As a major sculpture long thought lost resurfaces in Detroit, the artist and designer's alma mater sets its sights on a retrospective show to mark the 90th anniversary of the artist’s arrival.
In 1970, Detroit’s J.L. Hudson Company commissioned an installation by Harry Bertoia for the Genesee Valley mall in Flint, Michigan. The sculpture was moved and presumed lost after the mall closed in 1980. However, it came as a happy surprise to members of the Southfield Arts Commission to discover the piece languishing among the debris during an inspection in 2017.
General Motors has a long relationship with Bertoia and his fellow Mid-Mod cohort. The sculpture 'Untitled Wall Screen,' is on view at GM’s Global Technical Center since 1955, and it seems fitting that the company would return to Bertoia as a potential feature of its new global headquarters within the Hudson’s building in downtown Detroit.
The Cranbrook Art Museum has announced a huge retrospective currently in the offing, set to open in June 2027. The exhibition will feature more than 100 works by the artist, drawn largely from the Cranbrook Art Museum’s extensive permanent holdings, recently enhanced by a November 2023 gift of 10 sculptures from the collection of Joseph S. Sample and Miriam T. Sample.
