Collection Story
Origin
Knoll's collection page says Florence and Hans Knoll gave Harry Bertoia the freedom to create whatever he wanted in whichever material he desired, asking only that he show them if he arrived at something interesting, and that the Bertoia Collection was introduced in 1952. The Knoll brochure dates the start to 1950, when the Knolls set up a studio for Bertoia near East Greenville, Pennsylvania; Florence Knoll recalled, "His assignment was very open," in the brochure. On the page for the collection Knoll also quotes Bertoia on the material he found: "When it came to rod or wire, whether bent or straight, I seemed to find myself at home," he said.
Design Language
The brochure says Bertoia worked with his own hands, trying variations and never satisfied, and that different chair functions emerged from this process, for dining, for sitting or for reading, each with its own natural form. Knoll's cut sheets quote his words that the chairs are mainly made of air, like sculpture, and that space passes through them. According to the side chair sheet, the collection is made of welded wire and steel, and its molded shell and leather-wrapped options express the organic lines of the wire-framed chairs.
Wikipedia adds that the chairs were handmade at first because no suitable mass production process could be found, and that their commercial success was immediate.
Key Pieces
- Diamond Chair, Large Diamond Chair and Child's Diamond Chair
- Bird Chair and its ottoman
- Side Chair, Molded Shell Side Chair (also stacking) and Leather-Covered Side Chair
- Barstool, Molded Shell Barstool and Leather-Covered Barstool
- Bench
- Asymmetric Chaise, which Knoll's brochure says had until recently not been manufactured beyond the prototype phase