The Italian-born sculptor Harry Bertoia, often used wire and rod in his artwork, though he is principally remembered for a series of chairs he designed in the early 1950s using the same materials. Bertoia developed his early chair design ideas while working with Charles Eames and others in California in the late 1940s.

In the 1950s, when most chairs were made from wood, Bertoia's furniture was viewed as an innovation. The wire grid had the effect of making the chair appear transparent and weightless, and foretold the wireframe renderings that are a feature of computer-related design half a century later. The single, concave form of the seat and back relates the chair to similar experimental furniture by Charles and Ray Eames, and they also used wire grids to make chairs.