Diamond Chair
The graceful Diamond Chair is an
astounding study in space, form and function by one of the master sculptors of
the last century. Like Saarinen and Mies, Bertoia found sublime grace in an
industrial material, elevating it beyond its normal utility into a work of art.
Characteristic of the early
environment at Knoll, Hans and Florence never demanded that Bertoia design
furniture, but instead encouraged him to explore whatever he liked. They simply
asked that if he arrived at something interesting, to show them. Bertoia later
explained the process:
“I went around and discovered,
quite soon, that I was not the man to do research. My feeling was that had to
come from an inward direction. I began to rely once more on my own body. I
began to think in terms of what I would like as a chair. It started very
slowly…I came into rod or wire, whether bent of straight. I seemed to find
myself at home. It was logical to make an attempt utilising the wire.
"Once more, I went through the procedure of positioning, considering the possibility of shapes, then relating, of course, what the wire itself could be, what shapes it might take, whether there were any tools to do it with. There are many aspects of the same things coming into one’s mind, but the very first thing was whether a shape would come up that would begin to serve as a chair, sitting on it, etc. One was taking the shape of a side chair; another was beginning to extend to care of the head. This developed to the point where something could be held on to…You know, when you have something in front of you that can really physically be held, it becomes easier to make changes.”