Jewelry Avant-Garde. Sources. Parallels
19 March, 2002 - 28 July, 2002

What is avant-garde in jewelry? One finds it difficult to give an exact definition for the style of one's epoch. Picture becomes clearer as time goes on. In the opinion of the American critic Clement Greenberg, who introduced the word in the 1930s, avant-garde defies mass culture and commonplace taste which is called kitsch.
The exhibition "Jewelry Avant-Garde. Sources. Parallels" includes one hundred twenty works of Western and Russian masters. Foreign artists' works, loaned by the Jewelry Museum in Pforzheim, Germany, cover the period from the 1960s to the 1990s. Works of Russian jewelers date from recent years. Such a selection gives a picture of what has been done in this art both in the West and in Russia. The exhibition shows works of the famous Italian artists Mario Pinton and Bruno Martinazzi influenced by the art of classical antiquity, while the works of Giampaolo Babetto have affinity with the Renaissance traditions. Equally famous are the German jewelers Reinhold Reiling who was one of the first in the 1960s to initiate the new genre of this art and Claus Bury whose use of such an unlikely material as acryl made a real sensation in the 1970s. Designer Emmy van Leersum from the Netherlands also became one of the first in the avant-garde. The names of Wendy Ramshaw and David Watkins who abandoned the traditional idea of jewelry went down in the history of jewelry. Works of the famous Czech master Anton Cepka with their exquisite design and polished detail are original and recognizable. Hermann Juenger, P. Skubitz, G. Rotmann, Ebbe Weiss-Weingart, Othmar Zschaler, Friedrich Becker and Manfred Bischoff are major masters who made their contribution to the "new art of jewelry". Novel things started to appear in the late 1950s. Very often they are simple artifacts influenced by modern styles such as abstract art, tachism, pop art, op art, etc. To express their ideas, artists used such inexpensive materials as plastic, rubber, fabric, paper and various metals, in protest against the luxury of brilliants and gold.
The exhibition shows works of 25 Russian jewelers. Almost all of them are high class professionals, recognized and respected, participants of prestigious shows, winners of competitions. While they have the traditional jeweler's skills, Russian artists experiment with new techniques and materials. The exhibition introduces many varieties of the art. The massive colorful works of Natalya and Aleksey Petrov and Tatiana Baltro show a play of color patches, volumes and textures of materials rarely used in jewelry. The original etui toys of Mila Kalnitskaya have a delicate and clear-cut design. The art of Natalya Bykova who makes each element expressive is quite different. Gennady Bykov (Bionic and Nymphusorium) and Igor Malkiel (Mechanical Cocoon and Metallogorgi) take up "biological" subjects. A number of exhibits represent constructivism, one of the most robust styles in the modern jewelry design. Construction is denuded and made artistic form itself in the works of Felix Kuznetsov, Oleg and Lyubov Narizhny, Arkady Kalnitsky and Victor Votsky.
Avant-garde artists do not cut their ties with the past. Avant-garde has its characteristic symbolism in common with the primitive art, thoroughly symbolic and cipher-like. Each image in the ancient artist's work has its inner meaning. Expressive minimalism of archaic artifacts attracted artists of the 20th century. Ancient artists could perfectly create forms. Some objects of primitive art are showed in the exhibition, to suggest to the visitor the secret of incomprehensible simplicity and spirituality of the works of ancient art in comparison with the modern achievement.

Bracelet
Aleksey and Natalya Petrov
Larger view

Bionic-2 Brooch
Gennady Bykov
Larger view

Tankman's Daughter Glasses
Mikhail Maslennikov
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Pendant on a hip Automn-2001
Natalya Bykova
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Object Archeo
Victor Votsky
Larger view

Buckle
Serpovsky Burial, Tambov Province
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Bracelet
Caucasus
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Fibula
North Ossetia
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