17th Nov, 2020 12:00 EDT
Modern & Contemporary Art
62
Harry Bertoia (American, 1915-1978)
Untitled (Double Bush Form)
Patinated bronze with copper stem.
Bush form with bud and elongated tips.
Executed in 1974.
height: 18 1/2 in. (45.7cm)
width: 22 1/2 in. (57.2cm)
depth: 17 1/2 in. (44.5cm)
Provenance: The Artist.
Private Collection, Penn Valley, Pennsylvania (acquired directly from the above in 1974).
Private Collection, Penn Valley, Pennsylvania (by family descent).
NOTE:
This lot is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by the Harry Bertoia Foundation and signed by Celia Bertoia, Director and will be included in the upcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.
Best known for his large public sculptures and fountains throughout the United States, Harry Bertoia grew up in Italy, moving to the Detroit area at age 15 to pursue his study of art. After a year at the School of the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts, Bertoia received a scholarship to the Cranbook Academy where he made formative friendships with Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen. The school's director Eliel Saarinen asked Bertoia to restart a metal working program at the school where the artist's early experimentation in jewelry-making set him on a new path. Bertoia moved to California in 1943 with Charles Eames and began working on early iterations of "ergonomics" (although the term was not coined yet) and helped with war efforts in making airplane parts. Here he began making sculptures in the evenings in his spare time, as well as continuing the monotype printmaking he had begun in his student days. Bertoia and his young family stayed in California for a few years before moving to Bally, Pennsylvania at the request of Hans and Florence Knoll (Florence was also a classmate at Cranbrook) to design chairs for their furniture business. His designs earned him immense popularity and granted him the income to begin pursuing his sculpture in earnest.
In Pennsylvania, Bertoia remodeled a barn into a studio space and began experimenting with different materials and techniques to create bush and tree forms. Throughout the 1960s, the artist moved into creating sound sculptures, building on a lifelong love of music and cooperating with his brother to produce small concerts and recordings of the tones and reverberations of his works. The two works presented here were acquired by the owner's father, who visited the barn in the 1970s to select these works directly from the artist. One can imagine the rich soundscape of the barn as one after another sculpture resonated and filled the air with its luxuriant tones. Bertoia's career was cut short by cancer, but it is estimated he made tens of thousands of works in his life.
Untitled (Double Bush Form)
In the 1940s, Bertoia attended welding classes at Santa Monica College in California to help with the war time efforts of manufacturing airplane parts. The skill served him well for the rest of his career as he experimented with welding techniques in his sculptural works on small and large scale. In this Double Bush, Bertoia's careful construction and attention to detail are fully realized, incorporating both bud-type and elongated tips in a single sculpture, a rarity in his oeuvre according to Celia Bertoia, who deemed this work "magnificent." Indeed, the sculpture comes to life with the interplay of light on its delicate lacing of bronze, creating a powerful feeling of movement and harmony in space, evocative of a windswept fall day.
Sold for $125,000
Estimated at $100,000 - $150,000
Patinated bronze with copper stem.
Bush form with bud and elongated tips.
Executed in 1974.
height: 18 1/2 in. (45.7cm)
width: 22 1/2 in. (57.2cm)
depth: 17 1/2 in. (44.5cm)
Provenance: The Artist.
Private Collection, Penn Valley, Pennsylvania (acquired directly from the above in 1974).
Private Collection, Penn Valley, Pennsylvania (by family descent).
NOTE:
This lot is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by the Harry Bertoia Foundation and signed by Celia Bertoia, Director and will be included in the upcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.
Best known for his large public sculptures and fountains throughout the United States, Harry Bertoia grew up in Italy, moving to the Detroit area at age 15 to pursue his study of art. After a year at the School of the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts, Bertoia received a scholarship to the Cranbook Academy where he made formative friendships with Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen. The school's director Eliel Saarinen asked Bertoia to restart a metal working program at the school where the artist's early experimentation in jewelry-making set him on a new path. Bertoia moved to California in 1943 with Charles Eames and began working on early iterations of "ergonomics" (although the term was not coined yet) and helped with war efforts in making airplane parts. Here he began making sculptures in the evenings in his spare time, as well as continuing the monotype printmaking he had begun in his student days. Bertoia and his young family stayed in California for a few years before moving to Bally, Pennsylvania at the request of Hans and Florence Knoll (Florence was also a classmate at Cranbrook) to design chairs for their furniture business. His designs earned him immense popularity and granted him the income to begin pursuing his sculpture in earnest.
In Pennsylvania, Bertoia remodeled a barn into a studio space and began experimenting with different materials and techniques to create bush and tree forms. Throughout the 1960s, the artist moved into creating sound sculptures, building on a lifelong love of music and cooperating with his brother to produce small concerts and recordings of the tones and reverberations of his works. The two works presented here were acquired by the owner's father, who visited the barn in the 1970s to select these works directly from the artist. One can imagine the rich soundscape of the barn as one after another sculpture resonated and filled the air with its luxuriant tones. Bertoia's career was cut short by cancer, but it is estimated he made tens of thousands of works in his life.
Untitled (Double Bush Form)
In the 1940s, Bertoia attended welding classes at Santa Monica College in California to help with the war time efforts of manufacturing airplane parts. The skill served him well for the rest of his career as he experimented with welding techniques in his sculptural works on small and large scale. In this Double Bush, Bertoia's careful construction and attention to detail are fully realized, incorporating both bud-type and elongated tips in a single sculpture, a rarity in his oeuvre according to Celia Bertoia, who deemed this work "magnificent." Indeed, the sculpture comes to life with the interplay of light on its delicate lacing of bronze, creating a powerful feeling of movement and harmony in space, evocative of a windswept fall day.
