Construction after the Enjoyment of a Mulberry Tree

Harry BertoiaWW-1953-142378

1953·Steel, bronze, and silver·114.3 × 144.8 × 24.1 cm (45 × 57 × 9 1/2 in.)

<p>Trained in metalwork at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Italian-born Harry Bertoia began his artistic career creating monoprints and jewelry, before moving on to design furniture for Knoll and large-scale metal sculptural forms for architectural projects during the postwar years. Related to the welded sculpture screens Bertoia created during the 1950s for the First National Bank of Miami and the USA Pavilion at the Brussels World’s Fair, this work was exhibited and acquired by the Art Institute in 1954. Composed of thin rectangular, square, and ovoid shapes welded to rods, it suggests contemplation over nature. A study in form and space, Bertoia’s sculpture screen, with its rich textural effects of molten metal and patina, among other surface treatments, is at once linear and organic.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1953
Medium: Steel, bronze, and silver
Dimensions: 114.3 × 144.8 × 24.1 cm (45 × 57 × 9 1/2 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Harry Bertoia

Artist

Harry Bertoia

Mixed Media

Italian-born American sculptor Harry Bertoia is best known for his innovations in the field of sound art as well as for his quintessentially modern furniture. After moving from San Lorenzo, Italy, to Detroit in 1930 at the age of 15, he attended the Art School of the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts for one year. He then received a scholarship to study at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, where he learned from the work of Walter Gropius and Edmund Bacon, who both were interested in the intersection of fine art and design. Bertoia became the head of the metals department and led the jewelry workshop.

San Lorenzo, Italy

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