Harry Bertoia
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Harry Bertoia (March 10, 1915 – November 1978) was an Italian-born American artist,
sound art Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in hybrid forms. According to Brandon LaBelle, sound art ...
sculptor, and
modern furniture Modern furniture refers to furniture produced from the late 19th century through the present that is influenced by modernism. Post-World War II ideals of cutting excess, commodification, and practicality of materials in design heavily influenced ...
designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...
. Bertoia was born in
San Lorenzo San Lorenzo is the Italian and Spanish name for Lawrence of Rome, Saint Lawrence, the 3rd-century Christian martyr, and may refer to: Places Argentina * San Lorenzo, Santa Fe * San Lorenzo Department, Chaco * Monte San Lorenzo, a mountain on t ...
,
Pordenone Pordenone (; Venetian and fur, Pordenon) is the main ''comune'' of Pordenone province of northeast Italy in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. The name comes from Latin ''Portus Naonis'', meaning 'port on the Noncello (Latin ''Naon'') River'. ...
,
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
. At age 15, given the opportunity to move to
Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
, Harry chose to adventure to America and live with his older brother, Oreste. After learning English and the bus schedule, he enrolled in
Cass Technical High School Cass Technical High School (simply referred to as Cass Tech) is a public high school in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, United States.
, where he studied art and design and learned the skill of
handmade jewelry Handmade jewelry (or handmade jewellery or handcrafted jewellery) is jewelry which has been assembled and formed by hand rather than through the use of machines. The oldest handmade jewelry trademark is in Florence, Italy. Definition (U.S.) Ac ...
making ca.1930-1936. At that time, there were three jewelry and metals teachers Louise Green, Mary Davis, and Greta Pack. In 1936 he attended the Art School of the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts, now known as the
College for Creative Studies College for Creative Studies (CCS) is a private art school in Detroit, Michigan. It enrolls more than 1,400 students and focuses on arts education. The college is also active in offering art education to children through its Community Arts Part ...
. The following year in 1937 he received a scholarship to study at the
Cranbrook Academy of Art The Cranbrook Educational Community is an education, research, and public museum complex in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. This National Historic Landmark was founded in the early 20th century by newspaper mogul George Gough Booth. It consists of Cr ...
where he encountered
Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in conne ...
,
Edmund N. Bacon Edmund Norwood Bacon (May 2, 1910October 14, 2005) was an American urban planner, architect, educator, and author. During his tenure as the executive director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission from 1949 to 1970, his visions shaped to ...
,
Ray and Charles Eames Charles Eames (Charles Eames, Charles Eames, Jr) and Ray Eames (Ray Eames, Ray-Bernice Eames) were an American married couple of industrial designers who made significant historical contributions to the development of modern architecture and moder ...
, and
Florence Knoll Florence Marguerite Knoll Bassett ( Schust; May 24, 1917 – January 25, 2019) was an American architect, interior designer, furniture designer, and entrepreneur who has been credited with revolutionizing office design and bringing modernist desi ...
for the first time. In 2019, the Harry Bertoia Foundation launched
catalogue raisonné project
which seeks to document and research the diverse and extensive artistic practice of the artist. The goal is to provide a comprehensive record and resource of Bertoia's work, and will include his painting, graphics (including monotypes), furniture, jewelry, metalwork, sound recordings, and sculpture. An ongoing project, the Harry Bertoia Catalogue Raisonné will be available online, published in stages, and regularly updated to reflect ongoing research. It will be accessible to scholars, educators, collectors, arts professionals, and any member of the public wishing to gain a deeper understanding of Bertoia's work.


Career

Starting out as a painting student but soon being asked to reopen the metal workshop in 1939, Bertoia taught jewelry design and metal work. Later, as the war effort made metal a rare and very expensive commodity he began to focus his efforts on jewelry making, even designing and creating wedding rings for
Ray Eames Ray-Bernice Alexandra Kaiser Eames (née Kaiser; December 15, 1912 – August 21, 1988) was an American artist and designer who worked in a variety of media. In creative partnership with her husband Charles Eames and The Eames Office, she was ...
and
Edmund Bacon Edmund Bacon may refer to: *Sir Edmund Bacon, 2nd Baronet, of Redgrave (c. 1570–1649), English MP for Eye and for Norfolk in 1593 and 1625 *Sir Edmund Bacon, 2nd Baronet, of Gillingham (c. 1660–1683), see Bacon baronets *Sir Edmund Bacon, 4th B ...
's wife Ruth. When all the metal was taken up by war efforts, he became the graphics instructor. Still at Cranbrook, in 1943 he married Brigitta Valentiner, and then moved to California to work for Charles and Ray at the Molded Plywood Division of the
Evans Product Company Evans may refer to: People *Evans (surname) *List of people with surname Evans Places United States *Evans Island, an island of Alaska *Evans, Colorado *Evans, Georgia *Evans County, Georgia *Evans, New York *Evans Mills, New York *Evans City, ...
. Bertoia also learned welding techniques at
Santa Monica College Santa Monica College (SMC) is a Public university, public, community college in Santa Monica, California. Founded as a Junior college#United States, junior college in 1929, SMC enrolls over 30,000 students in more than 90 fields of study. Althoug ...
and began experimenting with sound sculptures. Bertoia worked there until 1946, then sold his jewelry and monotypes until obtaining work with the Electronics Naval Lab in La Jolla. In 1950, he was invited to move to
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
to work with Hans and
Florence Knoll Florence Marguerite Knoll Bassett ( Schust; May 24, 1917 – January 25, 2019) was an American architect, interior designer, furniture designer, and entrepreneur who has been credited with revolutionizing office design and bringing modernist desi ...
. (Florence studied also at Cranbrook.) During this period he designed five wire pieces that became known as the Bertoia Collection for
Knoll In geography, knoll is another term for a knowe or hillock, a small, low, round natural hill or mound. Knoll may also refer to: Places * Knoll Camp, site of an Iron Age hill fort Hampshire, England, United Kingdom * Knoll Lake, Leonard Canyon, Ar ...
. Among these was the famous
diamond chair The Diamond Chair is a chair designed by Harry Bertoia in 1952. Diamond chair is made with welded steel with rods in polished or satin chrome, or bonded rilsan Nylon 11 or Polyamide 11 (PA 11) is a polyamide, bioplastic and a member of the nylon ...
, a fluid, sculptural form made from a welded lattice work of steel. In Bertoia's own words, "If you look at these chairs, they are mainly made of air, like sculpture. Space passes right through them." The chairs were produced with varying degrees of upholstery over their light grid-work, and they were handmade at first because a suitable mass production process could not be found. Unfortunately, the chair edge utilized two thin wires welded on either side of the mesh seat. This design had been granted a patent to the Eames for the wire chair produced by Herman Miller.
Herman Miller Herman Miller, officially MillerKnoll, Inc., is an American company that produces office furniture, equipment, and home furnishings, including the Aeron chair, Noguchi table, Marshmallow sofa, and the Eames Lounge Chair. Herman Miller is also ...
eventually won and Bertoia & Knoll redesigned the seat edge, using a thicker, single wire, and grinding down the edge of the seat wires at a smooth angle—the same way the chairs are produced today. Nonetheless, the commercial success enjoyed by Bertoia's diamond chair was immediate. It was only in 2005 that Bertoia's asymmetrical chaise longue was introduced at the Milan Furniture Fair and sold out immediately.


Sound sculpture

In the mid-1950s, the chairs being produced by Knoll sold so well that the lump sum payment arrangement from Knoll allowed Bertoia to devote himself exclusively to sculpture. He ultimately produced over 50 commissioned public sculptures, many of which are still viewable today. In the 1960s, he began experimenting with sounding sculptures of tall vertical rods on flat bases. He renovated the old barn into an atypical concert hall and put in about 100 of his favorite "Sonambient" sculptures. Bertoia played the pieces in a number of concerts and even produced a series of eleven albums, all entitled " Sonambient," of the music made by his art, manipulated by his hands along with the elements of nature. In the late 1990s, his daughter found a large collection of near mint condition original albums stored away on his property in
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
. These were sold as collector's items. In 2015, these Sonambient recordings were re-issued by Important Records as a box set with a booklet of the history and previously unseen photos. The sound sculptures are also featured on a 1975 record titled "The Sound of Sound Sculpture". Bertoia's work can be found in The
Addison Gallery of American Art The Addison Gallery of American Art is an academic museum dedicated to collecting American art, organized as a department of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. History Directors of the gallery include Bartlett H. Hayes, Jr. (1940– ...
(Andover, Massachusetts), the
Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...
(New York City), the
Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...
, the
Dallas Public Library The Dallas Public Library system serves as the municipal library system of the city of Dallas, Texas (USA). History In 1899, the idea to create a free public library in Dallas was conceived by the Dallas Federation of Women's Clubs, led by pre ...
, the
Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the list of largest art museums, largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers with a major renovation a ...
, the
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was des ...
(Washington D.C.), the
Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single col ...
, the
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art opened in 1994 in Kansas City, Missouri. With a $5 million annual budget and approximately 75,000 visitors each year, it is Missouri's first and largest contemporary museum. Founders The core of the museum's perm ...
(Kansas City, Missouri), the
Nasher Sculpture Center Opened in 2003, the Nasher Sculpture Center is a museum in Dallas, Texas, that houses the Patsy and Raymond Nasher collection of modern and contemporary sculpture. It is located on a site adjacent to the Dallas Museum of Art in the Dallas Art ...
(Dallas, Texas), the
Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...
, the
Reading Public Museum The Reading Public Museum is a museum in West Reading, Pennsylvania. The museum's permanent collection mainly focuses on art, science, and civilization. It also has a planetarium and a arboretum. Collection The museum's art collection contai ...
(Reading, Pennsylvania), the Allentown Art Museum, Milwaukee art museum, the
Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...
(Washington D.C.), the
Vero Beach Museum of Art The Vero Beach Museum of Art is located at 3001 River Park Drive, Vero Beach, Florida. It houses regional, state and national art exhibits and includes a sculpture garden. The Vero Beach Museum of Art is the principal cultural arts facility of i ...
(Vero Beach, Florida), and the
Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, t ...
(Minneapolis, Minnesota). Bertoia's
Sunburst Sculpture
owned by the
Joslyn Art Museum The Joslyn Art Museum is the principal fine arts museum in the state of Nebraska, United States. Located in Omaha, it was opened in 1931 at the initiative of Sarah H. Joslyn in memory of her husband, businessman George A. Joslyn. It is the only m ...
was originally installed in the Joslyn's Fountain Court. It is now located in the lobby of the Milton R. Abrahams Branch of the
Omaha Public Library Omaha Public Library is the public library system of the city of Omaha, Nebraska. A library association was founded in 1857, but the library board was not appointed until 1877. In 1895, the library became one of the first six in the nation to c ...
. Lord Palumbo owns several Bertoia works which are on display at
Kentuck Knob Kentuck Knob, also known as the Hagan House, is a house designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in rural Stewart Township near the village of Chalk Hill, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, USA, southeast of Pittsburgh. It was designate ...
. Bertoia's "Sounding Sculpture" can be found in the plaza of The Aon Center,
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
's fourth-tallest building. Another
Sounding Sculpture
, considerably smaller than the one mentioned above, is featured in the Rose Terrace of the
Chicago Botanic Garden The Chicago Botanic Garden is a living plant museum situated on nine islands in the Cook County Forest Preserves. It features 27 display gardens in four natural habitats: McDonald Woods, Dixon Prairie, Skokie River Corridor, and Lakes and Shore ...
, and a third very similar to the piece in Chicago called
Sounding Piece
was until 2003 on display at the
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art ("The Johnson Museum") is an art museum located on the northwest corner of the Arts Quad on the main campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Its collection includes two windows from Frank Lloyd W ...
at
Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
in
Ithaca Ithaca most commonly refers to: *Homer's Ithaca, an island featured in Homer's ''Odyssey'' *Ithaca (island), an island in Greece, possibly Homer's Ithaca *Ithaca, New York, a city, and home of Cornell University and Ithaca College Ithaca, Ithaka ...
,
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
. As explained i
October 3, 1995 piece
in the weekly "Dear Uncle Ezra" column of the university newspaper:
Dear Uncle Ezra, What is that sound coming from the Johnson Museum? It's a pingy type sound that I guess could be some kind of wind chime but it seems like it's coming from the building itself. — Just wondering
Dear Chiming In, Well, it almost is coming from the building itself. What you hear is "Sounding Piece", a sculpture by Harry Bertoia that permanently resides on the sculpture court (outdoor balcony) on the second floor of the Johnson Museum. The chimes sway back and forth on tall rods and "ping" or "gong" into each other (depending on which chime and how hard they collide) when winds move them. It's one of my all-time favorites, well worth a visit if you haven't seen it. You can go out on to the sculpture court until at least the end of October. Once winter sets in, the chimes are secured so that they won't snap in the windy, icy weather. Uncle Ezra
The sculpture was taken off view after it was damaged in a storm in 200

Audiovisual footage of many of Bertoia's sound sculptures can be viewed on websites such as
YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
.


Other work

Bertoia was the sculptor commissioned to create the
Marshall University Marshall University is a public research university in Huntington, West Virginia. It was founded in 1837 and is named after John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States. The university is currently composed of nine colleges: L ...
fountain in
Huntington, West Virginia Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is the county seat of Cabell County, and the largest city in the Huntington–Ashland metropolitan area, sometimes referred to as the Tri-State Area. A h ...
, to honor the university's football team in the wake of the plane crash that killed them on November 14, 1970. For more information on the disaster, see Marshall University air disaster. The 1954
Gordon Bunshaft Gordon Bunshaft, (May 9, 1909 – August 6, 1990), was an American architect, a leading proponent of modern design in the mid-twentieth century. A partner in Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), Bunshaft joined the firm in 1937 and remained with ...
building for Manufacturer's Hanover Trust-now
JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the ...
( 510 Fifth Avenue at West 43rd Street, New York City) included a full building-width, second-floor screen-sculpture by Bertoia. It was dismantled and removed in 2010 by J. P. Morgan Chase. Bertoia was also commissioned to make a screen sculpture for the Embassy of the United States in
Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...
,
Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
, in 1958. The building, located in the Chacao Municipality (former Sucre District), now serves as the headquarters of Venezuela's Ministry of the People's Power for Tourism, while the embassy was moved to a bigger site in Valle Arriba in 1995. Bertoia's sculpture, spanning the entire vertical length of the building, is still in place. The 'Golden Sun' was commissioned in 1967 for
The Whiting The Flint Cultural Center (FCC) is a campus of cultural, scientific, and artistic institutes located in Flint, Michigan, United States. The institutions located on the grounds of the FCC are the Flint Institute of Arts, Flint Institute of Music, S ...
, an auditorium in
Flint, Michigan Flint is the largest city and seat of Genesee County, Michigan, United States. Located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit, it is a principal city within the region known as Mid Michigan. At the 2020 census, Flint had a population of 8 ...
. Seven feet in diameter, the spherical sculpture consists of 675 gold-plated stainless steel branches and hangs in the building's lobby.


Personal life

Bertoia fathered one son, Val, and two daughters, Lesta and Celia. One grandson and two granddaughters (one died young), and three great grandchildren have carried on his lineage. Some members of the subsequent two generations are engaged in artistic endeavors. Bertoia died of
lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...
in
Barto, Pennsylvania Barto is an unincorporated community situated between the boroughs of Bally and Bechtelsville in Washington Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. Barto is part of the Delaware Valley, located near the border with Montgomery County ...
, at the age of 63 on November 6, 1978. His wife, Brigitta Valentiner, died in 2007, aged 87.


Publications

*''Harry Bertoia: Sculptor '' (1970), June Kompass Nelson, Wayne State University Press, *''Harry Bertoia, Printmaker: Monotypes and Other Monographics'' (1989), June Kompass Nelson, Wayne State University Press, *''The World of Bertoia'' (2003), Nancy N. Schiffer and Val O. Bertoia, Schiffer Publishing, * ''The Life and Work of Harry Bertoia ''(2015), Celia Bertoia, Schiffer Publishing,


References


External links


HarryBertoia Foundation

Harry Bertoia Catalogue Raisonné Project



Marshall University Air Disaster Memorial Site (Harry Bertoia)



Harry Bertoia's Birthplace, hosting a comprehensive Digital Library

The Bertoia Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bertoia, Harry 20th-century Italian male artists Italian furniture designers American furniture designers Modern artists 1915 births 1978 deaths Audiovisual artists American male sculptors Cass Technical High School alumni Cranbrook Academy of Art alumni Italian emigrants to the United States People from Berks County, Pennsylvania 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists Santa Monica College alumni