Harry Bertoia American, 1915-1978
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Wire forms (Skidmore Building), ca. 1960
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Untitled (bushes), ca. 1960
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Untitled (Mushroom), ca. 1960
"The world is full of mystery, and what I do is try to unveil a little piece of that mystery. Sculpture, for me, is not an object but a process of discovering the essence of form, space, and sound. When the metal moves and resonates, it is no longer just material, it becomes a voice, a vibration, a living thing."
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Wire forms (Skidmore Building), ca. 1960 -
Untitled (bushes), ca. 1960
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Untitled (Mushroom), ca. 1960
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Wire forms (Skidmore Building), ca. 1960
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Untitled (bushes), ca. 1960
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Untitled (Mushroom), ca. 1960
Harry Bertoia transformed metal into sculpture, furniture, and music—bridging design and art through form, space, and sound.
Harry Bertoia was born in 1915 in San Lorenzo, Italy, and emigrated to the United States in 1930. He studied at the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts and later at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, where he connected with influential designers such as Eero Saarinen, Charles and Ray Eames, and Florence Knoll.
In the 1940s, Bertoia worked with Charles and Ray Eames, contributing to their groundbreaking experiments with molded plywood. By the early 1950s, he developed his own furniture designs for Knoll, including the celebrated Diamond Chair (1952), a sculptural wire-frame chair that became an icon of mid-century modern design.
Beyond furniture, Bertoia’s passion was sculpture. He created thousands of metal works ranging from small tabletop pieces to monumental public commissions. His Sonambient series, developed in the 1960s, consisted of vertical metal rods that produced rich, resonant tones when touched or moved by wind. He recorded these works in a series of albums, pioneering sound sculpture as a new artistic field.
Bertoia’s art exists at the meeting point of design, sculpture, and sound. His works are housed in major museum collections worldwide, and his legacy continues through the Bertoia Foundation and the preservation of his Sonambientbarn in Pennsylvania, where hundreds of his sound sculptures remain. He died in 1978 in Barto, Pennsylvania.