“Harry Bertoia, Forty Years of Drawing” will open Jan. 26 at Gallery 210 on UMSL’s North Campus. It will include this drawing, “Untitled 1078,” that Bertoia completed sometime in 1960.
The next exhibit at the University of Missouri–St. Louis’s Gallery 210 will feature a look inside the mind of an artist whose work embodied both eclecticism and practicality.
“Harry Bertoia, Forty Years of Drawing” will feature a collection of more than 30 rarely seen monoprints from the Harry Bertoia estate. The exhibition, organized by the Seraphin Gallery of Philadelphia, will be on display from Jan. 26 to March 17.
A public reception for the exhibition will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Jan. 26. During the reception, Celia Bertoia, the artist’s daughter, will present a slide lecture describing her father’s life and work. Her lecture will begin at 6:15 p.m. and will be held in the Gallery 210 auditorium.
Harry Bertoia’s works span more than 40 years and include his “tonal” sculptures, jewelry, modern furniture such as the internationally famous diamond chair for the office furnisher Knoll, Sonambient sound recordings, sculptures and monoprints, drawings that he considered his private journal.
The Gallery 210 exhibition will focus on Bertoia’s drawings from 1940 to 1978. The drawings, mostly small-scale personal pieces, were frequently studies for his sculptures and therefore were never signed or dated.
The exhibition will also feature examples of Bertoia’s furniture design and sculpture. On loan from Knoll will be Bertoia’s Diamond Chair, Child Diamond Chair, Bird Chair and Ottoman, Side Chair and Bar Stool. The exhibition also will include one of his well-know “sound” sculptures.
“Harry Bertoia, Forty Years of Drawing” is organized and circulated by Seraphin Gallery in Philadelphia. It is supported in part by assistance from Knoll and by grants from the Regional Arts Commission and the Missouri Arts Council, with additional assistance from The Center for the Humanities at UMSL.
Gallery 210 is on UMSL’s North Campus at 44 Arnold B. Grobman Drive in the Telecommunity Center Building between the North UMSL MetroLink Station and the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center.
All Gallery 210 events are free and open to the public. Public parking is available at the South Millennium Parking garage on the east side of Grobman Drive. Handicapped parking is available behind Gallery 210.
The gallery is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For parking locations, directions and a campus map, visit gallery210.umsl.edu. Call 314-516-5976 for more information.
