Harry Bertoia

Harry Bertoia, pseudonym of Arieto Bertoia, was an Italian naturalized American sculptor, designer and musician. Born in San Lorenzo di Valvasone Arzene, in the province of Pordenone, in 1915, he moved to the United States with his family after the war. Here he was admitted to Cass Technical High School in Detroit and later graduated from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, directed by Eero Saarinen's father, Eliel Saarinen. In 1946 he moved to California to help his friend Charles Eames develop plywood and welding techniques. In 1950 he began working in the new Knoll International, in New York, for which he created the very famous Diamond Chair. In the following years he devoted himself almost entirely to metal sculpture. He died in 1978 in Barto, Pennsylvania.