A Global Perspective

Art Nouveau-style Winged Nymph diamond, sapphire and pearl plique-à-jour brooch in18-karat gold, designed by Spanish artist Luís Masriera.

Photo courtesy Bagués-Masriera, S.A.

The idea behind the exhibition, says curator Elyse Zorn Karlin, co-director of the Association for the Study of Jewelry & Related Arts (ASJRA) and publisher/executive editor of Adornment magazine, “has been in my head for a lot of years. I wrote a book on Arts and Crafts and on Art Nouveau. And I realized they’re not separate categories. It’s all part of one big art movement.”

The exhibition has nearly 200 pieces, representing 75 artists and close to a dozen countries. Karlin deliberately chose to organize the pieces by country and not to “visually separate” them by movement since, in some countries, such as the U.S., both types of jewelry were created.

The aim, says Karlin, was “to show the breadth of the movement, from the amateur pieces to the better artists. I tried to pick the most unusual and the most representative of the period.” Also included are the commercial versions — such as England’s Liberty and Company and the American Newark jewelers like the Unger Brothers and Kerr, “whose pieces are very collectible in their own right today. And then we have the really fine works by the likes of  Tiffany and Marcus and Company.” A brooch by the latter adorns the catalog cover. The piece is plique-à-jour enamel, which has no back so that light is allowed to pass through the piece. The technique, Karlin says, is not often associated with American pieces. “It’s pretty astounding and we picked that as the iconic image of the exhibition.”

Similar But Different

All art jewelry was created as a reaction against what was going on in society at that time, Karlin says. “Whether it was because they were against the Industrial Revolution and jewelry being stamped out by machine or they were objecting to other social and political issues, it was a move away from what was then happening. Much ofit looked back to the past for inspiration.”

England’s Arts and Crafts movement, says Karlin, was primarily a reaction against the Industrial Revolution; its main proponent was William Morris, who was a social reformer as well as a designer. The early English Arts and Crafts followers were architects and painters who taught themselves to do jewelry. “They were trying to make jewelry that would be available to everyone. It was handmade, so it had integrity. The English Arts and Crafts looked back to the Renaissance and the Pre-Raphaelites.

“The French Art Nouveau jewelry was a whole other thing.  Unlike the English pieces, it was meant for a wealthy clientele and was often made of precious materials.”

France had just lost the Franco-Prussian War and its national ego had taken a hit. Rather than dwell on the present, the French chose to look back on their glorious past in the rococo period of the eighteenth century. “And they decided if they couldn’t be the biggest and best in the industrial world, they would be the best in the luxury world.”

Many English Arts and Crafts jewelers supported the suffrage movement and some of the jewelry is even in the suffragette colors of purple, white and green. In France, women weren’t looking to get the vote yet, but they were trying to work outside the home and become individuals in their own right. “And that’s why you see women in Art Nouveau jewelry portrayed in a very split-personality kind of way — sometimes they’re beautiful and sometimes they look like monsters, often portrayed as a Medusa. There’s a real love and fear of women at the same time,” explains Karlin.

In other countries, either the English or the French art jewelry movement took root — or elements of both, as in Germany. “Austria’s Wiener Werkstätte artists were inspired by the Scottish Arts and Crafts jewelers; while in Denmark, Georg Jensen’s work shows a French influence. He got his start working for artist Mogens Ballin, who had studied painting in France. Several of the U.S. goldsmiths trained in England with the Guild of Handicrafts and Alexander Fisher, who was the best English Arts and Crafts enameller. And they brought those ideas back, although they often worked in precious materials, especially the Boston jewelers, and they had a wealthy clientele. In the U.S., you also see the Art Nouveau movement, mostly in the Newark jewelers, who manufactured the pieces in silver.”

The main thing to understand, explains Karlin, and that the exhibition shows, is that none of this was done in a vacuum. “There were international exhibitions — Lalique exhibited in London — and publications — like The Studio Magazine from England. They all knew what everyone else was doing and that’s why there are a lot of cross-references in the jewelry.”

Material Considerations

You rarely see diamonds in the English pieces or much use of gold, says Karlin, and even the white metal is often not silver. Whereas in French jewelry, diamonds definitely were used, alongwith both gold and silver. You do see a lot of the gems in the American jewelry, “especially with people like Edward Everett Oakes and Frank Gardner Hale. The Boston jewelers, and some others, did work in gold and then you had this whole line of commercial jewelry, which was mostly sterling silver.”

Semiprecious stones can be seen in all of the movements, but often, Karlin points out, they were native to the particular country. “In Tiffany, we see Montana sapphires and Mississippi River pearls. In English pieces, sometimes you’ll see Connemara marble from Ireland or other local stones.” And when they did use precious stones in English jewelry, they mostly used cabochons. “Not only were the stones not faceted, they often were not of the best quality. The artists were only interested in the color, not the value.”

One other element that was very important in art jewelry is enamelwork. Most of the English artists worked in Limoges enamel and the French used the plique-à-jour technique.

The Modern Connection

The final section of the exhibition links the art jewelry of the past to the present with a display case of work by contemporary jewelers who were either influenced by or are working in the same materials or in the same styles.

“I believe that all of these movements laid the groundwork for today’s studio jewelers,” says Karlin, “taking jewelry out of the big shops and out of factories and putting it back into the hands of individual jewelers. I think there’s a strong current that runs directly from those people going into the studio and making jewelry and the people who are working today.”

International Art Jewelry: 1895-1925 is on exhibition at The Forbes Galleries in New York City through March 17, 2012.

Article from the Rapaport Magazine - November 2011. To subscribe click here.