Construction after the Enjoyment of a Mulberry Tree

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.