Harry Bertoia, the sculptor who seats the air

Harry Bertoia (1915-1978) came to furniture through sculpture. An Italian-American sculptor close to the Eames, he joined Knoll in 1950 with a simple idea: what if a chair could be made of air? From that intuition came in 1952 the Diamond Chair, a seat in hand-welded steel mesh, as light to the eye as an aviary. Bertoia himself would say: 'these chairs are mostly made of air, like sculptures.' Furniture as an extension of fine art.

The Diamond Chair and the Bird armchair (1952), both edited by Knoll, became Bertoia's living manifestos. Alongside them, the Wire Chair and other models complete a family of seats where steel becomes lace and the chair becomes art. Vintage pieces to spot without hesitation.