Ornament as Art: Avant-Garde Jewelry from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection, opening at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, this fall, places contemporary jewelry within a larger framework of twentieth and twenty-first century art.
Tracing the history of the artists and the aesthetic influences and technical innovation of the jewelry, the exhibition showcases a broad array of national and international works from the 1960s through today. In addition to approximately 275 pieces of jewelry, Ornament as Art also contains drawings, watercolors, sketchbooks and sculptural constructions by the artists. The exhibition draws its objects entirely from the MFAH´s celebrated Helen Williams Drutt Collection of contemporary jewelry, the most significant contemporary jewelry collection in the United States. Acquired by the museum in 2002, the collection, assembled by legendary scholar and gallerist Helen Drutt, consists of 720 pieces of jewelry and 84 works on paper. Over 175 artists from 18 different countries are represented with the largest concentration working in the United States, Western Europe, Japan, and Australia. Ornament as Art is on view from September 30, 2007 through January 21, 2008 in the MFAH´s Audrey Jones Beck Building. The exhibition will then begin a national tour, appearing next at the the Smithsonian American Art Museum´s Renwick Gallery in Washington D.C.
"Ornament as Art revolutionizes the way people think about jewelry," said MFAH Director Peter C. Marzio. "This exhibition challenges viewers to look beyond traditional definitions of jewelry—namely, as decorative, societal status symbols— and view these objects as art in their own right. Over the last four decades, the contemporary jewelry field has gained tremendous momentum, and the MFAH is pleased to take a leadership role in promoting the field."
Ornament as Art is organized by Cindi Strauss, the MFAH´s curator of modern and contemporary decorative arts and design, and is drawn from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection which was assembled over a forty-year period in which the history and developments in the field were observed and documented by the collector. The exhibition is structured as a coherent progression, tracing the development of artist-made jewelry chronologically, while touching on major innovations in techniques, material, scale, and concept. Focused sections will examine narrative impulses, the relationship between jewelry and major artistic movements of the 20th century, and the idea of performance jewelry. Among the artists represented are Gijs Bakker, the Netherlands; Liv Blåvarp, Norway; Claus Bury, Germany; Peter Chang, the United Kingdom; Georg Dobler, Germany; Lisa Gralnick, the United States; Otto Künzli, Switzerland; Stanley Lechtzin, the United States; Nel Linssen, the Netherlands; Bruno Martinazzi, Italy; Bruce Metcalf, the United States; Albert Paley, the United States; Wendy Ramshaw, the United Kingdom; Gerd Rothmann, Germany; Bernhard Schobinger, Switzerland; Olaf Skoogfors, the United States; Emmy van Leersum, the Netherlands; Tone Vigeland, Norway; David Watkins, the United Kingdom; Margaret West, Australia; and Hiramatsu Yasuki, Japan; among others.
"Ornament as Art provides an extraordinary look at the global innovations in contemporary jewelry over the past four decades," MFAH curator Cindi Strauss stated. "Helen Williams Drutt collected outstanding examples by leading artists, often spanning the entirety of their careers. The MFAH is thrilled to present an in-depth examination of this exciting field."
Ornament as Art begins in the 1960s when a dramatic shift occurred in how ornament and jewelry were perceived. Breaking with tradition, artists placed their works within larger artistic movements, signaling a period of independence in which concepts and ideas were valued more than precious materials. In Europe, artists such as Claus Bury, Gijs Bakker, Gerd Rothmann, and Emmy van Leersum incorporated alternative materials into their dynamic, often sculptural, pieces. The influence of these avant-garde artists, based in Germany and the Netherlands, on jewelry artists in Europe and particularly America, was significant. By the 1970s, information about the stylistic and technical advances taking place in Europe was disseminated to American artists, students, and professors through exhibition catalogues and lectures. American artists such as Stanley Lechtzin and Albert Paley, responding to European currents, helped define a new American aesthetic, one which prioritized technical innovation, an increase in scale, and the incorporation of plastics in their works. Lechtzin and Paley´s positions as professors in the field, along with Olaf Skoogfors, Ken Cory, and Ramona Solberg, helped encourage the next generation of American jewelry artists in their creative experimentation.
As the 1980s dawned, previous accomplishments in regard to material usage and concept became further clarified. Many artists renounced their ties to precious metals. Others questioned wearability by radically altering the scale and shape of their work so that there was less of a relationship to adornment and a more active dialogue with the body. The explosion of large-scale, international exhibitions on many continents in the 1980s allowed for a greater awareness of shared ideas and resources. Ornament as Art examines this atmosphere while displaying the varied works that emerged. The pieces from the 1990s through present day include a selection of provocative jewelry by artists in the collection whose careers can be traced over four decades.
In addition to the chronological overview, Ornament as Art provides viewers with the opportunity to study three themes in depth: narrative jewelry, the influence of twentieth-century art movements, and performance jewelry. Whether depicting personal stories, myths, politics, history, or popular culture, narrative works engage the viewer by transporting them to a particular time or place and by encouraging imagination, interaction, and fantasy. Many artists in the collection have also chosen to use tenets of major art movements such as the Bauhaus, assemblage and collage, constructivism, Minimalism and Conceptualism in their jewelry. Finally, the interaction between jewelry and the body and the active dialogue that resulted from it informed a significant genre of jewelry that questions the fundamental traditions of what jewelry should be.
Objects on view include necklaces, bracelets, brooches, earrings, and rings. Some of the jewelry will be displayed with custom-made stands or boxes by the artists. The jewelry displayed in the exhibition is culled from 15 different countries: Australia, Austria, Finland, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
"Seeing and discovering transforms the act of acquisition into the greater notion of caretaking and securing the history for the artist. This concept defines the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston´s Helen Williams Drutt Collection and reinforces its journey from the private sector into the public domain. Its residence and ownership have changed, and as a result, the MFAH´s major commitment to our field has lent credibility and integrity to works that previously struggled for recognition. It is being reinforced by the Ornament as Art exhibition and catalogue, and my work has been confirmed by a major institution," states collector Helen Williams Drutt.
Highlights that are on view include the sterling silver and polyester resin Torque 22-D Neckpiece (1971) by Stanley Lechtzin, a leading innovator in electroforming technologies; Claus Bury´s Ring (1970), a revolutionary work that blends precious metal with alternative materials; and Gijs Bakker´s vibrant red Dewdrop neckpiece (1982), a large scale-work whose seemingly fragile flower petals are crafted from a print laminated in PVC.
Some more recent, notable works include Georg Dobler´s linear Brooch (1985); Bruce Metcalf´s Wood Neckpiece #7 (1992), which combines hand-shaped wood elements with found objects to create a dramatic, narrative compostion; a paper and elastic Necklace (1995) by Nel Linssen; and Bernhard Schobinger´s Scherben vom Moritzplatz Berlin necklace (1982-1983), a distinctive combination of antique crystal beads with shards of Coca-Cola bottles found in a politically charged section of Berlin. -- www.mfah.org
Comment and add to the story without registration, but keep the comments meaningful please. Links are not accepted.
