Harry Bertoia

Harry Bertoia (1915-1978) was an American sculptor and designer, a master in the use of metals. Born in Italy, in the province of Udine, he emigrated to Detroit at the age of fifteen. There his precocious artistic talent was noticed by Eliel Saarinen, director of the legendary Cranbrook Academy of Art, who called him first to study with him and later to teach metalworking. In 1943 he moved to California to work alongside two other former students of the Charles & Ray Eames school, helping with them to create the archetype of the modern chair with a tubular structure. In 1950 he was called to Pennsylvania by Florence Knoll, protegée of Saarinen, and signed his most famous creations for his Knoll Inc., real seat-sculptures such as the Diamond armchair. Another great passion of him, carried on throughout his life, was the design of the jewel. In parallel with his career as a designer, he dedicated himself to the creation of popular metal sculptures for public spaces. The culmination of his experimentation with him was the series of Sonambient, evocative albums in which he recorded the sounds made from the metal of his “musical sculptures”.