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Bertoia, Harry
(b San Lorenzo, nr Reggio di Calabria, 10 March 1915; d Barto, PA, 6 Nov 1978). American sculptor and designer of Italian birth. After settling in the USA in 1930, he studied at the Society of Arts and Crafts, Detroit (1936), and the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI (1937–9), where he taught metalworking and produced abstract silver jewellery and colour monoprints. In 1943 he moved to California to assist in the development of the first of a series of chairs designed by Charles O. Eames. His first sculptures date from the late 1940s. In 1950 he established himself in Bally, PA, where he designed the Bertoia chair (1952), several forms of which were marketed, and worked on small sculptures, directly forged or welded bronzes. The first of his many large architectural sculptures was a screen commissioned in 1953 for Eero Saarinen’s General Motors Technical Center in Detroit; subsequent commissions included the bronze mural (1963) at the Dulles International Airport, Chantilly, VA, and the fountain (1967) at the Civic Center, Philadelphia. Bertoia’s work, both graphic and sculptural, shows a combination of strong, organic shapes and intricately textured details.
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