HARRY BERTOIA (Italy, 1915 - USA, 1978). Set of four "Side Bertoia" chairs, ca. 1960. Steel rods. Measurements: 74 x 46 x 56 cm. Drawing on his experience as head of the Experimental Department at the Eames Studio, Harry Bertoia designed the Side chair for Knoll International in 1952. A single piece of steel rod forms the seat and back, joined to a lightweight steel frame that forms the base. The visible structure of the Side model suggests that the chairs were objects in space, and as Bertoia said, "space passes through them". A painter, graphic artist, sculptor, university professor and furniture designer, Harry Bertoia emigrated to the United States at the age of fifteen, and it was there that he developed his training and career. He studied at the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts and later at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield, Michigan, where he later became a teacher and created the department of metalwork. During these years he began to experiment with the forms of jewelry, and to explore ideas that would later emerge in his sculpture and designs. In 1943 he began his collaboration with designer Charles Eames, with whom he worked until 1946. After a period working for Point Loma Navel Electronics as a creator of equipment manuals, in 1949 he joined Hans Knoll at Knoll Associates. His first sculpture exhibition took place at the Knoll Showroom in New York in 1951, and the following year Knoll would patent his most famous furniture design, the welded rod "Diamond" chair. Bertoia's designs are now in the collections of major design and contemporary art museums, including MoMA in New York and many others.