Harry Bertoia: Free Interpretations

Harry Bertoia

Free Interpretations WoodmereArtMuseum

Woodmere expresses deepest gratitude to Sally J. Bellet for the generous support that has made the exhibition and this catalogue possible.

This exhibition celebrates a transformative capital project, including the installation of Harry Bertoia’s Free Interpretation of Plant Forms, replacing the museum’s parking surface, and improving stormwater management. Financial assistance has been provided by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Honorable Tom Wolf, Governor; the Raynier Institute & Foundation; the William B. Dietrich Foundation; and the City of Philadelphia Cultural Corridors Fund. For this generous support, Woodmere extends sincere thanks and appreciation.

Harry Bertoia’s Free Interpretation of Plant Forms is owned by the City of Philadelphia and is on loan to Woodmere Art Museum courtesy of the City.

Harry Bertoia

Free Interpretations

CONTENTS

Foreword by William R. Valerio 2 Harry Bertoia on the Free Interpretation of Plant Forms 4 A Conversation with Celia Bertoia 6 A Conversation with Val Bertoia 20 Works in the Exhibition 25

August 20–November 6, 2016

WoodmereArtMuseum

FOREWORD In the early morning hours of Wednesday, July 20,

Celia Bertoia, for supporting Woodmere in its plans

2016, Harry Bertoia’s magnificent Free Interpretation

from the very beginning. We are also grateful to

of Plant Forms arrived on Woodmere’s campus.

Val Bertoia, the artist’s son, who knows Bertoia’s

Stored away from public view since 2000 when its

process more intimately than anyone, having

former home, the Philadelphia Civic Center, was

worked with his father for many years.

slated for demolition, the sculpture regains its status as a jewel in the landscape of Philadelphia. We can imagine that after years of darkness in a storage shed, Free Interpretation of Plant Forms is happy to feel the warmth of the sun and the admiration of viewers.

The exhibition also celebrates the return of Free Interpretation of Plant Forms to public view and the resumption of its status as an important work commissioned by the City of Philadelphia’s Percent for Art Program. The sculpture is owned by the City of Philadelphia, on loan to the Museum. Woodmere

The objective of this exhibition is to establish an

has been in constant partnership with Margot Berg,

interpretive framework for the sculpture, setting

the City of Philadelphia’s Public Art Director in the

it in the context of invention and experimentation

Office of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy.

that characterized Bertoia’s career. The artist’s

Berg serves as the city’s curator of public sculpture,

monoprints and pedestal-scale sculpture show his

and we are honored by the trust she has placed in

experimentation with nature-based forms and his

the Museum in stewarding the sculpture’s future.

drive to create experiential encounters between

City Councilwoman Cherelle Parker, in her former

people and art. Free Interpretation of Plant Forms

role as State Representative; City Councilwoman

is the first of Bertoia’s several large-scale public

Cindy Bass; State Senator Art Haywood; the

fountains made of bent copper tubing and bronze.

Mayor’s Public Art Advisory Committee; and the

In a sense, it is the “mother” of several subsequent

Philadelphia Art Commission all provided valuable

creations. Woodmere hopes that this catalogue,

input and supported the placement of the sculpture

which will be posted on our website, will be an

at Woodmere.

ongoing accessible resource of illumination in association with the sculpture.

Woodmere also appreciates the generous funding that made possible the move, installation, and

Woodmere expresses deepest gratitude to Sally J.

conservation of the sculpture, as well as the

Bellet for the generous support that has made the

intertwined project to improve water flow across

exhibition and this catalogue possible.

our site and to replace antiquated hardscape with

For all that we have learned about Bertoia—the man and the artist—we are grateful for his children’s generosity in sharing information and ideas. The HarryBertoia Foundation lent us the majority of the objects on view, and we thank the artist’s daughter,

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permeable surfaces. Financial assistance has been provided by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Honorable Tom Wolf, Governor; the Raynier Institute & Foundation; the William B. Dietrich Foundation; and the City of Philadelphia Cultural Corridors Fund.

Relocation of Bertoia’s Free Interpretation of Plant Forms, 1967, to Woodmere’s grounds.

(Owned by the City of Philadelphia and on loan to Woodmere Art Museum courtesy of the City) Photograph by Simone Douglas

It takes a village to implement a project of this scale,

Rome LLP, Dale Corporation, Meco Constructors,

and the community support across Chestnut Hill

Inc., George Young, Kreilick Conservation, NTM

and Northwest Philadelphia has been tremendous.

Engineering, and Turpin Landscaping. Finally, Pete

The Chestnut Hill Community Association and its

Talman, Woodmere’s wonderful trustee and the chair

Development Review Committee, the Chestnut Hill

of our Building and Grounds Committee, has helped

Business Association, the Friends of the Wissahickon,

us in many invaluable ways.

the Morris Arboretum, the Chestnut Hill Institutional Leaders Group, and the Chestnut Hill Historical Society were all involved in the evolution of our project. Woodmere’s staff rose to every challenge in the complex journey of the sculpture to its new home with us, and we are honored to be working with an extraordinary team of partners: Matthew Baird Architects, Dan Muroff, Ruth Hirshey Lincoln, Blank

Bertoia’s Free Interpretation of Plant Forms is a true masterpiece that belongs to the citizens of Philadelphia. Woodmere is honored to be entrusted with its care and to share it with our public and our visitors from near and far. Thank you all!

WILLIAM R. VALERIO, PHD

The Patricia Van Burgh Allison Director and CEO

HARRY BERTOIA: FREE INTERPRETATIONS

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FREE INTERPRETATION OF PLANT FORMS (1967) Structurally this work is based on the principle of a shell. Both surfaces register thereby resolving the positive convex as well as the concave forms.

Materials used are two sizes of bronze welding rod: 1/4 and 3/8 and about five sizes of copper tubing from 3/4 to 1 3/8. The tubes were formed by hand and welding in place.

Procedure: after having poured the cement base, forming began on the block progressively, uninterruptedly and without change through all its convolutions. The dynamics of balance, poise, and dimensions were arrived at by constant observation of all growing forms in relation to each other and keeping in mind the spatial volume and dimension

Harry wearing his beloved straw hat in his work shop, circa 1975.

Photograph courtesy of Anthony Seraphin

of the architectural setting which was approached by preliminary studies but not adhered to for the attainment of maximum unity [of the] entity.

Conceptually, the initial intent was to produce

Simply stated - to have a fountain that would be great fun and enjoyed by many.

a work embodying gentleness and strength. To

I might add that many of these thoughts were not

partake of basic qualities, to have an inherent sense

apparent to me but came to mind on seeing the

of growth, movement, and vitality and to make

completed work.

poetic sense to every walk of life.

I endeavor to shun the particular, such as a wave, but to capture the motion of all waves through time, to echo the sound of the forest, the viscera of the female, the unfolding blossom and the shadow of mother’s hearth and lapping water, briefly to offer the observer a glimpse of identity with the formative power of an earthly life and the associations from his own experience.

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HARRY BERTOIA

(Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation Archives)

Water as a Work of Art—Barbara Carr and Carol Murphy try to keep their powder dry as they admire newly dedicated free-form sculpture-fountain at entrance plaza of Philadelphia Civic Center, May 24, 1967. Published by the Philadelphia Daily News. Photograph by Joseph McGuinn (Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia) Used with permission of Philadelphia Daily News © 2016. All rights reserved.

HARRY BERTOIA: FREE INTERPRETATIONS

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A CONVERSATION WITH CELIA BERTOIA

On Monday, May 9, 2016, William Valerio, Woodmere’s Patricia Van Burgh Allison Director and CEO; Rachel McCay, Assistant Curator; and Hildy Tow, The Robert McNeil, Jr. Curator of Education, sat down with Celia Bertoia, the artist’s daughter, to discuss her father’s monotypes and the relocation of Bertoia’s 1967 sculpture Free Interpretation of Plant Forms to Woodmere.

WILLIAM VALERIO: Celia, thank you for joining

repair shop. Free Interpretation of Plant Forms was

us today to talk about your father’s work and

so large that they had to work on it outside. At one

specifically Free Interpretation of Plant Forms. We’d

point, Harry bought all three of them—himself, Jim,

love to hear your thoughts about the sculpture and

and Ed—straw hats for the sun because it was so

any memories that you may have.

hot. They wore those straw hats all summer. If it was

CELIA BERTOIA: I’m sure my father would be

absolutely thrilled to see his sculpture coming out of storage into the open air again. He’s got to be smiling up there somewhere! As you know, the sculpture was commissioned by the City of Philadelphia for the Philadelphia Civic Center. It took

ninety degrees, it was even warmer working on the sculpture because they were welding. Then they’d be getting underneath the metal where it had absorbed all the sun. I remember going to see this particular piece and to me, at age eleven or twelve, it looked like a dragon or some mysterious creature.

close to a year to construct it, and Harry—along

Harry was a very hard worker, and he loved his

with his team, Jim and Ed Flannigan, who had been

work. He worked all the time and when I saw him

working with him for ten years at that point—was

in action, I instinctively knew he was doing what he

doing the final stages in the summer of 1967. It was

was supposed to do. You can tell when someone is

a hot summer, so my brother, sister, mother, and I

doing their life’s work. It was a happy experience to

didn’t go to his workshop all that often, but every

be at the shop to see Harry in action and to feel his

few months we’d traipse over there to see what

passion for his work.

Harry was doing. It was always very exciting to go to the shop. We just called it “the shop.” It was

VALERIO: How was the sculpture constructed?

about three-and-a-half miles away from the house.

C. BERTOIA: He used copper tubing that you would

Occasionally we would even walk. We were country

use for plumbing in a residential house. He would

folks, and there wasn’t much traffic. If we made the

heat it up enough so he could bend it and make

effort to walk over there, Harry would stop whatever

those beautiful curves. He would then weld each one

he was doing, and take time to show us his latest

to another, one strip of piping at a time. It was a very

projects. The shop itself was this old, ramshackle

lengthy process that ended with the final patina.

building that had once been a car dealership and 6

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Bertoia working on Free Interpretation of Plant Forms at his workshop in Bally, Pennsylvania, 1966. Photograph courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation. Photograph by Richard Schultz

One of Bertoia’s studio assistants working on Free Interpretation of Plant Forms at the artist’s workshop in Bally, Pennsylvania, 1966. Photograph courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation. Photograph by Richard Schultz

Far left and left: Preparations for the dedication of Free Interpretation of Plant Forms at the Philadelphia Civic Center, May 23, 1967.

Published in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. (Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia) Photographs by Kennedy

HARRY BERTOIA: FREE INTERPRETATIONS

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Study, c. 1966, by Harry Bertoia (Collection of Julie and Richard P. Jaffe)

VALERIO: Did he use this same process for the

most excited about is that Woodmere’s installation

maquettes?

will let people go right up to it. We have a letter

C. BERTOIA: Yes, even with the maquettes and the

test pieces, it was the same basic process: taking one strip of metal at a time, curving it, and welding it to the piece next to it. For the smaller ones he used wire and for the monumental pieces he used tubing. One study from that time is a little over a foot high, and it probably took him a good month to make.

VALERIO: The study is wonderful.

in our archive associated with Bertoia’s gift of one of his sonambient sculptures. The gift was made on the condition that we allow the public to touch the work and make sound with it. While we can’t encourage people to climb on Free Interpretation of Plant Forms, we want to create a sense of intimacy and interaction.

C. BERTOIA: Yes, you want it to be accessible, and

you don’t want to distract with sprays here and there. You’ve got the right idea. Harry would like

C. BERTOIA: It’s amazing to see the evolution of

it. The Civic Center commission also indicated an

these forms in the sculpture and in the monotypes.

acceptance of Harry by the people of Pennsylvania.

Harry had completed jobs all over the country,

VALERIO: The installation at the Civic Center

even the world, but the locals initially thought he

separated the sculpture from people by setting it

was a bit wild with his modern art. Finally, he was

in the middle of a small pool and shooting water

embraced by his home state. I’m glad that the

at it from a series of jets. One of the things I’m

sculpture will remain here in Pennsylvania.

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Fountain Maquette, 1967,

by Harry Bertoia (Collection of Craig and Jennifer Bass) Photograph courtesy of Dallas Auction Gallery.

Photograph by Gary Heine

VALERIO: I’m also excited about the integration of

indicated that it was the creative source coming

the fountain with the landscape here at Woodmere.

from outside himself, some higher source, and he

The Civic Center was a hard-edged environment, a

allowed it to flow through him, out of his hands and

man-made environment. Woodmere is still part of

on to the paper. It was a quick process. He wanted

Philadelphia, but it’s part of the city where the built

to bypass the intellect—leave the thinking behind,

environment and the natural world come together

just swoosh, right onto the paper. That’s why he

in a gracious balance.

loved the monotypes. They took moments instead

RACHEL MCCAY: Our exhibition will include a

number of monotypes that introduce and expand on the forms of the fountain and a group of stylistically related, large-scale public commissions that Bertoia completed between 1967 and 1975.

C. BERTOIA: People tend to think his commissions

and sound sculptures are the most significant part of his body of work, but he valued those monotypes very highly. During the day he would

of months like his large-scale work. That was also why he never signed his art. He felt that it was almost arrogant to claim ownership of work that originated with a divine source. The important thing was for people to be stirred, moved, by the art, not who had made it.

VALERIO: Some of the monotypes seem like

creatures. Others seem like bursts of energy that flow across the paper.

do the paying work, but at night he did his planning

MCCAY: Study for the Philadelphia Civic Center

and experiments, or small, fun things that he was

Fountain (1965) is a monoprint from our collection

figuring out. In a couple of hours he might come

that shows an interesting combination of

up with ten or twelve of these monotypes, and he

techniques. It is most closely related to the actual HARRY BERTOIA: FREE INTERPRETATIONS

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Study for the Philadelphia Civic Center Fountain, 1965, by Harry Bertoia (Woodmere Art Museum: Museum purchase, 2013)

shape of the final form of the sculpture, Free

Eliel said, “No, no, no. You should stick with metal.”

Interpretation of Plant Forms. It looks like Bertoia

Luckily there were some other instructors there

added ink after the monotype was transferred to

who said, “I think these have some merit—why don’t

paper to create a textural surface.

you send them to Hilla Rebay?” She was the curator

C. BERTOIA: You can see what appears to be ink

sketching on the base. The way the dots on the upper-right branch don’t quite reach the border makes me think that Harry was delineating the edge

of what was then the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, now the Guggenheim. So, he sent a hundred of them to her in 1941 and she loved them!

She was an artist herself.

with the added texture. He created monotypes

She was looking at similar artists who were doing

throughout his career. When he was at Cranbrook

this kind of non-objective work. He was looking

he experimented with printmaking and he amassed

for some direction. She wrote a very short letter in

quite a few monotypes. He went to Eliel Saarinen,

response, saying something like, “These are very

the director of Cranbrook at that time, and showed

good. How much?” She bought all of them! She also

him a few and said, “Well, what do you think?” And

exhibited nineteen of them at the museum in 1943.

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Top: Untitled, c. 1960s, by Harry Bertoia (Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation) Bottom: Untitled, c. 1960s, by Harry Bertoia (Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation) HARRY BERTOIA: FREE INTERPRETATIONS

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Above: Untitled, c. 1960s, by Harry Bertoia (Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation) Left: Untitled, c. 1960s, by Harry Bertoia (Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation)

C. BERTOIA: Yes, it really was. His next foray into

the museum world was with jewelry. His jewelry was displayed quite a bit in the forties and even into the fifties. [Some of his jewelry is on view at the moment in the exhibition Bent, Cast, and Forged at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York VALERIO: Are they still in the collection of the

Guggenheim?

C. BERTOIA: There are about eighteen of them

there. Harry actually went back in the seventies

through September 25, 2016.]

MCCAY: The monotypes are remarkable. I’m

particularly drawn to the prints with figures in them because you can see Bertoia’s vision.

and traded some sonambient sculptures for the

C. BERTOIA: I love them too. You’re including Cube.

monotypes because he wanted them back. As I

It’s about a foot tall. That was, as far as I know, the

said, he highly valued the monotypes. In his mind,

only one of that style that Harry made. But you

that was his journal of art, his own personal journey,

can see in the monotype that his intention was

the tracking of his entire career on paper.

to someday make it twenty or more feet high so

HILDY TOW: That must have been his first

acknowledgment in the world of art museums?

people could actually go in and crawl around and maybe go spelunking or something.

VALERIO: It would be very cool to fabricate!

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Cube, c. 1966, by Harry Bertoia (Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation)

C. BERTOIA: That would be really fun. He had

C. BERTOIA: He wanted art to be more like that.

ideas to make huge pieces that would have a

Harry really didn’t pay attention to categories, or

visual impact and create a complete experience.

boundaries. People would ask him, “Are you an

He got closer to that with the sounding sculptures,

artist or are you a sculptor? What do you like to be

because you can actually walk amongst them. It’s

called?” And he said he was a metal worker because

as if you’re in a jungle and you’re surrounded by

he loved metal. He really understood metal, and the

metal creatures. In there you experience sound,

qualities of the different alloys. All those boundaries

visual stimulation, touch. He wanted people to play

blurred in his jewelry, furniture designs, monotypes,

the sculptures and to feel the vibrations in their

and sculpture. Art you wear, sculptural chairs,

feet, if they were on a wooden floor, for example. It

dancing drawings, and biomorphic sculpture.

involves the whole body; it’s a dance.

VALERIO: Wow.

VALERIO: The chairs are “waves” that embrace the

body, which shows his understanding of human interaction with form. That translates into these HARRY BERTOIA: FREE INTERPRETATIONS

13

larger, wave-like sculptures in the way that they

Italy very much and never forgot it. He moved to

invite you in. It seems to me that a big part of your

Detroit with his family when he was fifteen. Later,

father’s work is the way that he could create objects

as an adult, he visited Italy to see the fountains and

that have a sort of magical connectivity.

murals and he grew to love Italy even more.

C. BERTOIA: I think your comments get to the

He had a brother who was seven years older, and

essence of who he was. He was a very warm and

a sister who was seven years younger. He actually

generous person. When I saw the title of your

had another sister but she died as an infant. He was

sculpture I started to laugh because he never would

close to his siblings. Ave, his sister, lived in Alberta,

name any of his sculptures unless he was asked to.

Canada, and died just a couple of years ago. His

I’m guessing he was probably thinking philosophically

brother, Oreste, lived in Detroit and worked at the

and then said, “Oh, well, it’s sort of an interpretation”

Ford factory. Harry eventually went to Cranbrook

and something he said stuck with the sculpture.

Academy of Art. Oreste was an avid musician. It

When there was an opening of his work, he would eavesdrop on what people were saying, especially young people. He loved to hear what the up-and-coming generation was saying and what each piece meant to them. He might have

was partially his influence that helped Harry invent the sound sculptures. The sculptures themselves were Harry’s idea, but it was Oreste who suggested putting many of them together and using them as an orchestra.

had something in mind when he created it, for

VALERIO: Thinking about your father growing

example, in your sculpture maybe it was a plant

up in Italy in the 1920s, I wonder how the Futurist

form, but he didn’t want to put a label on it so that

movement influenced him. The Futurist manifesto of

each person could put their own meaning to it. I

music involves the idea of industrial noise as music.

mean, everyone in this room looks at that piece

It’s interesting to think about his ability to engage

and interprets it in their own way. For a scuba

in visual arts and music-based experimentation as

diver, maybe it looks like underwater plants. For

something coming from Futurism and its attempts

someone else, it looks like a candelabra.

to break boundaries. Futurism aimed for a “takeover

VALERIO: Did his Italian heritage play a role in his

work?

C. BERTOIA: He was born in 1915 and lived in

a little town north of Venice. He grew up in an agricultural society where everyone had to work hard with the harvests and general chores, so he learned that work ethic well. And he loved the beautiful countryside and rivers where he bicycled around as a boy. Italy’s natural surroundings left a

of the universe”—it was a complete totality of the arts. It also embraced a heavy integration of sound, coming from industrial, mechanical elements.

C. BERTOIA: That’s a good point. I hadn’t really

thought about it either. I suspect he hadn’t heard of it while he was in Italy, but he probably did later in Detroit when he met people involved in the art and music world. Whether he heard of it or not, he became part of it later on.

deep impression on him and were always present

VALERIO: Some of the monoprints and the

in his later work. He appreciated his childhood in

sculpture are grid-like, and you can see it as being

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Untitled, 1977, by Harry Bertoia (Woodmere Art Museum: Promised gift of Philip Jamison)

part of the modern age. The more organic, flowing forms make me think about Umberto Boccioni’s muscular shapes, but at the same time they seem to derive from Surrealism, and a language within Surrealism: the biomorph. I also think of Henry Moore when I look at these sculptures. Did he have a relationship to Moore or other sculptors?

C. BERTOIA: Other artists definitely influenced

Untitled, c. 1960s, by Harry Bertoia (Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation)

him. My mother’s father, Wilhelm Valentiner, was the director of the Detroit Institute of Arts during the time that my father lived in Detroit. Valentiner had been an art historian in Berlin, and he came to the US because he saw what was happening with Hitler. He was very instrumental in bringing modern artists like Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and Diego Rivera to Detroit. He sort of took Harry under his wing for a while and taught him about art that had not been fully accepted yet. That was very influential on Harry.

In some of the early monotypes that were made at Cranbrook, you really see the heavy influence of Klee and Joan Miró. Even later, in my lifetime, there were always art books on the coffee table.

Whatever latest art book was out, Harry had it. We kept our local bookstore in business. As far as having relationships with other artists, I’m not really sure of that. I suspect he knew many of the other sculptors of the era, and that they exchanged ideas. Harry mingled with his HARRY BERTOIA: FREE INTERPRETATIONS

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Untitled, c. 1960s, by Harry Bertoia (Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation)

contemporaries when the opportunity arose,

of the forest, the viscera of the female,

although he mostly worked in isolation. He loved

the unfolding blossom and the shadow of

to see what other artists were doing. He was very

mother’s hearth and lapping water, briefly

open to other artists and musicians, and he was

to offer the observer a glimpse of identity

eager to see their ideas and glean what he could

with the formative power of an earthly

from them and offer what he could.

life and the associations from his own

VALERIO: I’d like to read a statement by your

experience.

father about Free Interpretations of Plant Forms

It’s interesting to me that he describes it as being a

written in his handwriting. You sent us this from

female form, that it’s generative, it’s a life-creating

your family’s archive:

form.

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I endeavor to shun the particular, such as

C. BERTOIA: Harry had a broad cosmic view of

a wave, but to capture the motion of all

existence on our material planet. That’s why his

waves through time, to echo the sound

sculptures never look exactly like a specific plant or

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creature or female, but represented all life forms. His

because you look at it and it evokes a head of

art is positive, life affirming, uplifting, universal, and

broccoli. If you took a real head of broccoli and

timeless. Each individual is free to find their own

put it next to it, no, they’re not the same, but, just

meaning in it. And yes, Harry totally appreciated the

energetically, it’s broccoli.

female form, a curvaceous woman…

VALERIO: Organic sensuality!

C. BERTOIA: He would look at his work and say,

“Oh yeah, that one looks much more male,” or, “oh this one looks very feminine.” He had a way of

VALERIO: One of the monoprints I love most is this

gathering of biomorphic forms that looks like little twisters. You were talking about the sonambient sculptures coming together and making a concert or symphony. Here, it feels as if it’s a dance.

capturing the essence of a plant or a creature. He

C. BERTOIA: Yes, they’re sort of dancing. He

captured the essence and then he expressed it in

created several monotypes that felt like dancers

his own interpretation. It’s a free interpretation of

or growing figures. It’s amazing how he evoked

a plant form. We have one that we call “Broccoli”

movement in a two-dimensional drawing.

HARRY BERTOIA: FREE INTERPRETATIONS

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VALERIO: It’s otherworldly in a funny way.

C. BERTOIA: He was always interested in the

cosmos and celestial beings. To give you a sense of what it was like growing up with him, there’s the cosmos on one end, but his extreme practicality on the other. For example, he’d build these otherworldly sculptures as you called them, Bill,

love, but he didn’t think so highly of sex with many partners. As for the cosmos and universal law, he was tuned in to that from his teenage years onward.

Whenever he was away from my mother, he wrote amazing letters to her about how the world works. I have an excerpt from a letter he wrote to her in the 1950s:

and he would say, “All right, now we’re going to

To put oneself in communion with the

build crates for these, and they’re going to be the

eternal is the first aim of life. To be aware

perfect size so that nothing shifts, and how are we

of the superior reality of inner life and the

going to put them on the flat bed? Okay, I’ve got a

illusiveness of worldly things. To conform to

diagram here, now we have to fit them this way and

the natural rhythms. To attain the original

this way.” He had a list and he thought about things

state of natural simplicity and intuitive

from A to Z. He was his own engineer and publicist,

goodness.

and he paid his own bills. He never hired an office manager. We had dinner every night at 5:30 sharp, on a very disciplined schedule. The conversations at the Bertoia dinner table were very rarely logistics or small talk. They were completely philosophical. He’d ask, “Where were you before you were born?” Or, “Is there life on other planets?”

He was deeply immersed in those mysteries and heavily influenced by the infinite forms of nature.

He purchased almost two hundred acres, and a lot of it was virgin forest. Our family would always take walks down the road or through the woods. He loved the countryside, probably because the Italy he knew in his youth was very rural as well. Although

TOW: We can imagine what he was thinking about

he was comfortable in a metropolis and in social

during the day while he was working—the mysteries

settings, he loved the solitude and quietude of

of nature!

country life, and Woodmere has a little bit of both.

VALERIO: Hearing these stories makes me wonder

VALERIO: What was his relationship to

if you see your father as participating in the general

Philadelphia?

zeitgeist of the sixties.

C. BERTOIA: He was an artist with an international

C. BERTOIA: More than a hippie, I see my father as

array of relationships. He had business in

a Renaissance man—he had interests and talents

Philadelphia as well as in New York, Los Angeles,

in many areas. My mother, Brigitta, was sort of a

Chicago, and other cities. Harry went to Philly for

Bohemian hippie with her own style. She went to

large shipments occasionally or for his openings

Woodstock and Harry was very interested to hear

at the Mangel Gallery but really did not socialize

about it. When he saw tie-dye fashion in Time

much or spend time in the city. Harry was not the

magazine, he enlisted me to go with him to buy a

type to pursue or reach out to a gallery, but rather

tie-dye outfit. It was maroon purple. As far as the

he would wait to engage once he was approached.

hippie, free love generation, his spirit was full of

Pennsylvania in general didn’t pay much attention

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to him until that Civic Center commission. We,

C. BERTOIA: He did. It was partly because the

the family, were pleased when he got that

beryllium copper he worked with is toxic. He

commission because it signified a turning point in

refused to wear a mask, even though they were

Pennsylvania’s, or at least Philadelphia’s, relationship

starting to understand the dangers of it but he

to Harry Bertoia.

didn’t want that separation from his work. He died

My mother accepted a posthumous award for him— the Pennsylvania Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts—in its inaugural year of 1980. So it appears by that time, the state had realized his excellence and importance.

at sixty-three of lung cancer. It was really special, he brought all of his kids together; we were all over the country by that time. We all came and met shortly before he died and he talked to us about life and death, and told us he was satisfied with his life. It was his time and he was okay with that. He didn’t

Benjamin and Deborah Mangel sold a number of his

want us to mourn him, he wanted us to celebrate

works through their gallery. Ben Mangel first visited

what he had accomplished and take that energy

the Bertoia workshop sometime around 1970. He

and go into our lives and be great people too. It

asked to purchase a few sculptures and Harry said

certainly made it much easier for me personally to

he didn’t have anything available. Mangel was a

accept his death.

feisty, persistent man and he wouldn’t leave until Harry finally relented and sold him three or four small sculptures. Thus began their relationship. The way Ben spoke of Harry, I could tell he very much

VALERIO: Thank you, Celia. This has been a great

conversation.

C. BERTOIA: Oh, my pleasure. Thank you.

admired and respected my father. Mangel would visit once a month or so and pick up whatever Harry had laying around.

A Philadelphia company owned by Estelle Colwin, E. W. Colwin Associates Art Consultants, placed many Bertoias in private collectors’ hands. Estelle did not have a gallery, but rather she recommended art for her clients. Another local contact, Maller Gallery on Locust Street in Philadelphia, had at least one Bertoia show in the fall of 1970. Tony Seraphin of Olympia Gallery was so taken by Harry (whose given name was Arieto) and his work that he named his son Ari in his honor.

VALERIO: Woodmere is happy to be part of the

story of your father’s relationship with Philadelphia.

Sadly your father died young, in his early sixties.

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A CONVERSATION WITH VAL BERTOIA

On Tuesday, June 7, 2016, Woodmere’s director William Valerio and members of the Museum’s staff visited Harry Bertoia’s workshop, home, and barn in Bally, Pennsylvania. Valerio spoke with Val Bertoia, the artist’s son, about the making of Free Interpretation of Plant Forms.

WILLIAM VALERIO: Woodmere is deeply honored

that the City of Philadelphia and the Bertoia family are entrusting us to bring Free Interpretation of Plant Forms to our grounds and to share it with our visitors. Val, what do you remember about your father’s creation of the sculpture?

VAL BERTOIA: Well, as I understand, and of course

later I worked with Harry, this was the early sixties and he was already making maquettes or small desktop models of welded forms, very inspired by mushrooms in the woods and different undulating forms.

VALERIO: This always reminded me of a mushroom.

V. BERTOIA: So he developed that technique, which

we saw in the studio—the pipes, the copper pipes, that he would bend into shape and develop these beautiful contours all welded by bronze between the pipes, very strong and very large, actually maybe up to fifteen to sixteen feet. And it was really from that time that he worked with the architects in Philadelphia, specifically at the Civic Center, where initially he had the idea of water flow from center on out.

VALERIO: And you can see it’s built that way.

Above, top: Center of Free Interpretation of Plant Forms.

Photograph by Darryl W Moran; bottom: Bertoia and studio assistant Jim Flanagan weld together bent copper tubes to form one side of Free Interpretation of Plant Forms at the artist’s workshop in Bally, Pennsylvania, 1966. Photograph Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation. Photograph by Richard Schultz

V. BERTOIA: Yes, okay, but the architects were

saying, “Well, in this case, let’s have the water flow inward.” Which, of course, he agreed with.

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Opposite page: Construction of Free Interpretation of Plant Forms at Bertoia’s workshop in Bally, Pennsylvania, 1966.

Photographs courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation. Photographs by Richard Schultz

HARRY BERTOIA: FREE INTERPRETATIONS

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VALERIO: My understanding was that he did not

like that.

V. BERTOIA: That’s right, there was a disagreement

at the point, but they transported this huge thing, not by helicopter as they were thinking of, but by truck all the way down to Philadelphia, placed it there in the pool of water, and had the water flowing, and of course as we saw, forgot to turn off the water in wintertime, and it became a giant iceberg! The tonnage of ice did not ruin the sculpture—it was very strong and durable.

Free-form fountain at Civic Center [...] makes a cold but attractive ice sculpture. The 35-foot fountain is the work of Harry Bertoia, a Bucks County sculptor, January 11, 1968. Published by the Philadelphia Inquirer. Photograph by Edward J. Freeman (Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia) Used with permission of Philadelphia Inquirer © 2016. All rights reserved.

VALERIO: It’s lucky there was no water in the copper

tubing—it could have burst outward.

V. BERTOIA: That’s right. That’s what happened

to his sculpture in Buffalo. We had to go repair it because there were rupture marks in the pipe itself. This was after Harry’s lifetime. A fellow from London created a wonderful eight-jet water nozzle and adjusted them to flow from the center, as Harry would have wanted it, over the sculpture, and that worked just fine.

VALERIO: We’re also going to have a solution like

that, using several nozzles that send water flowing gently down the surface of the sculpture.

Construction of the untitled sculpture for the plaza of the Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company in Buffalo, New York, 1968. Photograph Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation. Photograph by Richard Schultz

V. BERTOIA: Harry would fully agree that that’s the

most natural flow, the gentlest.

VALERIO: In the materials from the archives that

your sister Celia shared with us, Harry describes Free Interpretation of Plant Forms as “the viscera of the female, the unfolding blossom and the shadow of mother’s hearth.” Can you talk to us a little bit more about how he thought about maleness and femaleness in relation to sculpture?

V. BERTOIA: Harry often thought of his work as

expressing qualities he associated with males and females, not only in the outdoor undulated forms, but also in his sound sculptures. After his death, I arranged the Sonambient Barn into male and female sides. His gongs had shapes indicating that they might be thought of as a male or female.

VALERIO: There are parts of Free Interpretation of

Plant Forms to me that are womb-like as far as they invite you to come into this enveloping, organic cave.

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Left: Untitled, c. 1960s, by Harry Bertoia (Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation) Right: Untitled, c. 1960s, by Harry Bertoia (Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation)

V. BERTOIA: Yes, and that was the whole concept

V. BERTOIA: He created the monoprints in the

of the Sonambient Barn. You would come through

upper loft of this barn. Many of the monoprints

the door into an enveloping space. You would

suggest the energies of the universe and the sun, but

see the difference in the sculptures and hear the

a lot of them had to do with sculptural ideas that he

different sounds, male and female, yin and yang.

would do on paper first and then expand.

The sounds and shapes were a language that we can all understand, not necessarily English—a universal language.

VALERIO: Being surrounded by nature here in Bally

reminds me of the Wissahickon and the environment we have at Woodmere in Philadelphia. Some

VALERIO: How long did it take for him to make Free

people have pointed out that Bertoia designed Free

Interpretation of Plant Forms?

Interpretation of Plant Forms for the hard-edged,

V. BERTOIA: I wasn’t really working with Harry at

that time. I worked with him later, in the seventies, but knowing of another similar project, I would estimate that it took him almost a year of forming and welding.

When he was finished with a project he would always say, “That’s enough of that. Let’s move on.”

VALERIO: It’s wonderful to see in the monoprints

that his ideas constantly evolved. He was always “moving on” from one work of art to the next, exploring beauty, shapes, flow, variability, interactivity, and the surprises of nature. You can see it’s something he loved.

urban environment of the former Civic Center in West Philadelphia. However, my intuition has always been—even before coming here today—that Bertoia was an artist who really immersed himself in nature and that the sculpture would be right at home with the balance of man-made structures and natural elements at Woodmere.

V. BERTOIA: Harry, of course, being inspired by

nature and influenced by nature and all the forms, made these sculptures small scale of course, creative size we say, and scaling up for the purpose of—let’s say the architects wanted a large outdoor piece and

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23

then Harry would scale up, not necessarily saying,

VALERIO: Was your dad the kind of artist who

“Oh, this belongs in the city,” but simply saying,

went to museums all the time? Do you have any

“We’re taking a part of nature, whether it’s plant

recollections of him going to the Philadelphia

like or some other form, placing it there in the city

Museum of Art and looking at the great Brancusi or

so that people can still relate to nature.” A metal

Duchamp sculptures there? Or did he love Rodin?

form, and even picking up colors—green blues and different colors. It’s amazing how Harry would put the energy in from nature and that we receive it out.

At Woodmere [the] landscape is ideal..

VALERIO: Fascinating!

V. BERTOIA: He also placed sculptures in the actual

woods. When I was a little boy in the late fifties, Harry was making very unusual little spherical pod sculptures near the forest’s edge, but still within the lawn. They were basically my size and I’d say, “Oh! These are friendly aliens! I like these. But what are they?” Harry didn’t generally name or title his pieces.

He would let viewers title them and, of course, the viewers would have different names for them.

VALERIO: Harry was born in Italy. Is there an aspect

of his work that connects to his Italian heritage?

V. BERTOIA: Yes. Harry worked on an Italian farm

and as a boy he would put toothpicks together to make things. He would design embroidery patterns for wedding day linens for the local brides in his hometown. He was very inventive. When he came first to Canada and then Michigan and Pennsylvania, he remembered the church bells of Italy and he made his own church in a way in the Sonambient Barn. It wasn’t necessarily music as we know it—it was sounds that relate to the universe and the cosmos. Small groups would come to the barn for the sound and Harry’s brother, Oreste, would help him do recordings. His sister Ave would also sing sounds that resonated with the sculptures. They had almost sacred and holy connections from Italy.

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V. BERTOIA: The first thing that comes to mind is

that he was fascinated by the Liberty Bell. He loved the form itself and the power of its symbolism, but more than that he was fascinated by the great crack and all that it implied. He might visit a museum briefly, but more often he would spend time just on the living room couch reading about art in books and seeing pictures of different artists’ work. He would read and then fall asleep, but of course in his sleep he was also working because he would come up with these brilliant ideas for monoprints and for sculptures. I used to have breakfast with him and he would make these wonderful drawings on a placemat and get to work immediately.

VALERIO: Thank you, Val. This was wonderful.

WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION

All works are by Harry Bertoia, American, born Italy, 1915–1978.

Untitled, c. 1950s Monotype, 24 x 13 in.

Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation

Untitled, c. 1960s Monotype, 12 x 39 in.

Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation

Untitled, c. 1960s Monotype, 24 × 13 in.

Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation

Untitled, c. 1960s Monotype, 13 x 24 in.

Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation

Untitled, c. 1960s Monotype, 13 x 24 in.

Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation

Untitled, c. 1960s Monotype, 13 x 24 in.

Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation

Untitled, c. 1960s Monotype, 12 x 19 1/2 in.

Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation

Untitled, c. 1960s Monotype, 12 x 19 1/2 in.

Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation

Untitled, c. 1960s Monotype, 13 x 25 in.

Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation

Untitled, c. 1960s Monotype, 13 x 25 in.

Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation

Above, top: Bush, c. 1975, by Harry Bertoia (Private Collection) bottom: Bush, c. 1977, by Harry Bertoia (Private Collection)

HARRY BERTOIA: FREE INTERPRETATIONS

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Untitled, c. 1960s Monotype, 13 x 24 in.

Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation

Untitled, c. 1960s Monotype, 13 x 24 in.

Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation

Untitled, c. 1960s Monotype, 13 x 24 in.

Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation

Untitled, c. 1960s Monotype, 13 x 24 in.

Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation

Study, c. 1965 Copper wire welded together with filler welding rod, 10 ½ x 16 x 15 ½ in.

Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation

Untitled (Tonal Sculpture), c. 1965 Bronze, 46 13/16 x 8 1/8 x 8 3/16 in. without base Collection of Dr. and Mrs. William Wolgin

Study for the Philadelphia Civic Center Fountain, 1965 Monotype and ink on Japanese rice paper, 23 x 34 3/4 in.

Woodmere Art Museum: Museum purchase, 2013

Wheat, 1967, by Harry Bertoia (Private Collection) Opposite page, left: Untitled (Tonal Sculpture), c. 1965, by Harry Bertoia (Collection of Dr. and Mrs. William Wolgin); right: Untitled (17 Rows of 17 Rods), c. 1970s, by Harry Bertoia (Woodmere Art Museum: Promised gift of Philip Jamison) HARRY BERTOIA: FREE INTERPRETATIONS

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Cube, c. 1966 Copper wire welded together with filler welding rod, 14 1/8 x 13 7/8 x 13 7/8 in.

Untitled, c. 1968–69 Brass, 56 ½ x 11 3/4 x 11 7/8 in.

Untitled, c. 1975 Monotype, 18 x 24 in.

Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of Harry and Catherine Kuch, 1987

Private Collection

Courtesy of the HarryBertoia Foundation

Study, c. 1966 Copper wire welded together with filler welding rod, 15 x 15 3/4 x 7 3/4 in.

Untitled (17 Rows of 17 Rods), c. 1970s Bronze, 37 3/4 x 9 7/8 x 10 1/16 in.

Woodmere Art Museum: Promised gift of Philip Jamison

Collection of Julie and Richard P. Jaffe

Fountain Maquette, 1967 Welded bronze, 11 ½ x 17 ½ x 12 ¼ in.

Collection of Craig and Jennifer Bass

Wheat, 1967 Stainless steel, 33 ½ x 9 ¼ x 9 ¼ in.

Private Collection

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Untitled, c. 1975 Monotype, 18 x 24 in.

Private Collection

Bush, c. 1976 Bronze, 9 ½ x 11 ½ x 11 in.

Bush, c. 1975 Bronze, 9 ¼ x 11 ¼ x 11 ¼ in.

Private Collection

Private Collection

Bush, c. 1977 Bronze with buttons, 7 ¼ x 13 1/8 x 13 1/8 in.

Bush of Rosebuds, c. 1975 Bronze, 12 ½ x 9 5/8 x 6 ¼ in.

Private Collection

Private Collection

Untitled, 1977 Monoprint, 11 x 22 in.

Woodmere Art Museum: Promised gift of Philip Jamison

Woodmere Art Museum receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

Support provided in part by The Philadelphia Cultural Fund.

Š 2016 Woodmere Art Museum. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the publisher.

Photography by Rick Echelmeyer unless otherwise noted.

Catalogue designed by Barb Barnett and edited by Gretchen Dykstra.

Front cover: Free Interpretation of Plant Forms, 1967, by Harry Bertoia (Owned by the City of Philadelphia and on loan to Woodmere Art Museum courtesy of the City) Photograph by Simone Douglas

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