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Val Bertoia Art

American, b. 1949

Val Bertoia was born in Santa Monica, California, in 1949. In the 1950s, his family moved from California to Pennsylvania, where he has lived and worked ever since.

In the 1960s, Bertoia studied mechanical engineering at Indiana Institute of Technology in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. In 1969, he was awarded “Speaker of the Year” at Indiana Tech. In 1971, he was released from Ft. Dix, New Jersey, from the US Army to return back to Pennsylvania.

Bertoia started working at a farm near his home, and soon afterward, his father, Harry Bertoia, asked him to work at Bertoia Studio with him. He worked with his father from 1972–78. The “sound sculpture” environment, which Harry continued to focus on for 10 years beginning in 1968, is trademarked “Sonambient.” Harry and Val installed large-scale commissioned metal sculptures, and Harry was amazed with his son’s level of precision and engineering abilities and often asked his advice.

In the late 1970s, Harry and Val made Bertoia sound sculptures for distribution worldwide. During those six years, Val worked on his own projects, which included wind-electric systems as derivatives of kinetic sculpture models. Harry was an intuitive engineer, and Val's wind systems, the heights of which reached over 90 feet, were refined by Harry and became well-balanced with a U.S. patent.

In 1978, continuing where Harry left off — and with the encouragement of his mother, Brigitta Bertoia — Val proceeded with the sculpture business of his father's legacy. Val Bertoia sculptures made after November 1978, when Harry died, are numbered, starting with “B-01.”

Find authentic Val Bertoia sculptures and decorative objects on 1stDibs.

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Artist: Val Bertoia
Val Bertoia Sonambient Kinetic Sculpture Titled "Sound of V" in Bronze
By Val Bertoia
Located in Dallas, TX
This sculpture is titled "Sound of V" and is crafted from 60 silicon-bronze rods affixed with silver to a solid brass base. The work was created in 2014 by Val Bertoia at the Bertoia...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Val Bertoia Art

Materials

Brass, Bronze

"Array of Steel Rods with Brass Chimes"
By Val Bertoia
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Val Bertoia was born in Santa Monica, California in 1949. In the 1950s, his family moved from California to Pennsylvania where he has lived and worked here ever since. In the1960s, V...
Category

20th Century Abstract Val Bertoia Art

Materials

Brass, Steel

"Tube Shape Array with Steel Spokes"
By Val Bertoia
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Val Bertoia was born in Santa Monica, California in 1949. In the 1950s, his family moved from California to Pennsylvania where he has lived and worked here ever since. In the1960s, V...
Category

20th Century Abstract Val Bertoia Art

Materials

Brass, Steel

Small 2 Rods
By Val Bertoia
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Inscribed with artist's number on base
Category

20th Century Abstract Val Bertoia Art

Materials

Metal

Brass and Beryllium Copper Sonambinet Sounding Sculpture by Val Bertoia
By Val Bertoia
Located in Dallas, TX
Monumental Val Bertoia sculpture 60 Beryllium copper rods silvered in a brass base in two square columns. Makes a beautiful resonating tone. Title: 'Two walking squares for sounds...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Val Bertoia Art

Materials

Brass

Large Val Bertoia Sonambient Sculpture Titled "2 Walking Squares for Sounds"
By Val Bertoia
Located in Dallas, TX
This sculpture is titled "2 Walking Squares for Sounds" and is crafted from 60 beryllium-copper rods affixed with silver to a solid brass base in two columns. The work was created in...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Val Bertoia Art

Materials

Brass, Bronze

Val Bertoia Sonambient Sound Sculpture Titled "Sounds Like a Tall Tower"
By Val Bertoia
Located in Dallas, TX
This sculpture is titled "Sounds Like A Tall Tower" and is crafted from 49 silicon-bronze rods affixed with silver to a solid brass base. The work was created in 2014 by Val Bertoia ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Val Bertoia Art

Materials

Brass, Bronze

"Steel Rods with Brass Cylinder Chimes"
By Val Bertoia
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Val Bertoia was born in Santa Monica, California in 1949. In the 1950s, his family moved from California to Pennsylvania where he has lived and worked here ever since. In the1960s, V...
Category

20th Century Abstract Val Bertoia Art

Materials

Brass, Steel

50 Rods on a Curve
By Val Bertoia
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Inscribed with artist's number on base
Category

20th Century Val Bertoia Art

Materials

Metal

Spray Sound Sculpture
By Val Bertoia
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Val Bertoia (b. 1949) Val Bertoia was born in Santa Monica, California in 1949 to the artist, Harry Bertoia and his wife, Brigitta Valentiner. The family relocated to Pennsylvania in the 1950s where Bertoia has lived and worked since. In the1960s, Bertoia attended the Indiana Institute of Technology in Fort Wayne, Indiana. After his release from the US Army in Fort Dix, NJ, Bertoia returned to Pennsylvania and began to work at Bertoia Studio with his father. Val worked extensively with his father from 1972 to 1978. The two primarily worked on his father’s Sound Sculpture...
Category

20th Century Val Bertoia Art

Materials

Metal

Copper Wall Relief
By Val Bertoia
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Val Bertoia (b. 1949) Val Bertoia was born in Santa Monica, California in 1949 to the artist, Harry Bertoia and his wife, Brigitta Valentiner. The family relocated to Pennsylvania i...
Category

1990s Val Bertoia Art

Materials

Copper

Bronze Fountain Sculpture
By Val Bertoia
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Val Bertoia (born 1949) Val Bertoia was born in Santa Monica, California in 1949. In the 1950s, his family moved from Cali...
Category

Late 20th Century Abstract Val Bertoia Art

Materials

Bronze

23" Sound Sculpture
By Val Bertoia
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Inscribed with artist's number on base
Category

20th Century Val Bertoia Art

Materials

Metal

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Klaus Ihlenfeld (b.1934). Untitled, ca. 1960. Welded bronze. 8" h.; 5.5 " w; 3.25" d (base). Signed with initial under base. Provenance: Directly from estate of Harry Bertoia. The piece was a gift from Ihlenfeld and is a very early example created during Bertoia apprenticeship era. Excellent condition. Klaus Karl Otto IhlenfeldHe was born in Berlin, Germany in 1934. He studied art at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste and completed graduate work with the metal sculptor Hans Uhlmann. He visited the US in 1957 for the first time living in Durham, NC, where he befriended Dr. W. R. Valentiner, the Rembrandt authority and Director of the Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC. Through this friendship in 1960 he met and worked with the metal sculptor Harry Bertoia in Barto, PA. He joined the Staempfli Gallery in NYC and entered in many group and one-man shows. He has been an Artist-in-Residence in Ogden, Utah; Huntington Museum of Art in West Virginia, Penn State University at University Park; the Colorado State University in Denver; and Shippensburg University. He has large commissions at Kutztown University, Pottstown Hospital, and a monumental relief sculpture at the Emigrant Savings Bank in NYC. He has traveled extensively in Spain, Greece, and Mexico. He is living and working on a farm in Barto, PA welding bronze and forged iron metal sculptures and painting watercolors. Group Shows: North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, NC - 1957 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City - 1962 Staempfli Gallery in New York City - 1962, 1964 and 1965 Gallery Ludwig Lange in West Berlin, Germany - 1977 Gallery Herbert Remmert and Dr. Barth in Dusseldorf in West Germany - 1981 Jack Savitt Gallery in Macungie, PA - 1981 and 1984 Heinz Ortleb Gallery, West Berlin, Germany - 1992 Central Bucks Chamber of Commerce Show at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, PA - 1997 Berks Art Alliance Show at the Reading Art Museum in Reading, PA - 1997 Mayfair Festival of the Arts at the Allentown Art Museum - 1998 Baum School of Art in Allentown, PA - 1997 Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center Art Show in Pennsburg, PA - 2001 Reading Public Museum in Reading PA, 2014 Solo Shows: Kutztown University in Kutztown, PA - 1960 and 1965 Allentown Art Museum in Allentown, PA - 1960 and 1961 Staempfli Gallery in New York City - 1962 Penn State University in University Park, PA - 1964 and 1972 Berks Art Alliance in Wyomissing, PA - 1966 Bertha Eccles Art Center in Ogden, Utah - 1967 Mansfield University in Mansfield, PA - 1967 Huntington Museum of Art in Huntington, WV - 1971 Shippensburg University in Shippensburg, PA - 1972 Albright College in Reading, PA - 1973 Ianuzzi Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ - 1974 Gallery Heimat 85 in West Berlin, Germany - 1977 Jack Savitt Gallery in Macungie, PA - 1981 College Misericordia in Dallas, PA - 1983 Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center in Pennsburg, PA, 2013 Periodical Reference: Kaye, Ellen "The Obsessive Collector," Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine Sptember 21, 1986 pp. 32-33. Chronology: 1-30-1934 Born in Berlin, Germany. Father, Kurt Ihlenfeld, Lutheran pastor, novelist, critic and publisher was born in 1901 in Colmar, Alsace Lorain. Mother, Annie Stuhlmann, was born in 1905 in Breslau, Lower Silesia. 1940 - 1950 Public schools in Berlin; Löwen, Lower Silesia; Coswig, Radebeul, Glaubitz, Saxony. Königin Luise-Gymnasium in Dahlem, Berlin. First artworks, drawings and paintings; few sculptures. 1950 - 1956 Studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in West Berlin, Germany. Graduate work with metal sculptor Hans Uhlmann. For 2 years maintained own studio at the Academy. Friendship with writer Günter Grass, and painter F. S. Sonnenstern. Met painters: Max Pechstein, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Carl Hofer, Max Kaus, and sculptors: Bernhard Heiliger, Renee Sintenis, and Richard Scheibe...
Category

Mid-20th Century Abstract Val Bertoia Art

Materials

Bronze

Raul Valdivieso Latin American Erotic Ceramic Sculpture, 1960s
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Materials

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Materials

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Previously Available Items
36 Rods of Sound in 4 Groups
By Val Bertoia
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Signed on Base with No. B-1781 Val Bertoia (born 1949) Val Bertoia was born in Santa Monica, California in 1949. In the 1950s, his family moved from California to Pennsylvania whe...
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Late 20th Century Abstract Val Bertoia Art

Materials

Metal

Three-sided Tree (Brutalist biomorphic organic abstract bronze sculpture)
By Val Bertoia
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
VAL BERTOIA (b. 1949). Three-sided Tree, Pennsylvania, 1991; Patinated bronze. Signed and serial numbered at bottom. Unique (not an edition). 15″ x 15 1/2″ x 6″; Provenance: the art...
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1990s Abstract Expressionist Val Bertoia Art

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Bronze

Sound Sculpture
By Val Bertoia
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Category

Val Bertoia Art

Sound Sculpture
H 26 in W 8 in D 8 in

Val Bertoia art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Val Bertoia art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Val Bertoia in metal, brass, steel and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the abstract style. Not every interior allows for large Val Bertoia art, so small editions measuring 5 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Richard Heinrich, Peter Reginato, and Matt Shlian. Val Bertoia art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $8,700 and tops out at $48,125, while the average work can sell for $14,375.

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