Harry Bertoia

Harry Bertoia was born in Italy and at 15 years of age moved to Detroit and attended Cass Technical High School where he studied and honed his skill at handmade jewelry (ca. 1930-36). By 1936, he was attending the Art School of the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts and the following year (1937) he received a scholarship to study (and eventually teach) at the Cranbrook Academy of Art.

While at Cranbrook, in 1943, he married Brigitta Valentiner, and the two moved to Venice, California to work for Charles and Ray Eames on furniture designs for the Molded Plywood Division of the Evans Product Company. Bertoia worked there through 1946 all the while selling his jewelry and monotypes on the side.

By 1947, he was hired, by John Olsen, at the US Navy Electronics Naval Lab (NEL) and moved to San Diego. During some of his time in the area, the Bertoias lived in the Pueblo Ribera Court in La Jolla by R.M. Schindler. Beyond serving NEL as its head training and publications illustrator, Bertoia produced work while in San Diego that was exhibited and sold to the public through his membership in the Allied Craftsman organization, according to Dave Hampton.

Through 1948-50, Bertoia continued to show through the Allied Craftsman (while the group was still part of the Allied Artists Council, according to Hampton) as well as exhibited jewelry, sculpture and paintings at the San Diego Fine Arts Gallery and also served on a jury for the San Diego Art Guild annual exhibition.

By 1950, he was invited by Hans and Florence Knoll to move to Pennsylvania where he designed five pieces of furniture that became known as the Bertoia Collection for Knoll. Connections have been made between the welded lattice-wire chairs the Eames’ designed for Herman Miller and Bertoia’s Diamond Chair and Side Chair for Knoll.