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Harry Bertoia, untitled (Light Sculpture), USA, c. 1943, copper, steel, oil paint, 15.5"w...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:30,000.00 - 40,000.00 USD
Harry Bertoia, untitled (Light Sculpture), USA, c. 1943, copper, steel, oil paint, 15.5 w...
Harry Bertoia
untitled (Light Sculpture)
USA, c. 1943
copper, steel, oil paint
15.5"w x 6.25"d x 38.5"h
This sculpture encapsulates an experimental phase of Bertoia's work in the early 1940s while still at Cranbrook. Fascinated by the effects of light, Bertoia created a structure in order to suspend triangles of metal to reflect and restrict light when the sculpture was placed in front of a window. The first examples were painted with a white palette, and "the gradation of values that the light imposes on the forms creates a varied pattern" (Nelson, 28). Bertoia painted one side of this sculpture in a range of blue tones, infusing the piece with a brilliance rarely seen in his work. These early works "...formed the basis of one of his major concepts out of which later grew a group of important sculptures" (Nelson, 28) including the sculptural screens for General Motors Technical Center (Detroit,1953), Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co (New York, 1954), and Lambert Field (St. Louis, 1955).
Literature: Harry Bertoia Sculptor, Nelson, pg. 28 with discourse on this form, and fig. 17 pictures a second example of this form in his studio. 30,000-40,000