s home and studio are now preserved as museum exhibitions, and for good reason: Her minimalist-yet-aesthetically pleasing and highly curated approach to interior design draws visitors to view her former residence year-round. Suffice it to say, O’Keeffe had high standards when it came to outfitting her space. Ray’s chair surpassed them. 

“Georgia loved [the chair] so much that she wrote a thank-you note and actually asked for another one just like it, which is hilarious—that someone sends you a gift, and you’re like, ‘I love it so much, can I have one more?’” Keith says. “But she could do that, obviously. The original chair has a little label on it that Ray hand-drew to Georgia.”

Instead of making an exact replica of Ray’s original gift to Eames, Herman Miller decided to create a product that would merge elements of the Eames’ design and O’Keeffe’s interior decor. The New Mexico Collection’s wire chair is a classic Eames frame on a low base, an homage to the fairly low ceilings and smaller furniture in O’Keeffe’s home. The chair is upholstered in a bikini style (think two inverted triangles stacked together) with an ochre and sienna striped fabric designed by Girard and intended to match with the Abiquiú home’s adobe interiors. 

While the new wire chair is a contemporary design made from archival elements, the Girard Snake Table is a close replica of a prototype made by Girard in the ‘50s that was never widely produced (though it occasionally pops up on auction sites.) The table features a splayed-leg aluminum base and steel top, printed with a custom illustration of a snake made by Girard. 

Snake imagery was a preoccupation of both Girard’s and O’Keeffe’s. O’Keeffe was so enamored with the snake’s form, in fact, that when an archaeologist fan sent her a preserved skeleton, she had it encased in a bench in her living room. Today, visitors to the O’Keeffe house will find the snake’s final resting place, as well as an original pillow made by Girard featuring one of his snake drawings. 

“This is New Mexico, so snake motifs are really prevalent,” Keith says. “I think what’s interesting about this is that Girard interpreted that motif in his own way—in a very graphic sense—and then [O’Keeffe] also took inspiration from the natural world, and had this snake skeleton embedded in the banco in her house.”

For Keith, the New Mexico Collection truly came together when she was able to see the final products arranged in O’Keeffe’s home, overlooking the New Mexico landscape through sweeping glass windows.

“I will say, I think we hit it just right, because when we brought in the limited-run products to photograph in [O’Keeffe’s] house, they fit so perfectly, it looks like they were meant to be there,” Keith says.