Bertoia, Harry: Fifty Drawings.

Estate of Harry Bertoia, 1980, Mount Vernon. Frontispiece tipped in photograph of Bertoia by Joseph Seraphin. Printed by A. Colish, Inc., od Mount Vernon, New York, under the supervision of Bert Clarke. Fine condition Soft Cover. Fifty numbered plates plus front and end-matter loosely inserted in a paper folder with a stiff brown dust jacket. In a stiff brown paper slipcase, fine but unglued front of case due to dried glue. Folio. Designed by Quentin Fiore and limited to 500 numbered copies. This copy is number 172. The letterpress sections were set in Aldine Bembo and printed on Rives heavy weight white mould made paper. The plates were printed by offset on Mohawk Superfine Softwhite cover stock. Bertoia is best known for his furniture design in the 1950s and for a long career as a sculptor. Though less known as an artist on paper, his drawings are equally accomplished. Included here are 50 monoprints.

Introduction by Harry Bertoia. "Thirty Five years ago in a small beach house by the Pacific Ocean on the coast of California, this book began to take its form. It was my intent to explore a technical means that would permit me to work with great rapidity. I had done a considerable amount of experimentation with materials that were on hand and processes that would evolve in the course of action. All this points to a technical development needed to permit the fluidity of thought to evolve from page to page without disruption or discontinuity. Speed of execution being essential, it became possible by drawing on the back side of the paper using fingers, thumb, palm and various tools made of wood or metal. The ink was rolled on glass. Pressure picked up the ink in a granular way, which I liked. Drawing on the back side of the page did not permit clear visibility, a great advantage, for it necessitated inner vision to take over the function of the eye. Surprises were always in store when the paper was turned over. Traces of the image would register on the next page which initiated a play of dark and light line and tone. Technique and image were developing along parallel lines, interacting and transmogrifying no end. The whole sequence of fifty pages came into being, in about twenty-four hours of uninterrupted work."