HARRY BERTOIA - Sonambient Sound Sculptures from a Detroit Artist. Harry Bertoia (San Lorenzo, Pordenone March 10, 1915 – November 6, 1978 Barto, Pennsylvania), [1] was an Italian-born American artist, sound art sculptor, and modern furniture designer. At the age of 15, he traveled from Italy to Detroit to visit his older brother, however he chose to stay and enrolled in Cass Technical High School, where he studied art and design and learned the art of handmade jewelry making. In 1938 he attended the Art School of the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts, now known as the College for Creative Studies. The following year in 1937 he received a scholarship to study at the Cranbrook Academy of Art where he encountered Walter Gropius, Edmund N. Bacon and Ray and Charles Eames for the first time. Sound sculpture[edit] Bertoias Textured Screen caused much controversy when it was unveiled for the Dallas Public Library in 1954. In the mid-50s the chairs being produced by Knoll sold so well, that the lump sum arrangement allowed him to devote himself exclusively to sculpture. In 1957 he was a fellow at the Graham Foundation in Chicago. The sculptural work that he produced on his own explored the ways in which metal could be manipulated to produce sound. By stretching and bending the metal, he made it respond to wind or to touch, creating different tones. He performed with the pieces in a number of concerts and even produced a series of ten albums, all entitled Sonambient, of the music made by his art, manipulated by his hands along with the elements of nature. In the late 1990s, his daughter found a large collection of near mint condition original albums stored away in one of the barns that he used as studio space on his property in Pennsylvania. These were sold as collectors items and fetched large sums, and four of the pieces, culled from three of the records were reissued by a Japanese record label called P.S.F. Records entitled Unfolding after the names of one of the tracks on catalog #F/W 1024, which also had a track each from F/W #1025 and F/W #1032. The Addison Gallery of American Art (Andover, Massachusetts), the Brooklyn Museum (New York City), the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Dallas Public Library, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington D.C.), the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (Kansas City, Missouri), the Nasher Sculpture Center (Dallas, Texas), the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Reading Public Museum (Reading, Pennsylvania)], Milwaukee art museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington D.C.), the Vero Beach Museum of Art (Vero Beach, Florida), and the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, Minnesota) are among the public collections holding work by Harry Bertoia. Bertoias Sunburst Sculpture owned by the Joslyn Art Museum was originally installed in the Joslyns Fountain Court. It is now located in the lobby of the Milton R. Abrahams Branch of the Omaha Public Library. Lord Palumbo owns several Bertoia works which are on display at Kentuck Knob. Bertoias Sounding Sculpture can be found in the plaza of The Aon Center, Chicagos second tallest building. Another Sounding Sculpture , considerably smaller than the one mentioned above, is featured in the Rose Terrace of the Chicago Botanic Garden, and a third very similar to the piece in Chicago called Sounding Piece was until 2003 on display at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. As explained in October 3, 1995 piece in the weekly Dear Uncle Ezra column of the university newspaper: Dear Uncle Ezra, What is that sound coming from the Johnson Museum? Its a pingy type sound that I guess could be some kind of wind chime but it seems like its coming from the building itself. — Just wondering Dear Chiming In, Well, it almost is coming from the building itself. What you hear is Sounding Piece, a sculpture by Harry Bertoia that permanently resides on the sculpture court (outdoor balcony) on the second floor of the Johnson Museum. The chimes sway back and forth on tall rods and ping or gong into each other (depending on which chime and how hard they collide) when winds move them. Its one of my all-time favorites, well worth a visit if you havent seen it. You can go out on to the sculpture court until at least the end of October. Once winter sets in, the chimes are secured so that they wont snap in the windy, icy weather. Uncle Ezra The sculpture was taken off view after it was damaged in a storm in 2003 [2] .
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 13:34:27 +0000
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