Construction after the Enjoyment of a Mulberry Tree

Arts of the Americas

1953

Harry Bertoia (American, born Italy, 1915–1978)

Trained in metalwork at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Italian-born Harry Bertoia began his artistic career creating monoprints and jewelry, before moving on to design furniture for Knoll and large-scale metal sculptural forms for architectural projects during the postwar years. Related to the welded sculpture screens Bertoia created during the 1950s for the First National Bank of Miami and the USA Pavilion at the Brussels World’s Fair, this work was exhibited and acquired by the Art Institute in 1954. Composed of thin rectangular, square, and ovoid shapes welded to rods, it suggests contemplation over nature. A study in form and space, Bertoia’s sculpture screen, with its rich textural effects of molten metal and patina, among other surface treatments, is at once linear and organic.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Harry Bertoia (Sculptor)
Title: Construction after the Enjoyment of a Mulberry Tree
Place: United States (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1953
Medium: Steel, bronze, and silver
Dimensions: 114.3 × 144.8 × 24.1 cm (45 × 57 × 9 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Watson F. Blair Prize Fund
Reference Number: 1954.272
Copyright: © 2018 Estate of Harry Bertoia / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Art Institute of Chicago, Sixty–First Annual Exhibition of American Artists, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1954), cat. 12.
Anthony Kerrigan, “Crónica de Norteamérica,”Goya: Revista de Arte 5 (Mar.-Apr. 1955)278, fig. 6 (ill).
“Recent Additions to the Twentieth Century Collection,” The Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly 49, 2 (Apr. 1, 1955): 24.
Edith Weigle, “Stone Gives up to Metal in Sculpture” Chicago Tribune (Dec. 16, 1956): G4.
“Bertoia Exhibition,”Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 69, 4 (July-Aug. 1975): 11 (ill.).
Nancy Schiffer and Val O. Bertoia, The World of Bertoia, (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Pub, 2003), 67 (ill.).
Jed Morse and Martin R. Sullivan, Harry Bertoia: Sculpting Mid-Century Modern Life, exh. cat. (Zurich: Scheidegger & Spiess in association with Nasher Sculpture Center, 2022), cat. 44 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, Sixty–First Annual Exhibition of American Artists, Oct. 21–Dec. 3, 1954, cat. 12.
Chicago, Fairweather Harding Gallery, Harry Bertoia, Dec. 1956.
Art Institute of Chicago, Two Centuries of American Art, 1750-1950, Oct. 1, 1959–Jan. 10, 1960, no cat. [downloadable checklist available].
Art Institute of Chicago, Sculpture by Harry Bertoia, June 26-July 20, 1975, no cat.
Dallas, TX, Nasher Sculpture Center, Harry Bertoia: Sculpting Mid-Century Modern Life, Jan. 29–Apr. 24, 2022, cat. 44 (ill.).

Harry Bertoia (1915–1978), Barto, PA, 1953 [incoming receipt, RX1374, Oct. 18, 1954; copy in curatorial object file]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1954.

Harry Bertoia Foundation S.MP.1

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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