Harry Bertoia (March 10, 1915 – November 6, 1978), son of Giuseppe Antonio Bertoia and Maria Secunda Mussio, was an Italian-born American artist, sound art sculptor, and modern furniture designer.

Bertoia was born March 10, 1915 in San Lorenzo d'Arzene, Pordenone, Italy, about 50 miles north of Venice and 70 miles south of the Austrian border. "Arri" Lorenzo, had one older brother, Oreste, and one younger sister, Ave. Ada, another sister, died as an infant of eighteen months old; she was the subject of one of his first paintings.

Until Grade 5, Arri, nicknamed Arieto (little Arri), went to school in nearby Arzene, Carsara. By the time he was a teenager his teacher told Arri's parents that Arri needed further training.

At age 15, given the opportunity to move to Detroit, Harry chose to adventure to America and live with his older brother, Oreste. Upon arrival to the United States, his name Arri was americanized to Harry. After learning English and the bus schedule, he enrolled in Cass Technical High School, where he studied art and design and learned the skill of handmade jewelry making ca.1930–1936. At that time, there were three jewelry and metals teachers Louise Green, Mary Davis, and Greta Pack. In 1936 he attended the Art School of the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts, now known as the College for Creative Studies.

The following year in 1937 he received a scholarship to study at the Cranbrook Academy of Art where he encountered Walter Gropius, Edmund N. Bacon, Ray and Charles Eames, and Florence Knoll for the first time. At the time Cranbrook was an eclectic fusion of creativity. Many now famous artists and designers such as Carl Milles, resident-sculptor, Maija Grotell, resident-ceramist, the Saarinen family and others were enticed to participate as teachers at the school. Students were encouraged to seek their passion rather than receiving a degree.

Starting out as a painting student but soon after asked by Eliel Saarinen, Director of the Cranbrook, to reopen the metal workshop in 1939, Bertoia taught jewelry design and metal work. As the war effort made metal a rare and very expensive commodity he began to focus his efforts on jewelry making, even designing and creating wedding rings for Ray Eames and Edmund Bacon's wife Ruth.

When all the metal was taken up by war efforts, he became the graphics instructor. In his after hours time he experimented with different printing methods, developing a series of prints he called monotypes. Being uninterested in the traditional duplication of graphics prints led Bertoia to the use of movable plates and hand embellishments, separating one print from another via a series of flexible forms. These prints of the 1940s are regarded as some of his most creative graphics. While searching for a critical analysis of these prints, he sent 100 of them to Hilla Rebay, director and curator of the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, later known as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York city. Rebay responded by asking for the prices of the monotypes; to Bertoia's surprise she purchased dozens of them, some for herself as well as for the museum totaling about $1000.00. She offered Bertoia praise and encouragement. Subsequently the museum exhibited 19 of these prints in 1943; in this show Harry had the most works of any artist there, including works by Moholy-Nagy, Werner Drewes and Charles Smith.

While working and studying at Crandon, Harry met Brigitta Valentiner, the daughter of Wilhelm Valentiner, Director of the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1940. Besides being the foremost expert on Rembrandt in the U.S., Wilhelm Valentiner was acquainted with many European modernists such as Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and Joan Miró. He introduced Harry to all these artists and more, which had a profound influence on Harry.