Accession Number
1997/1.117

Title
Untitled

Artist(s)
Harry Bertoia

Object Creation Date
1958

Medium & Support
bronze

Dimensions
4 ft. 5 in. x 8 ft. 2 in. x 12 in. (134.62 x 248.92 x 30.48 cm);4 ft. 5 in. x 8 ft. 2 in. x 12 in. (134.62 x 248.92 x 30.48 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of the Lannan Foundation in Honor of the Pelham Family

Label copy
March 28 2009
Bertoia’s sculptures combine strong, organic shapes and intricately rendered metalwork. He viewed many of his sculptures as natural extensions of forms found in nature; this piece is composed of a web of thin metal components joined together to form a seemingly light and airy metal cloud. Like many of his sculptures, Bertoia left this work untitled so as not to project meaning onto the piece and influence the viewer’s impression or imagination.
Born in Italy, Bertoia settled in the United States in 1930. He studied at the Detroit School of Arts and Crafts and the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He is perhaps best known for his Diamond Lounge Chair (also know as the Bertoia Chair), designed in 1952 for the Philadelphia design firm Knoll Associates. The chair—composed of bent and molded wire welded into an industrial, latticework frame—has become an icon of mid-twentieth-century modern design.

Subject matter
basic line drawing evolved into basic rod sculpture

Physical Description
bronze abstract sculpture

Primary Object Classification
Sculpture

Primary Object Type
abstract sculpture

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
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Keywords
abstraction
modern and contemporary art