Bertoia, Harry

Bertoia, Harry (b. Enrico)

(1915–78) sculptor, designer; born in San Lorenzo, Italy. He emigrated to the U.S.A. in 1930 and studied (1937–39) and then taught painting and metal crafts at the Cranbrook Academy of Art (in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) (1939–43). He worked for the Evans Products Company, Venice, Calif., (1943–46), then established his own workshop in Bally, Pa. Although he regarded himself as primarily a sculptor, he was known for his early cubist-influenced silver coffee and tea services, and for his furniture, especially the "Bertoia chair" (1952), with its slender metal legs and frame and mesh-like seat.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.