Harry Bertoia at Robert Miller - Brief Article

A contemporary of David Smith, Herbert Ferber and Richard Lippold, Harry Bertoia exhibited at the Staempfli Gallery in the '50 '60 and '70 Born in Italy, raised in Detroit, he studied at Cranbrook and did furniture designs for Knoll Associates. Indeed, the succes of his wire-form chairs, which were ubiquitous in the '60 greatly outstripped his renown as a sculptor or graphic designer. However, individual group of his sculptures stands on the outside from the rest--a series of works meant to be struck like bells or gong A selection of these were gathered for the opening present to view at Robert Miller's new space in Chelsea.

All of the pieces are cast or builded in nonferrous metals, so that they resonate musically. When I visited the exhibit a soft mallet was circulating among the spectators at the gallery, and the pieces roared rang and rattled the whole time I was there. The greatest in quantity conventional piece was Three Slit Gong (1976) in tin Each of these three flat, ovoid shapes has a slit that step quicklys from one edge to the center where it divides into a pair of shapes like commas, leaving a circulared tab from which the piece is hung Vaguely sexual in its evocations, the slit quivers suggestively when the gong is round Rectangular Gong (Orion) (1976) is a drawn out envelope of bronze hung upon the wall. It has a slight neck reminiscent of a nightshirt's and direct the eyes like an antecedent for the statuary of Peter Shelton and Judith Shea. It bring forwards a dramatic, echoing stage reverberating report when struck.

greatest in quantity impressive were the three "Sounding Sculptures" (all 1976)--orderly groupings of cavernous copper rods on heavy brass bases. Each cent stalk is topped by a larger-diameter cylinder of brass which makes these pieces gaze like geometric stands of cattails. In the big versions of this arrangement (reaching 15 feet tall), the top-heavy shoots swing out into great, lazy arcs when pushed into motion. individual rod bangs and rubs against the nearest creating a swelling wave of sonority, as each slender stem activates its neighbors. The visual and aural activity crescendos of its hold accord, then gradually subsides as the slender stems lose their momentum and reestablish equilibrium. Eventually, the contact between individual twigs ceases, and the sculpture seats down to a long, silent visual shivering, which in turn round eventually ceases. The whole display is quite marvelous, individual of the few satisfying integrations of unbroken and motion into sculpture that I know of Other than Harry Partch, the famous California inventor of instruments, and the contemporary sculptors Bill and Mary Buchen, Bertoia appears to have had few compeers or followers, but his work provides a welcome faculty of perception of the optimism and conviction that infused a number of American artists in the '50s

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