Hosfelt Gallery mounts the first major West Coast presentation of Harry Bertoia’s work since his 1956 exhibition at SFMOMA.

One of the defining figures of Mid-Century Modernism, Harry Bertoia (1915–1978) made sculptures, drawings and jewelry; designed furniture that would prove to be iconic; executed more than 50 large-scale architectural commissions; and experimented with sound by performing on sculptures he crafted to be both formally beautiful and euphonic. More than 60 sculptures and drawings from the 1940s to late 1970s illustrate the technical skill of a master and vision of a genius.

In sculptures, made primarily from bronze or beryllium copper, Bertoia frequently referred to nature as a means of expressing the infinite. Forms suggest blossoms, grasses, seedheads, willows or corals. Others seem to refer to totemic figures, mineral deposits, meteorites or mycelium. The surfaces -- sometimes polished, sometimes sensuously encrusted, can seem sedimentary, biological or botanical.

In 1960, Bertoia began making sculptures he called “Sonambients,” which are as much about the sounds of vibrating metal as they are about the form of an object. In them, Harry Bertoia re-imagined the very purpose of sculpture, turning it into a multi-sensory encounter -- visual, tactile, and acoustic. This was revolutionary.

Though renowned for his furniture, ambitious public projects, and sculpture, Bertoia’s mostly unknown works on paper are the constant throughline -- and perhaps heart -- of his practice. Delicate and sensuous, they provide an intimate view into a maestro’s imagination. Each is immediate, intuitive, inventive and not surprisingly, virtuosic.