Spray Sculpture by Harry Bertoia for Knoll
View Similar Items
Spray Sculpture by Harry Bertoia for Knoll
About the Item
- Creator:Harry Bertoia (Artist),Knoll (Manufacturer)
- Dimensions:Height: 26.5 in (67.31 cm)Length: 26.5 in (67.31 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:circa 1970
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Hudson, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU84731220888
Knoll
As a company that produced many of the most famous and iconic furniture designs of the 20th century, Knoll was a chief influence in the rise of modern design in the United States. Led by Florence Knoll, the firm would draw stellar talents such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Eero Saarinen into its compass. Their work would help change the face of the American home and office.
The company was formed in 1938 by the German immigrant Hans Knoll. He first worked with his fellow ex-pat, the Danish designer Jens Risom, who created furniture with flowing lines made of wood. While Risom served in World War II, in 1943 Knoll met his future wife, Florence Schust. She had studied and worked with eminent emigré leaders of the Bauhaus, including Mies, Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer. She won Knoll over with Bauhaus notions of industrial arts, and an aesthetic that featured flat and tubular metal frames and angular forms. When Hans died in a car crash in 1955, Florence Knoll was appointed head of the company. It was as much through her holistic approach to design — a core division of the firm was dedicated to planning office systems — as Knoll's mid-century modern furnishings themselves that she brought about the sleek and efficient transformation of the American workplace.
Today, classic Knoll furnishings remain staples of modern design collections and decor. A history of modern design is written in pieces such as the elegant Barcelona chair — created by Mies and Lilly Reich — Saarinen’s pedestal Tulip chair, Breuer’s tubular steel Wassily lounge chair and the grid-patterned Diamond chair by Harry Bertoia.
As you can see from the collection of these designs and other vintage Knoll dining chairs, sofas and tables on 1stDibs, this manufacturer's offerings have become timeless emblems of the progressive spirit and sleek sophistication of the best of modernism.
Harry Bertoia
Sculptor, furniture and jewelry designer, graphic artist and metalsmith, Harry Bertoia was one of the great cross-disciplinarians of 20th-century art and design and a central figure in American mid-century modernism. Among furniture aficionados, Bertoia is known for his chairs such as the wire-lattice Diamond chair (and its variants such as the tall-backed Bird chair) designed for Knoll Inc. and first released in 1952.
As an artist, he is revered for a style that was his alone. Bertoia’s metal sculptures are by turns expressive and austere, powerful and subtle, intimate in scale and monumental. All embody a tension between the intricacy and precision of Bertoia’s forms and the raw strength of his materials: steel, brass, bronze and copper.
Fortune seemed to guide Bertoia’s artistic development. Born in northeastern Italy, Bertoia immigrated to the United States at age 15, joining an older brother in Detroit. He studied drawing and metalworking in the gifted student program at Cass Technical High School. Recognition led to awards that culminated, in 1937, in a teaching scholarship to attend the Cranbrook Academy of Art in suburban Bloomfield Hills, one of the great crucibles of modernism in America.
At Cranbrook, Bertoia made friendships — with architect Eero Saarinen, designers Charles and Ray Eames and Florence Schust Knoll and others — that shaped the course of his life. He taught metalworking at the school, and when materials rationing during World War II limited the availability of metals, Bertoia focused on jewelry design. He also experimented with monotype printmaking, and 19 of his earliest efforts were bought by the Guggenheim Museum.
In 1943, he left Cranbrook to work in California with the Eameses, helping them develop their now-famed plywood furniture. (Bertoia received scant credit.) Late in that decade, Florence and Hans Knoll persuaded him to move east and join Knoll Inc. His chairs became and remain perennial bestsellers. Royalties allowed Bertoia to devote himself full-time to metal sculpture, a medium he began to explore in earnest in 1947.
By the early 1950s Bertoia was receiving commissions for large-scale works from architects — the first came via Saarinen — as he refined his aesthetic vocabulary into two distinct skeins. One comprises his “sounding sculptures” — gongs and “Sonambient” groupings of rods that strike together and chime when touched by hand or by the wind. The other genre encompasses Bertoia’s naturalistic works: abstract sculptures that suggest bushes, flower petals, leaves, dandelions or sprays of grass.
As you will see on these pages, Harry Bertoia was truly unique; his art and designs manifest a wholly singular combination of delicacy and strength.
Find vintage Harry Bertoia sculptures, armchairs, benches and other furniture and art on 1stDibs.
- Kinetic Spray Sculpture Style of Harry BertoiaBy Harry BertoiaLocated in West Palm Beach, FLThis stylish and chic stainless steel kinetic sculpture takes its form from the mid 20th century pieces by Harry Bertoia and is a modern interpritaion by D. Larson. Note: Signed a...Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Mid-Century Modern Mobiles and Ki...
MaterialsStainless Steel
- Harry Bertoia for Knoll, Model Bird Armchair with Ottoman, 1980By Harry Bertoia, KnollLocated in Buffalo, NYDesign Harry bertoia for Knoll, Model Bird armchair with ottoman, 1980, retains original label. Harry Bertoia for Knoll. Vogel armchair and ottoman i...Category
Vintage 1980s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsIron
- Sonambient Sculpture by Harry BertoiaBy Harry BertoiaLocated in Georges Mills, NHRare Harry Bertoia sonambient sculpture. Pair of off-axis bronze rod arrays silver soldered onto a solid bronze base, circa 1967. Sold with a certificate of authenticity by the Hary ...Category
Vintage 1960s North American Mid-Century Modern Mobiles and Kinetic Scul...
MaterialsGold Plate, Brass, Steel
- Harry Bertoia Double Spray Sculpture with COA from FoundationBy Harry BertoiaLocated in West Palm Beach, FLHarry Bertoia created numerous bundled wire sculptures from the late 1950s until the mid-1970s. This example is a large and interesting table-top variation. Sculpture comes with au...Category
Vintage 1960s American Abstract Sculptures
MaterialsStainless Steel
- Sonambient Rods Sculpture by Harry BertoiaBy Harry BertoiaLocated in New York, NYA sonambient rods sculpture by Harry Bertoia (1915-1978). A desirable size for display in the home and a typically wonderful sound quality.Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Abstract Sculptures
MaterialsMetal
Price Upon Request - Harry Bertoia Style Welded Steel with Brass Desk Top Spray SculptureBy Harry BertoiaLocated in Ferndale, MIMultiple steel rods set in free form brazed brass base. Each rod topped with melted brass droplet . Not quite but very reminiscent of Harry Bertoias work. Under vibration rods do hav...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Abstract Sculptures
MaterialsBrass, Steel