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.
Harry Bertoia Melt Pressed Bronze Figural Sculpture, 1970s
By Harry Bertoia
Located in Dallas, TX
A figurative vertical form with two protrusions on top constructed of melt pressed bronze (heated numerous times, squeezed, and shaped. Includes provenance and hand-signed COA from t...
Bronze
$3,850
H 18 in W 6 in D 6 in
"Experience №1 v.2" Bronze Sculpture 18 x 6 x 6 in Edition 1/5 by Sergii Shaulis
By Sergii Shaulis
Located in Culver City, CA
"Experience №1 v.2" Bronze Sculpture 18 x 6 x 6 in Edition 1/5 by Sergii Shaulis 2019 From the EXPERIENCE series Bronze Approximate weight 15lbs ABOUT ARTIST Born on 27 May 1985 ...
Bronze
$6,300
H 6.3 in W 5.12 in D 3.94 in
"Cinnilla" Bronze Sculpture 16" x 13" x 10" inch by Sarkis Tossonian
By Sarkis Tossonian
Located in Culver City, CA
"Cinnilla" Bronze Sculpture 16" x 13" x 10" inch by Sarkis Tossonian Sarkis Tossoonian was born in Alexandria in 1953. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts/Sculpture in 1979. ...
Bronze
$4,522
H 9.85 in W 7.88 in D 5.91 in
Forest Ape I - 21st Century bronze sculpture of a Orangutan
By Antoinette Briet
Located in Nuenen, Noord Brabant
Antoinette Briet (Dutch artist) Forest Ape I 25 x 20 x 15 cm Bronze Antoinette Briet's sculpture can be called both a figurative and an abstract work of art. Her sculpted animals sh...
Bronze
$5,900
H 13 in W 9 in D 6 in
"Clara" Bronze Sculpture 13" x 9" x 6" inch by Sarkis Tossonian
By Sarkis Tossonian
Located in Culver City, CA
"Clara" Bronze Sculpture 13" x 9" x 6" inch by Sarkis Tossonian Sarkis Tossoonian was born in Alexandria in 1953. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts/Sculpture in 1979. He st...
Bronze
$11,500
H 45.5 in W 32 in D 20 in
"Viewer" Bronze Sculpture 41.5" x 32 "x 20" inch Ed. 1/1 by Sergii Shaulis
By Sergii Shaulis
Located in Culver City, CA
"Viewer" Bronze Sculpture 41.5" x 32 "x 20" inch Ed. 1/1 by Sergii Shaulis 2020 From the Fateful Flowers series Approximate weight 75 lbs ABOUT ARTIST Born on 27 May 1985 in Kharkiv, Ukraine. From 2005 to 2011 studied at the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts, at the Faculty of "Fine Arts" specialty "Easel and monumental sculpture." Now studying postgraduate at Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts. Works are in private collections in Ukraine, Israel, Germany, USA, Australia, Finland, Holland, Spain, Belgium, England. Education 2002‑2005 Faculty of Engineering and Physics (NTU KhPI) 2005‑2011 Easel and monumental sculpture (KSADA) 2012-2016 postgraduate education (KSADA) Exhibitions 2007-15 City exhibition HONSKHU. Kharkiv. 2007-14 Ukrainian Exhibition KONSKHU. Kyiv. 2008-11 "The maestro and his students", KSADA. Kharkiv (Audience Award 2009) 2008 11 International Triennial of sculpture. Kyiv . 2009 “Male portrait”, gallery KSADA. Kharkiv . 2009 "You get SMS ", Kharkiv ( Grand Prix "The best sculpture...
Bronze, Steel
$70,000
H 78 in W 20 in D 20 in
Woman, Black, Abstract, Twist, Dance, Gown, Art Deco, Garden, By Commission
By David Hostetler
Located in Nantucket, MA
Summertime Lady can be commissioned. You can have it with the black finish or painted Ferrari Red. I've cast it in a pale green patina for a pool in Bermuda. Outstanding focal point ...
Bronze
Mujer
By Carol Gold
Located in Loveland, CO
Mujer by Carol Gold Wall Mounted Bronze Female Portrait 8x6.5x2.5" ed/open Abstract Figurative ABOUT THE ARTIST: Carol Gold was born in Hartford, Connecticut and grew up on a dairy ...
Bronze
Morning
By Carol Gold
Located in Loveland, CO
Morning by Carol Gold Abstract Figurative Bronze 22x8.5x4.5" ed/10 ABOUT THE ARTIST: Carol Gold was born in Hartford, Connecticut and grew up on a dairy farm in western Massachusett...
Bronze
Story Teller
By Carol Gold
Located in Loveland, CO
Story Teller by Carol Gold Abstract Figurative Bronze Maquette: 24x14x14" ed/10 ABOUT THE ARTIST: Carol Gold was born in Hartford, Connecticut and grew u...
Bronze
Hannah
By Carol Gold
Located in Loveland, CO
"Hannah" by Carol Gold Bronze 10.5" x 5" x 5" ed/30 Bust of a woman with hat ABOUT THE ARTIST: Carol Gold was born in Hartford, Connecticut and grew up on a dairy farm in western M...
Bronze
$3,850
H 10 in W 3 in D 2.5 in
"The man without a rod №1" Bronze Sculpture 10 x 3 in. Ed. 6/9 by Sergii Shaulis
By Sergii Shaulis
Located in Culver City, CA
"The man without a rod №1" Bronze Sculpture 10 x 3 in. Ed. 6/9 by Sergii Shaulis 10" x 3" x 2.5'' inch Weight: 8 lbs "The man without a rod" series: The artist spent almost ten y...
Bronze
$5,500
H 13 in W 9 in D 5.5 in
"Agat" Bronze Sculpture 13" x 9" x 5.5" inch by Sarkis Tossonian
By Sarkis Tossonian
Located in Culver City, CA
"Agat" Bronze Sculpture 13" x 9" x 5.5" inch by Sarkis Tossonian Sarkis Tossoonian was born in Alexandria in 1953. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts/Sculpture in 1979. He s...
Bronze