The history of mid-century modernism is often a chronicle of objects that were too large to be kept but too significant to be truly destroyed. In Detroit, the work of Harry Bertoia—the Italian-born sculptor, designer, and sound artist—is undergoing a literal and metaphorical resurrection. A massive, 26-foot suspended sculpture, commissioned in 1970 and long presumed lost to the wrecking ball, has resurfaced from a basement to anchor a new retrospective at the Cranbrook Academy of Art.
The piece was originally commissioned by the J.L. Hudson Company for the Genesee Valley mall in Flint, Michigan. A gestural arrangement of steel-wire rods coated in melted brass and bronze, the sculpture embodies Bertoia’s signature synthesis of industrial materials and organic form. After being moved to the Northland Mall in 1980, it vanished from public view, eventually becoming a ghost of the building’s subsequent demolition. It was only in 2017 that members of the Southfield Arts Commission discovered the work languishing in a basement during a routine inspection.
This rediscovery coincides with the 90th anniversary of Bertoia’s arrival at Cranbrook, his alma mater and the institution that helped define the American mid-century aesthetic. The artist’s return to the spotlight highlights the precarious nature of public art in the American Midwest, where masterworks often become collateral damage to the shifting fortunes of retail architecture. As the sculpture is restored, it serves as a reminder that even the most imposing steel structures can be forgotten—and, with enough patience, found again.
With reporting from Hyperallergic.
Source · Hyperallergic
