This week presents a last chance to see Hauser & Wirth’s blinder of an artist-jewellery show at its New York outpost. Curated by the former model and London-based jewellery designer Celia Forner, The Portable Art Project is a moveable design feast of ‘wearable objects’ by 15 commissioned artists.
From Phyllida Barlow to Bharti Kher and John Baldessari, the show’s dynamism has much to do with the fact that all are currently practising artists, except Louise Bourgeois. In fact it is the asymmetric pair of silver and gold spiral cuffs Bourgeois created for the project in 2008 that is the pivot of the exhibition. These bold rope-like jewels are also central to the show’s success, being at once sensuous, covetable and wearable.
The notion of jewellery as fine art has long been a cloudy topic. But artist jewellery – pieces created for galleries by named artists – is not quite the same as art jewellery. The latter has emerged from the former as a genre generally dedicated to exploring unusual methods and humble materials, often with a socio-political bent in the Arte Povera mold. The movement gained momentum in the US in the 1950s and 60s and is often relegated to the applied arts category – or craft. As in, not as important as art.
It remains a limbo genre, due in part to the art jewellery community’s tendency to over intellectualise and add meaning. Yet, from Picasso and Ernst to Hirst and Koons, fine artists have long been happily sidetracked from canvas and bronze to the odd spot of jewellery design. This Hauser & Wirth addition to the genre bridges the gap with humour and, despite its own slight tendency towards academic worth – the pieces are billed as existing ‘somewhere between sculpture and bodily adornment’ – reveals artist jewellery as simply great design.
Whether it’s art or craft is surely not the point. And can artist jewellery really be ‘a personal connection’ between artist and wearer? Perhaps the answer is best left to the lucky owners. What this show does highlight is that artists make great jewellery because they seem to grasp that, ultimately, it is design to be worn. Hats off to Forner, whose canny collective so eloquently displays this oft-forgotten factor.
’Spiral’ cuffs in rose gold and yellow gold plated silver, by Louise Bourgeois, 2008. © The Easton Foundation/VAGA, New York
‘Aztek’, by Andy Hope, 1930. modelled by Rossy de Palma. © The artist. Courtesy of Hauser & Wirth
Left, ‘Untitled’, by Subodh Gupta, 2013. Right, ‘Untitled’, by Mary Heilmann. © The artists. Courtesy of Hauser & Wirth
‘untitled: brooch I’ and ‘untitled: brooch III’, both by Phyllida Barlow, 2015-16. modelled by Rossy de Palma. © The artist. Courtesy of Hauser & Wirth
INFORMATION
‘Portable Art: A Project by Celia Forner’ is on view until 17 June. For more information, visit the Hauser & Wirth website
ADDRESS
Hauser & Wirth
32 East 69th Street
New York
-
Looking for a long-range luxury EV that’s a true Tesla alternative? Welcome to the Lucid AirWe drive the Lucid Air, the high-performance Californian EV that’s a welcome leftfield choice in a sea of Musk-mobiles. Vote Lucid!
-
Umbrian castle hotel Reschio seduces with 1,000 years of history, now explored in a new bookThe estate, home to a boutique hotel and rentable houses, is documented in Rizzoli's ‘Reschio: the First Thousand Years’ – and is open for stays
-
Light, nature and modernist architecture: welcome to the reimagined Longwood GardensLongwood Gardens and its modernist Roberto Burle Marx-designed greenhouse get a makeover by Weiss/Manfredi and Reed Hildebrand in the US
-
Art takes London: Tiffany & Co, Damien Hirst and artists take over Selfridges' windowsFour British contemporary artists celebrate Tiffany & Co's pioneering history with a series of storied window displays
-
Late summer jewels: what to wear at Golden HourLate summer signals a jewellery style-shift. These independent designers have got it covered
-
Shinola’s Elijah McCoy pocket watch pays homage to the pioneering locomotive engineerShinola continues its Great American series with the Elijah McCoy Mechanic 45mm pocket watch
-
Lugano’s versatile high jewellery pieces are too good to save for special occasionsCalifornian brand Lugano embraces unexpected materials and cool design codes in its informal high jewellery
-
‘Given hip-hop’s roots in New York, the chance to tell this story in this city is very special’The American Museum of Natural History plays a blinder with ‘Ice Cold: An Exhibition of Hip-Hop Jewelry’, a cultural trip through jewellery design
-
The American watch brands to know nowFrom Autodromo to JN Shapiro, American watch brands are having a moment
-
All smiles: How a grillz jewellery making class in London became an international hitWhat started as a passion project quickly exploded in popularity. We get the story behind the grillz-making workshop at Cockpit London
-
Emerging jewellery designers to get to knowThese independent, new and emerging jewellery designers and brands from New York to Paris are firmly on our radar
