The Collection
HARRY BERTOIA (1915-1978)
 |
 Click
above to view full image
|
Untitled, ca. 1968-69
Brass; 56 x 12”
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harry G. Kuch, 1987 |
|
|
After a rather peripatetic life sculptor Harry Bertoia finally settled in 1946 in Barto, Pennsylvania, between Reading and Allentown, not far away from the Knoll Associates, Incorporated plant where he had been hired to design furniture. Bertoia joined the ranks of renowned architects and designers who Knoll had attracted, including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Eero Saarinen, Franco Albini, Pierre Jeanneret, and Isamu Noguchi. Bertoia’s position among the finest creative minds of the day is a great tribute to a man who immigrated to America from Italy at the age of 15. In 1930 he won a scholarship to prestigious Cranbrook Academy, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. There he blossomed and after graduation stayed on to teach metal working until 1943 when he was invited by Charles Eames to California to design chairs. A similar invitation from Knoll then brought him to Pennsylvania where he remained until his death. Woodmere’s Untitled brass sculpture by Bertoia exemplifies the kenetic and “musical” pieces for which he was best known. |
|
