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Harry Bertoia
Bertoia — Mid-Century Visionary Abstraction, Unique
c. 1960

Name: Bertoia — Mid-Century Visionary Abstraction, Unique
Brand: Harry Bertoia
Price: 5913.95 AUD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 5 (51 reviews)

$3,800

£2,838.42

€3,290.69

CA$5,276.21

A$5,913.95

CHF 3,079.22

MX$72,211.82

NOK 39,094.89

SEK 37,058.44

DKK 24,552.13

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About the Item

Harry Bertoia, Untitled (Abstraction), monotype, c. 1960, a unique impression. Signed 'HB' in pencil, lower right sheet corner, verso. Inscribed '1852' (the artist’s inventory number) in pencil, lower right sheet corner, recto. A superb, painterly impression, on cream wove Japan paper, the full sheet, in excellent condition. Unmatted, unframed. Sheet size 12 x 39 inches (30 x 99 cm). Provenance: Val Bertoia; Private Collection; Rago Auctions, Lambertville, NJ. Literature: 'Harry Bertoia: Monoprints,' Nancy N. Schiffer, Schiffer Publishing LTD, 2011; pg. 253. This work is included in the Harry Bertoia Foundation digital resource, Harry Bertoia Catalogue Raisonné, number TD.MO.1584. ABOUT THE ARTIST Harry Bertoia (1915-1978) was a visionary Italian-American artist, sculptor, and designer. Born in San Lorenzo, Italy, Bertoia immigrated to the United States with his family at age fifteen, settling in Detroit, Michigan. From an early age, Bertoia demonstrated a keen interest in art and design, studying painting and drawing at the Cass Technical High School in Detroit. Later, he attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where he studied under renowned designers Eliel Saarinen and Charles Eames. At Cranbrook, Bertoia first began to explore the possibilities of working with metal, a medium that would come to define his artistic career. In the 1940s, Bertoia moved to California to work for Charles and Ray Eames, contributing to the development of innovative molded plywood furniture. However, his experimentation with metal wire sculpture would ultimately catapult him to international acclaim. Bertoia's iconic "Sonambient" sculptures, consisting of delicate metal rods arranged in various configurations, created ethereal sounds when touched or moved, transforming the act of sculpture into a multisensory experience. Bertoia's talent and innovation caught the attention of Florence Knoll, the founder of Knoll Associates, a leading furniture design company. In 1950, Bertoia began collaborating with Knoll, producing a series of iconic wire chairs that became emblematic of mid-century modern design. His "Diamond Chair," with its geometric form and airy construction, remains a classic of modern furniture design. Bertoia continued to explore sculpture as a means of artistic expression, experimenting with new forms and materials. His work was characterized by organicism and fluidity, with forms that evoked natural phenomena such as waves, leaves, and clouds. A decade before Harry Bertoia began creating three-dimensional sculpture, he dedicated his creative efforts to producing experimental prints at the Cranbrook Academy in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, pursuing a passion that would continue for the rest of his life. With these spontaneous works, he worked intuitively, testing different tools and techniques to achieve his desired effects. Rather than using a traditional mechanical pressing process, he would apply ink to a glass or smooth Masonite plate with a sheet of paper laid directly on top. Then, tools such as brayers, dog hair brushes, styluses, and different parts of his hands were employed to draw or “press” the images on the back of the sheet. Rice paper was typically used due to its semi-translucent nature, offering Bertoia limited visibility of the effects of his experimentation, but ultimately, the unpredictable nature of the process was an integral aspect of the results, which never ceased to delight him. Each work was a singular composition with abstract imagery ranging from linear, structural compositions to fantastic surrealistic forms to poetic tonal landscapes. He received little input from other artists, developing his unique vision with rare purity and a deep personal resonance. From his first year of printmaking in 1940, Bertoia quickly amassed an extensive collection of unique works. The compositions were strongly tied to the non-objective movement, which, while popular in Europe, was still in its nascent stages in the US. There were few proponents of this new art form to be found in the 1940s, and it was Hilla Rebay, then Director of the Guggenheim Museum of Non-Objective Art, who gave Bertoia the encouragement and promotion he needed. In 1943, Bertoia sent approximately 100 monotypes to Rebay for review. After receiving the prints, she responded with a surprising offer to buy them all. Rebay then began including them in the museum’s exhibitions. The Guggenheim shows succeeded in putting Bertoia’s name out into the world. He began exhibiting his works regularly at the Neierndorf Gallery in New York and was provided a stipend to ensure a steady supply of prints until Karl Neierndorf died in 1947. By the 1950s, Bertoia’s career as a sculptor was taking off, and commissions were coming in, but despite his increasingly busy schedule, he continued to work on his monotypes as a favorite form of relaxation in the evenings. His prints had often inspired later sculptures, but now he also began to employ the medium in the studio during the day to work out questions and ideas concerning his designs. He continued to work in this way throughout the 1960s and as his health permitted until his last days. Prints were made not only for personal fulfillment but also as a method of record-keeping for completed works and authentication of commissions to be given to clients. By the end of his life, the body of work he had produced on paper provided a sweeping record of his thoughts and ideas throughout his career—a deeply personal journal that informed much of his other work and responded to the rhythms of his life. Reluctant to part with his beloved prints, most remained at his home studio in a system of custom-built cabinetry until his death. Throughout his career, Bertoia received accolades for his contributions to art and design, including the prestigious American Institute of Architects Craftsmanship Medal in 1955. Bertoia’s legacy of innovation and creativity continues to inspire artists, designers, and admirers of modernist aesthetics. His pioneering work in sculpture, furniture design, and printmaking has had a profound and lasting impact on the world of art and design, securing his place as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Bertoia’s work is represented in numerous major museum collections including the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Cranbrook Art Museum, Denver Art Museum, Des Moines Art Center, Detroit Institute of Arts, Figge Art Museum, High Museum of Art, Huntington Museum of Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Joslyn Art Museum, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Milwaukee Art Museum, Museum of Modern Art, National Gallery of Art, North Carolina Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Palm Springs Art Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Solomon Guggenheim Museum, Norton Museum of Art, Cornell University Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Walker Art Center, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Creator:
Harry Bertoia (1915 - 1978, American, Italian)
Creation Year:
c. 1960
Dimensions:
Height: 12 in (30.48 cm)Width: 39 in (99.06 cm)
Medium:
Monotype
Movement & Style:
American Modern
Period:
1960-1969
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Myrtle Beach, SC
Reference Number:
Seller: 1042581stDibs: LU532313521002

Shop All Harry Bertoia

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.

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