Harry Bertoia

Born in San Lorenzo d'Arzene, Italy in 1915, Bertoia emigrated to the United States at fifteen and studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, where he later taught jewelry and metalwork and collaborated with Charles and Ray Eames. His Diamond Chair, designed for Knoll in 1952, became an icon of mid-century furniture. From the late 1950s onward he devoted increasing attention to Sonambient sculptures — clusters of metal rods mounted on flat bases that ring and vibrate when touched or caught by air. He converted a stone barn on his Pennsylvania property into a studio and recording space, producing eleven self-released Sonambient albums before his death in Barto, Pennsylvania in 1978.