Harry Bertoia (Italian-American, 1915-1978) Untitled (Sonambient)

Catalog Note: In Buffalo, Harry Bertoia was commissioned for two major public building projects during the late 1960s and early 1970s. For One M&T Plaza, the headquarters of Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki, Bertoia created a monumental outdoor fountain sculpture, installed in 1968. The work, which remains a centerpiece of the plaza, integrates sculpture, architecture, and public space in the spirit of mid-century corporate modernism.
A few years later, Bertoia completed a second commission for One Marine Midland Center (now Seneca One Tower), a skyscraper designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. For this building he designed a large interior screen sculpture that once stood outside the 38th-floor restaurant lobby. While this work has since been deinstalled and entered the art market, it reflected Bertoia's ongoing collaboration with architects to bring his sculptural vision into landmark architectural settings. Beyond these commissions, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum (formerly the Albright-Knox) also holds important examples of Bertoia's work, though these are museum acquisitions rather than architectural commissions.

Harry Bertoia (Italian American, 1915-1978)
Harry Bertoia was an Italian-born American artist best known for his sculptures, jewelry, and furniture design. Born on March 10, 1915 in San Lorenzo, Italy, Bertoia moved with his older brother to Detroit at age 15 where he enrolled in Cass Technical High School. He would later attend the nearby Cranbrook Academy of Art, where he notably studied with Walter Gropius. He worked for the Evans Product Company and then the design firm Knoll, and by the 1950s was able to devote himself exclusively to art. It was then that Bertoia started making sculptures out of metal and wood that were made to produce various sounds, like chimes and gongs. He recorded his Sonambient albums in a barn he converted into a makeshift recording studio with these sound sculptures. Today, Bertoia’s works are in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, among others. He died on November 6, 1978 in Barto, PA.