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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WOODMERE ART MUSEUM