Using unconventional materials in new and exciting ways, the Modernist studio jewelers rejected traditional jewelry styles and took their cues from the world of art. Starting in the late 1930s through the 1960s, the American artisans
who pioneered the movement crafted statement-making, handmade pieces that manage to look as fresh and “modern” today as they did decades ago.
Artistic Expression
“All the new ideas of modern art,” says Patricia Kiley Faber, co-owner of the Aaron Faber Gallery in New York City, “the painting and sculpture of Picasso, Jacques Lipchitz, the surrealism of Magritte… created an incredible excitement. And these jewelry artisans began to apply it to what they were doing, which was working in metal.”
“Primitivism, Cubism, Abstract Expressionism, Surrealism — they were moving back and forth among the art movements of that time,” explains Marbeth Schon, M.Schon Gallery in Natchez, Mississippi, author of Form and Function: American Modernist Jewelry, 1940-1970 and Modernist Jewelry 1930-1960: The Wearable Art Movement.
“Margaret De Patta, who is really a sort of mother of American Modernism, was directly influenced by the Bauhaus, particularly artist Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, who came from the Bauhaus in Germany,” Faber adds. “Her work was very sophisticated. She was experimenting with optics and light in her designs in the 1940s,” giving a very sculptural feel to what she called “opticuts.” One signature look, Faber says, is the use of crosshatching on her silver pieces, where she would contrast oxidized silver with polished silver. “She also created modular pieces where one layer could be moved and it would change the geometry and whole orientation of the brooch or pin.”
Sam Kramer, says Schon, “was a surrealist jeweler who started in the thirties and worked until he died in 1964.” He had a famous advertising flyer, says Faber, that read, “‘Fantastic jewelry for people who are slightly mad.’ He used artificial eyes to create surreal images and he used found objects and sometimes rough gemstones.”
Other jewelers who exemplify the Modernism artistic aesthetic, says Schon, include Peter Macchiarini, who was working in San Francisco. “Some of his early work is cubist. Picasso and Bracht were doing African masks in their pieces and you’ll see a lot of that in Macchiarini’s early jewelry.” Another noted name is Ed Wiener, who, explains Faber, “started in 1946 but was still designing and working through the eighties. He really had two or three clear periods of creativity.” And Art Smith, says Schon, “was influenced by the biomorphism of the fifties.” Dr. Barry R. Harwood, curator, decorative arts, Brooklyn Museum of Art, which received a gift of 21 pieces from Smith’s estate, agrees that Smith “was one of the most important exponents of Modernism; he lived in New York but his jewelry was sold by dealers and even some department stores all over the country.”
Intrinsic Value
This jewelry offered the young women in the late 1940s, continues Harwood, “something brand new and different from their mothers’ gold and diamond Tiffany jewelry. It was something that the young generation after the war could identify as its own. The women who wore it, I think, wore it as a badge to show they were the new modern woman.”
According to West Coast wholesaler Deborah Wilson, owner of Vendome, Inc. in Santa Barbara, “This jewelry was made for pure ‘art’ and not for its intrinsic value.” Most of the pieces were geared for the common people, says Mark McDonald, Mark McDonald gallery, Hudson, New York. “We’re talking about copper, brass, beach stones, pearls, clear or rutilated quartz. At best, it was silver mostly, and gold occasionally.”
The fact that these pieces were handmade, says Schon, and, for the most part, one of a kind, adds to their appeal for today’s collectors. Most of the well-known artists signed their pieces in some way — with a signature or a unique symbol. Moreover, she says, “There is such a big movement toward Modernism right now in all the arts. And these pieces are highly collected.”
“In the younger generation, everything that is postwar-Modern is hot,” says Ulysses Grant Dietz, senior curator and curator of decorative arts, Newark Museum, “including the jewelry. And it’s hot for the same reasons as it was originally, in that its impact is not so much the precious material but the artistic statement. Jewelry is all about prestige, no matter what anybody says, and if you’re wearing this jewelry, it’s because it makes an artistic statement.”
For Wilson, the appeal is that the jewelry is “both art and very wearable. There are collectors in all age ranges, and younger clients are becoming very interested in learning about the genre. I think what attracts modern collectors is the iconic statements that this jewelry makes. These pieces are very individualistic, and can be witty and even satirical. They can be worn very casually or can be very dramatic with a black dress in the evening.”
According to Jeff Russak, owner, Lawrence Jeffrey Estate Jewelers, Litchfield, Connecticut, “The clients who buy this type of jewelry are similar to art collectors, who always like to hear the history and context of each piece. In my market, quality, wearability and one-of-a-kind style rule desirability. Modernist pieces are often made as one-offs or in very small quantities; this and their bold look account for much of their appeal.”
Availability
“Obviously, says Faber, “a Calder is going to be tens of thousands of dollars because his reputation as a collectible artist is so strong and his pieces are very rare. Margaret De Patta’s early artwork is certainly extraordinary and her prices are very strong. Others fluctuate. Paul Lobel and Ed Wiener produced many, many more pieces so the market value of their work is a little bit more affordable. There are more of them and they come onto the market more often. They tend to be more production pieces than one-of-a-kind pieces. And then it matters whether the piece is in gold or silver. Ed Wiener worked in the eighties in a heavy gold Renaissance style that people like very much, although it’s not quite as architectural as original Modernist jewelry. Smith’s work commands very high prices, as well as Earl Pardon’s pieces. At the top level, one-of-a-kinds by whomever of the five or ten most famous of these artists are hard to come by, but at the mid-level, the production pieces that probably originally retailed for ten dollars, in our world would retail for $500 to $2,000 for silver pieces.”
“There are lots of interesting pieces that can be bought for under a thousand dollars,” says McDonald. “But you have to be ready to spend some very serious money for the better ones, for which there’s a lot of competition.” Adds Wilson, “The prices for signed, collector pieces have held their values and even increased in the past few years.”
What the Modernist jewelers created, sums up Schon, “are physical sculptures. They’ll always be valuable because they’ll always be what they are, signed pieces by very interesting people who made a difference.”
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - February 2011. To subscribe click here.