The World Of Charles And Ray Eames - Barbican - London

The Barbican continue an unbroken run of brilliant exhibitions with this detailed survey of the work of the celebrated designer couple. In a deftly articulate parade of media and materials the world of Charles and Ray Eames is unpacked across the gallery's perfectly sympathetic complex of spaces. Of particular interest are the many examples of publications and films expressly made to convey the couple's ideas on the importance of design in information transmission. While it can be argued that all design embodies ideas and intentions, it can also be argued that this information often unintentional, even misleading. The Eames developed a highly resolved grammar of form that can be traced as a significant influence right to the present. Of particular interest is a scale recreation of the multi screen IBM installation they created for the 1964 New York Worlds Fair: so ahead of its time as to seem perfectly contemporary. If the show has a flaw, it is the absence of furniture which the visitor can touch and sit in. Given that virtually every piece is still in production and given that the conversation the designers had directly with the human body was at least as important as that had with the eye, this is a baffling omission. Until February the 14th.