S.MP.18
Untitled
Alternate titles: Commission for 510 Fifth Avenue; Commission for Manufacturers Trust Building; Golden Arbor; Golden Screen; Sculptural screen
1954
Steel with brass, copper, and nickel coating
Welded and melt-coated
192 x 840 x 24 in. (487.7 x 2133.6 x 61 cm)
Architect Gordon Bunshaft, on behalf of the firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) and its client, Manufacturers Trust Bank, commissioned Bertoia to make this monumental multiplane screen for the the main banking area on the second floor of the bank's new building, located at 510 Fifth Avenue in New York, NY. In 2011, the interior of 510 Fifth Avenue became landmarked, and in 2012, SOM renovated the building and adapted it for retail. While the screen was temporarily removed, the sculpture remains in its original location, on permanent loan from the JP Morgan Art Collection.
Provenance
Published References
Alexander, Jack. "The Bank That Has No Secrets." Saturday Evening Post (November 30, 1954), ill. in color, pp. 36, 37.
"'Fish-Bowl' Branch is Abrupt Departure From Typical Bank." Buffalo Evening News (Buffalo, N.Y.), September 23, 1954.
"Money Changing in a House of Glass." Life (New York, NY) (October 25, 1954), ill. in color, p. 62.
"Talk of the Town: Showcase." The New Yorker 30, no. 33 (October 2, 1954), p. 25.
"Manufacturers Trust Company Builds Conversation Piece on Fifth Avenue." Architectural Record 116, no. 5 (November 1954), ill. in color, p. 149, 153; ill. in b/w, 150-51, 153-154.
"15,000 Ooh and Ah at Opening of Dazzling, 'Newfangled' Bank." The New York Times, October 5, 1954, p. 29.
"Metal Sculpture—Harry Bertoia." Arts & Architecture 72, no. 1 (January 1955), ill. in b&w on cover, pp. 18-19.
Bennett, Vivienne. "'Art Outlasts Critics:' Berks County Artist Is Calm in Midst of Artistic Tempest." Sunday Call-Chronicle (Allentown, PA), July 17, 1955, ill. in b/w , p. 16.
Clute, Eugene. "Abstractions in Metal." Progressive Architecture 36 (February 1955), ill. in b/w, p. 104-05.
Donaldson, Scott. "You Can 'Rest in Wonderment:' A (Metal) Tree Grows in Southdale." The Minneapolis Star, August 27, 1956, p. 11A.
Hannum, Herbert. "Collaboration." Craft Horizons 16, no. 3 (May/June 1956), ill. in b/w, p. 12.
"$10,000 Gift for Sculptor from Berks." The Morning Call (Allentown, PA), December 13, 1956, p. 55.
"Barto Man Goes to Italy: Sculptor Uses $10,000 Gift to Study Abroad." Boyertown Times (Boyertown, PA), April 11, 1957, as Commission for Manufacturers Trust Building.
Elson, Katharine. "Architect Designs New Furniture." Washington Post, March 24, 1957, p. F16.
Hirzel, Donald. "50 Bertoia Art Objects on Display." The Evening Sun (Baltimore, MD), May 13, 1957, p. 21.
"Space, Form, and Metal." The Minneapolis Star (Minneapolis, MN), January 22, 1958, p. 1C.
Salditch, Martin. "Reporter at Large: Bally Harbors Top Sculptor." Reading Times (Reading, PA), August 14, 1958.
"KSTC Opening Art Conference Tomorrow." Reading Times (Reading, PA), November 5, 1959.
"Bank 'Rain Tree' to Shed Pipe Dreams." The Tulsa Tribune (Tulsa, OK), June 5, 1959, p. 22.
Sowers, Robert. "Arts in Architecture: The Vista on Fifth Avenue." Craft Horizons 21, no. 1 (January / February 1961), ill. in b/w, p. 38.
Hakanson, Joy. "Sculptor Back at Cranbrook to Describe His Latest Work." The Detroit News, November 20, 1962, as Commission for Manufacturers Trust Building.
Ditmer, Joanne. "Raising the Roof: Bertoia Chair 'Made of Air.'" The Denver Post, May 29, 1966, p. 32.
Kratz, Charles I. Harry Bertoia: An Interview. Bally, PA, January 1966. Harry Bertoia Foundation, St. George, UT, pp.12, 13.
Meilach, Dona and Don Seiden. Direct Metal Sculpture: Creative Techniques and Appreciation. New York: Crown, 1966, ill. in b/w.
Kucinski, Leonard. "Artist Makes Musical Sculpture." Sunday Call-Chronicle (Allentown, PA), April 5, 1970, p. F1.
Kucinski, Leonard. "Berks Sculptor Creates Memorial to Grid Team." Sunday Call-Chronicle (Allentown, PA), September 10, 1972.
Brown, Dorothy. "Harry Bertoia, 63, Dies; Award-Winning Sculptor." The Evening Bulletin (Philadelphia), November 8, 1978, as Sculptural screen.
Glueck, Grace. "Harry Bertoia, 63; Sculptor, Designer." The New York Times, November 8, 1978, p. B-10, as Golden Screen.
Design in America: The Cranbrook Vision, 1925-1950. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. in Association with the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983. Exhibition catalogue (1983–84 DIA), discussed p. 256, ill. in b/w p. 255.
Fiell, Charlotte and Peter Fiell. Design of the 20th Century. Köln: Taschen, 1999, p. 111, as Commission for Manufacturers Trust Building.
Huxtable, Ada Louise. "A Landmark Jewel Box Loses Its Biggest Gem." The Wall Street Journal (New York, NY), November 4, 2010, ill. in b/w.
Pogrebin, Robin. "ArtsBeat: A Bertoia Sculpture is Dismantled." The New York Times, October 23, 2010.
Falino, Jeannine. Crafting Modernism: Midcentury American Art and Design. New York: Abrams in Association with the Museum of Arts and Design, 2011. Exhibition catalogue (2011–12 MAD), ill. in b/w, fig. 4.5, p. 90, as Sculptural screen.
Pogrebin, Robin. "Modernist Landmark Behind a Court Battle." The New York Times, September 28, 2011, p. C 1.
Dunlap, David W. "City Room: Behind the Low-Priced Clothing, a Priceless Midcentury Sculpture." The New York Times, May 31, 2012, ill. in color.
Pogrebin, Robin. "ArtsBeat: Settlement Reached on 5th Avenue Landmark." The New York Times, Feburary 9, 2012.
Stoelker, Tom. "Glass Half Full." The Architect's Newspaper (New York, NY), February 11, 2012.
Douberley, Amanda. "The Corporate Model: Sculpture, Architecture, and the American City, 1946-1975." Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 2015.
Hillier, DC. "The Screens of Harry Bertoia." MCM Daily, November 28, 2016, ill. in color and b/w.
Sullivan, Marin R. "Alloyed Screens: Harry Bertoia and the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Building-510 Fifth Avenue." Sculpture Journal 25, no. 3 (2016), ill. in b/w, pp. 362, 366, 371, 372, 377, as Commission for Manufacturers Trust Building.
Lamberti, Benedetta. "Harry Bertoia, A Sculptor in the World of Design." Elle Decor Italia (December 12, 2018).
Sellers, Libby. "Harry Bertoia & Isamu Noguchi." TL Mag (Brussels) 37 (May 2022), ill. in b/w, p. 257, as Golden Arbor.
Sullivan, Marin R. Alloys: American Sculpture and Architecture at Midcentury. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2022.
Lange, Alexandra. "The Shopping-Mall Legacy of a Mid-Century Sculptor." Bloomberg, February 1, 2022, ill. in color.
Related Work
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Record last updated April 8, 2025. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Harry Bertoia Foundation. "Untitled, 1954 (S.MP.18)." In Harry Bertoia Catalogue Raisonné. catalogue.harrybertoia.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=988 (accessed on April 21, 2025).