Ornament as Art: Avant-Garde Jewelry from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection


Ornament as Art: Avant-garde Jewelry

from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection

Mint Museum of Craft + Design

Aug 16, 2008 - Jan 4, 2009

 

Gijs Bakker

Dewdrop Necklace

1982

PVC, print, and gilded brass

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Helen Williams Drutt Collection,

Gift of the Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Family Foundation with love and in memory of Leah Grossberg,

2002.3591

© 2007 Gijs Bakker / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / Beeldrecht, Amsterdam

 

Over her lifetime, Helen Williams Drutt, pioneering scholar, gallery director, and professor in the modern and contemporary craft movement, has assembled one of the most comprehensive collections of contemporary studio jewelry in the world. In 2002, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston acquired her collection of 720 pieces made between 1963-2001 along with 84 works on paper. In all, over 175 artists are represented in this incomparable collection.

 

Objects on view include necklaces, bracelets, brooches, earrings and rings from 15 different countries. Highlights include a 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 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.

 

Ornament as Art: Avant-Garde Jewelry from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection consists of 275 pieces of jewelry, as well as drawings, water colors, sketchbooks, and sculptural constructions. The exhibition begins with works from the 1960s, when a dramatic shift occurred in Europe in how the world perceived ornament and jewelry. 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. Abstraction, conceptualism, and minimalism were powerful influences at this time as were earlier movements such as the Bauhaus and De Stijl. The exhibition continues with featured works from the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s through today, examining the artist’s sometimes controversial use of scale and form as well as the progressive use of new materials. Performance art and Pop art, and a keen interest in narrative and figurative work define this period. In the 21st century, jewelers, painters, photographers, and sculptors have mined source material simultaneously further blurring the divisions of the art world.

 

Ornament as Art exhibition page on the Mint Museum website

 

Helen Williams Drutt

 

General Exhibition Resources

 

Artists in the exhibition whose work is also in the permanent collection of The Mint Museum

Jamie Bennett

Liv Blåvarp

Georg Dobler

Robert Ebendorf

Donald Friedlich

Lisa Gralnick

William Harper

Daniel Kruger

Nel Lissen

Bruce Metcalf

Albert Paley

Ruudt Peters

Joyce Scott

Helen Shirk

Kiff Slemmons

Janna Syvanoja

David Watkins

Nancy Worden

 

Other significant artists in the exhibition

Gijs Bakker

 

Claus Bury

Stanley Lechtzin

Gerd Rothmann

Berhard Schobinger

Olaf Skoogfors

Romona Solberg

Emmy van Leersum

 

Artists in the Drutt collection and in the permanent collection of The Mint Museum

(not appearing in this exhibition)

Sophie Hanagarth

Linda MacNeil

Lucy Sarneel

 

Resources from the Mint Library

 

 

 

 

 

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Page created by Joe Eshleman, Library Assistant for The Mint Museum