Arieto Bertoia was born on March 10, 1915 in a small town a few kilometers from Pordenone but while still young he moved to the United States, where he became Harry and an American citizen. A trained sculptor and goldsmith, during his university years he acquired an excellent knowledge of metals and their processing techniques, applying them to the various pieces he works with: from surrounding space to movement, from sound to design, becoming a distinctive feature of his work.
His love of metalworking found expression first in sculptures—the famous “screens” dating back to the 1950s, linear compositions made up of hundreds of small metal shapes—and then in furniture design, mainly thanks to his encounters with important designers and architects such as Charles and Ray Eames, Florence Knoll, Alvar Aalto, and Eero Saarinen.
Harry Bertoia and his “screens” credits Knoll
In the early 1950s he began his professional partnership with Knoll International, which allowed him to create the famous “Bertoia Collection”. Industrial metal rod is shaped and ennobled in a collection of chairs and armchairs, among which the Diamond chair stands out.
Bertoia Collection, 1952, Knoll International
Diamond Chair, 1952, Knoll International
A chair-sculpture made of a curved metal grid to create an enveloping surface with no distinction between seat and back, “a sculpture made of air and steel” as Bertoia himself defined it. At first glance, the comparison with the contemporary Wire Lounge Chair by the Eameses comes naturally, and the same was true for the Hermann Miller company – manufacturer of the Wire Lounge chair – so much so that it sued Knoll, forcing the designer to change some details of his Diamond.
Wire Lounge Chair, Charles and Ray Eames, 1951, Vitra (right) and Diamond chair, 1952, Knoll International (left)
Bertoia Collection Chair and Stool, 1952, Knoll International
Although the collection for Knoll was a huge success, Bertoia felt that design was not his path and left Knoll to dedicate himself entirely to sculpture, creating the famous “sound sculptures”. Realizing the sound generated by metal, he began to create compositions used as real musical instruments, collecting symphonies that even led him to hold concerts and record albums entitled “Sonanbient”.
Harry Bertoia and the sound sculptures
Harry Bertoia died in November 1978 and we remember him as an eclectic designer who approached different disciplines with a spirit of technical experimentation and still today represents an important example of method, rigor and dedication to research.
