Harry Bertoia was born on March10, 1915 in San Lorenzo, Udine, Italy.
His parents were Giuseppe and Maria (Mussio) Bertoia.
He had one brother, Oreste and one sister, Ave. After attending high school in Arzene, Carsara, till age 15, he accompanied his father to Detroit to visit his brother Oreste
Instead of returning to Italy the youmg bertoia stayed behind to attend Cass Technical High School a public school with a special program for talented students in arts and sciences.
A scholarship for one year to the Art School of the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts
let him study painting and drawing. By the fall of 1937, another scholarship entitled
him to be a student, also of painting and drawing at the Cranbrook Academy of Art.
Cranbrook was, at the time, welcoming many great artists: Carl Milles,resident-sculptor,
Maija Grotell,resident-ceramist, Walter Gropius,visiting Bauhaus-architect,
and many more, In 1939, Eliel Saarinen,director of the art community, asked Bertoia
to stay on at the academy to re-open the department of metalworking.
While doing so, Harry continued an after-hour activity he began as a student,
experimenting and producing one-of-a-kind prints.
Fellows students at Cranbrook were Florence Shust (Knoll)Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen.
In 1940, Harry met Brigitta Valentiner, the daughter of Wilhelm R Valentiner, director of
the Detroit Institute of Arts and the foremost expert on Rembrandt in the U.S.
He and Brigitta were married on May 10, 1943
While at Cranbrook Harry Bertoia had been working on monoprints.
Not knowing how his graphic work would be received, he sent 100 prints to
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of Non - Objective Paintings for evaluation.
To his amazement, Hilla Rebay, the director, kept all 100 prints.
She bought some for herself and some for the museum. In 1943, 19 of those prints
were exhibited by the Solomon Guggenheim Foundation. Harry had the most works
by a single artist in that show which included works by Moholy-Nagy, Werner Drewes and Charles Smith
The same year he also exhibited prints and jewelry at Cranbrook.
In 1945, Harry had a show of his monotypes in the San Francisco Museum of Art

Jewelry was a craft that Harry had learned during his years at Cass Techical High School. As the war lingered on, metal was very hard to come by. Harry could not make large pieces, therefore resorted to making smaller silver and copper pieces. As far as we know, the jewelry is not signed. Many of them were exhibited through the Nierendorf Gallery in New York. He also shared a lot of the pieces with his friends at Cranbrook and made wedding rings for Charles and Ray Eames and Edmund Bacon.

Harry designed two tea sets. This one was designed for Eliel Saarinen and is in the Cranbrook permanent collection.

Supported by a stipend from Karl Nierendorf, Nierendorf Gallery, New York, Harry continued to make and exhibit monotypes and jewelry until 1947.He also exhibited works at the Fairweather Harden Gallery in Chicago. He then only made jewelry for special occasions but continued to make monotypes throughout his life. They were his inspiration and sketches for sculptures.

After Cranbrook, Harry joined Charles Eames in California to do ongoing experimental work on molded plywood. This work stemmed from a continuation of the Eames/Saarinen chair design that won the MOMA furniture competition, which could not be succesfully produced. In addition, he was happy to contribute to the war effort making airplanes parts manufactured by Evans products Co, where Eames was director of Resarch & Development.Harry's solutions were being absorbed with no credit to him. He chose to move on. He spent two years in San Diego, at Point Loma Naval Electrical Lab. He worked on a project involving human engineering and stroboscopic photography, designed to evaluate equipment. this is where he began making sculptures after hours.

In 1950, at the request of Hans and Florence Knoll, Harry moved to Pennsylvania with his family. They offered him free reign to design whatever he wished - furniture or sculpture - with full credit, which was their policy with all designers. Harry enjoyed the freedom to do whatever he wished and created entirely new forms. The Bertoia Diamond chair series was introduced in 1952 by KnollHarry designs the "421" chair, better known as the Diamond chair. Harry also designs all the jigs for the production of the item.The chair is introduced in 1952.

While working on the chair, Harry also produced a series of sculptures which are exhibited in 1951 at Knoll Associates, NYC. The sculptures are very well received,Herbert Matter, graphic designer and photographer for Knoll, included a picture of Harry and his sculptures on the brochure of the Diamond chair.
In 1953-1954, at the request of Joseph Albers, he was invited to be the visiting critic in sculpture at Yale.

Commissioned by Eero Saarinen, the MIT Chapel reredos {rer'dos: a screen or decorated part of the wall wall behind an altar in a church] was created in 1955 and is one of the most striking sculptures of Harry Bertoia. It ushers the contemporary era of spacial sculpture, liberated from its base and becomes an integral part of the altar.
The first architectural sculpture commission that Harry did was,in 1953, for the General Motors Technical Center. It is a sculpture used to divide 2 spaces, thus one could say that sculpture becomes part of the whole space planning, not as an ornamental piece but as a functional and visually melodic section of the structure.

In 1957, Harry received a grant from Chicago's Graham Foundation which allowed him to return to Italy for the first time since 1930
He visited his family and the great museums.
The first European exhibit of his work was at the US Pavilion of the 1958 Brussels World's Fair.

In 1960 Harry Bertoia started the exploration of tonal sculptures. The first ones were made like a stool upside down and each rod was soldered on a cross mesh screen, a very labor intensive technique. The "tonal" is the sculpture that is most often associated with Harry Bertoia.Their sizes vary from a few inches all the way to 19 feet. Many metals were used for the rods, the most common being beryllium copper. Some rods are capped with cylinders or drops of metal which, by their weight, accentuate the swaying of the tonal rods. Harry and Oreste (his brother)loved music and spend considerable time in tuning and finding new sounds.

From 1953 to 1978 Harry Bertoia created large commissions. Harry Bertoia made over 50 public sculptures which are on public display in towns throughout the United States. Harry Bertoia was hired by the greatest architects of the time.They include Eero Saarinen, Henry Dreyfuss, Roche & Dinkeloo, Minoru Yamasaki, Edward Durell Stone & I M Pei.
He received the AIA Craftsmanship Award in 1956 and the Critic's Award in 1968.

Harry Bertoia worked on 17 general groups of sculptures.
They are better described in the chapter on "Sculptures".

Three documentaries were done on Harry Bertoia, one of which was made by Clifford West,
a collegue from Cranbrook.This photo represent the barn which Harry set up in 1968-1969
to hold his sculptures and be a sound recording studio.
He gave concerts to visitors and friends.After his death,his wife Brigitta and his son, Val, continue
the musical tradition.
There are 11 albums of recorded sounds of sculpture that Harry made during his lifetime. Harry was an explorer and, like the brothers Baschet, invented new musical instruments that were used in many recordings.

Staempfli Gallery published color catalogues of the work of Harry Bertoia.
Harry had his first show with them in 1961.A retrospective show of
his work was held in 1981.George Staempfli died in 1999.

This is the Boyertown Bank Fountain, not far from Harry's studio which, actually used to belong to Knoll.
The studio in Bally, PA, is still used today by Val Bertoia who is also a sculptor.

Harry Bertoia died on november 6th, 1978.
He is buried in Barto, Pa, on his farm.
Although he is gone, his legacy inspire and thrill many aspiring artists
and the "sounds" of his creations live on.