Harry Bertoia (Italian, 1915–1978) was a sculptor who was best known for his classic
Bertoia Chair and numerous monumental architectural sculptures. He was born in Arieto Bertoia in San Lorenzo, Italy, on March 10, 1915. He attended school in Italy until the age of 15, when he accompanied his father to Michigan to see his brother Oreste. Upon immigrating to the United States, he Americanized his name, adapting it from his Italian nickname, Arieto, meaning "little Harry."
After finishing high school in Detroit, Bertoia received a scholarship to the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts, where he studied drawing and painting. In 1937, he attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI. In 1939, he was asked to stay on at Cranbrook Academy to teach metalwork. Metal was scarce during World War II, so Bertoia was forced to concentrate on jewelry making. When he wasn't teaching, Bertoia spent time creating monoprints, which he later sent to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum to be assessed. In 1943, the Guggenheim foundation exhibited 19 of Bertoia's prints.
In 1943, Cranbrook Academy of Art closed its doors, and Bertoia moved to California. While there, he worked with
Charles Eames and
Ray Eames on projects that involved sculpting molded plywood. During this time, he continued to work on his monoprints, and held his first exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1945. In 1950, he moved to Pennsylvania to work with
Hans Knoll.
It was during this time that Bertoia designed the
Bertoia Diamond Chair series, which is still produced by Knoll, Inc. In 1953, General Motors commissioned Bertoia to complete an architectural sculpture, which became his first of many. Some of Bertoia's more notable architectural sculptures include
View of Earth From Space, designed for the Dulles International Airport,
Waves, designed for the Philadelphia Civic Center, and
Sounding, a fountain piece designed to sit in front of the Standard Oil building in Chicago.
Bertoia died from lung cancer on November 6, 1978.