Harry Bertoia arrived in Detroit in 1930 at the age of 15, leaving his family in Italy to join his older brother. In 1937 he received a critical scholarship to attend the influential Cranbrook Academy of Art, where he was introduced to legends of architecture and design, Walter Gropius, Edmund N. Bacon, Ray and Charles Eames, and Florence Knoll. He oversaw the metal workshop at Cranbrook, teaching design and metal work, but with the outbreak of World War II, he became a graphics instructor.  In 1943 he moved to California to work with Charles and Ray Eames, and continued to explore design iconography through a series of monotypes, which he sold along with his jewelry. These monotypes anticipated his ground breaking design work for Knoll, as well as the sculptures for which he is well known.