Art jewelry

See also wearable art.

Art jewelry is created with a variety of materials, not just precious metals and gems. In the late 19th century, René Lalique revolutionized jewelry design through his emphasis on imagination and technical virtuosity over precious materials and the imitation of past styles. Additionally, he experimented with industrial techniques, plastic and glass.[1] Art jewelry should be compared to expressions of art in other media such as glass, wood, plastics and clay. Art jewelry however has not yet created such a large following and is a relatively small niche, where jewelry is mostly bought by collectors and museums.

Though many consider art jewelry still part of crafts as opposed to real "Arts" (with its appropriate art critics) things are changing considerably, in particular in Germany. In the 1960s and 1970s the German Government and the commercial jewelry industry decided to foster and heavily support modern jewelry designers, and thus creating a new marketplace. They focused in particular on combined contemporary design with their goldsmithing tradition and jewelry making. At present art jewelry is no longer a niche market and many designers are sold in regular jewelry stores.

An example of current trends in art jewelry is the use of modern synthetic materials such as polypropylene, nylon and acrylic. Art jewelers have developed techniques for using these materials to dramatic effect. One example of this is award winning jeweler Gill Forsbrook a designer working in the UK. Further notable makers and artists include Hermann Jünger, Swiss-born Pierre Degen, Caroline Broadhead, Naomi Filmer, Otto Kuenzli and Florian Ladstaetter .

Fashion labels such as Bless, Martin Margiela, Comme des Garcons, etc. have had a strong reference and input in the field of contemporary jewelry.

The acceptance of jewelry as art[2] was fostered in the United States very quickly after World War II by major museums such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, each of which held major shows of art jewelry in the 1940s. The Museum of Arts and Design formerly The American Craft Museum, started their collection in 1958 with pieces dating from the 1940s. Other museums whose collections include work by contemporary (American) jewelry designers include: the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Corning Museum of Glass, the Mint Museum of Craft & Design in Charlotte, NC, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian museum.

Some famous artists who created art jewelry in the past were Calder, Picasso, Man Ray, Meret Oppenheim, Dalí and Nevelson. Some of which represented at Sculpture to Wear Gallery in New York City which closed in 1977.

Artwear Gallery owned by Robert Lee Morris continued in this endeavor to showcase jewelry as an art form.

A collection of art jewelry can be found at the Schmuckmuseum in Pforzheim Germany.

Contents

List of Jewelry Artists

Listed in the decade in which they were first recognized:[3]

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

See also

References

  1. ^ Ramljak, Suzanne, United in Beauty: The Jewlry and Collectors of Linda MacNeil, Schiffer Publishing, p 15
  2. ^ Ilse-Neuman, Ursula. Inspired Jewelry. Museum of Arts and Design and ACC Editions, 2009, p. 9
  3. ^ Ilse-Neuman, Ursula. Inspired Jewelry. Museum of Arts and Design and ACC Editions, 2009