On January 29, 2022, Berend Peter Hogen Esch passed away; he was the last surviving member of the BOE-group. Early in his career, Berend Peter Hogen Esch chose his double first name, Berend Peter, as his artist’s name. He died in the house where he had lived since 1979 with jewelry artist Marion Herbst (1944–1995), […]
Berend Peter Hogen Esch, 1945–2022 Read More »
Earlier this week, we introduced this new series, which documents African American artists of the past who have made important contributions to the field of art jewelry.[1] The first profile spotlights Curtis Tann. This artist serves as an example of a great name and a prominent person in the world of jewelry whose efforts have
Curtis Tann: Almost Lost to Time Read More »
I am beyond excited to introduce the first installment of a brand-new series, Black Jewelers: A History Revealed, that will document the lives of African American artists of the past who have made important contributions to the field of art jewelry. I discovered jewelry through my work on the Susan Grant Lewin Collection, at the
Black Jewelers: A History Revealed—Rediscovery Read More »
Betty Cooke: The Circle and the Line September 19, 2021–January 2, 2022 The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD, US A successful retrospective exhibition feels like an immersive experience. The visitor should almost get the impression of traveling in a time machine. There’s a certain magnificence in viewing so much of an artist’s body of work
Circles, Lines, and Good Designs Read More »
Quiet Elegance: The Jewelry of Eleanor Moty, ed. Matthew Drutt, with contributions by Bruce W. Pepich, Matthew Drutt, and Helen W. Drutt English. Stuttgart: Arnoldsche Art Publishers, 2020. It is a well-established fact that European contemporary jewelers are better represented with beautifully designed, fully illustrated, scholarly monographs than their American counterparts, regardless of the latters’
A Tasteful Tribute to an Exquisite Aesthetic Read More »
Lisa M. Berman has a couture dressmaker, a woodworker, and a fashion business owner in her family. So you might say she was destined to become a mover and shaker in a creative field. After successfully launching and running her fashion jewelry business, Berman pivoted. She took the reins of Sculpture To Wear, a jewelry
Fusing Art and Business Read More »
Now that a red line has been drawn and crossed with the death of Seattle metals artist and sculptor Nancy Worden (1954–2021), it’s possible to take stock of a lifetime dedicated to transforming materials into ideas that in the process flowered into social and institutional critique and humor of the highest order. Setting aside for
The exhibition Divine Legacies in Black Jewelry is currently on view at the Metal Museum, in Memphis, TN, US, through September 12, 2021. It focuses on exploring and presenting histories and legacies in Black jewelry while working to introduce viewers to different names and personalities connected to the field. In this self-interview, exhibition curator LaMar Gayles,
Contexts and Groundings in Black Jewels Read More »
Brigitte Lang is a jewelry maker based in Perchtoldsdorf, Austria. The work series Defence Reactions, from 1981–1985, has become widely recognized due to its presence within the Sammlung Verbund collection of feminist avant-garde art in Vienna, in which Lang is the only jewelry maker represented amongst the artists.[1] It’s an honor to talk with her
The Body Is Such a Good Canvas Read More »
The premise is simple: Pore over the jewelry you own, choose your current favorite or a piece that’s especially noteworthy, and send in a photo along with the reason you selected it. The only criteria: you must own the piece and it must have been made by someone other than yourself. This series aims to
Our Favorite Jewelry Read More »
Click on the photos to learn about what they show. The premise is simple: Pore over the jewelry you own, choose your current favorite or a piece that’s especially noteworthy, and send in a photo along with the reason you selected it. The only criteria: you must own the piece and it must have been
Our Favorite Jewelry Read More »
Susan Cummins, Damian Skinner, and Cindi Strauss, In Flux: American Jewelry and the Counterculture. Stuttgart: Arnoldsche Art Publishers, 2020 The cover of the book In Flux, image courtesy Arnoldsche Art Publishers In Flux: American Jewelry and the Counterculture traces the figures, aesthetics, and techniques that blur distinctions between cultural turmoil and studio jewelry. Authors
The Making of a (Counterculture) Jeweler Read More »
