![]() ![]() It also represented a fresh, new, almost hyper-realistic interpretation of the natural world, surely the most ubiquitous theme through jewelry history And surely the best vehicle to showcase a dramatic and subversive break with the past, a crash through entrenched traditions and a lunge towards modernity. Startlingly different from the pristine, uniform and static polished gold of traditional jewels, rather than a structural support or setting, this goldwork became a decorative feature in its own right. The defining feature of the new style was rugged, rough-textured rich yellow goldwork modeled and cast to resemble molten gold, volcanic magma, tree bark or the potholed surface of the moon – a reference to the space age and later the moon landing. The exhibition traced the heritage of the jewel as work of art, from the 1890s to the 1960s, and included work by Rene Lalique, the great Parisian master jewelers, Scandinavian modernists, such as Vivianna Torun Bulow-Hube and Grima and his cohort of creatives. Huge impetus in this concept came from the seminal 1961 Modern Jewellery exhibition, held at the Goldsmiths’ Hall, London, organized by Graham Hughes, the art director of the Goldsmiths’ Company, in conjunction with curators of the Victoria & Albert Museum (where the exhibition was supposed to have taken place). The radical new look that emerged from this group and their ideas was freeform, organic, sculptural, offering up a potent, provocative challenge to the status quo, and aiming, as artists, like Lalique, had done before them, to elevate the jewel to the status of a work of art. Sold for $2,500 in New York Jewels & More December 2019. Jewelry was caught in a timewarp, with little or no artistic value, reliant on the usual re-makes of clusters, stars or formal flowers, with no message or meaning, and ruled by an industry-generated value system that dictated an arbitrary hierarchy of preciousness of materials.Īndrew Grima, Diamond & Gold Brooch, 1964. ![]() All of them found precious jewelry, still in post-war mode, out of step with the new, fast-moving, youth-driven world around them. ![]() These creative craftspeople, including David Thomas, John Donald, Alan Gard, Roy King, George Weil, Charles de Temple, Gerda Flockinger, were led by the most fearless innovator and disruptor of all, the charismatic Andrew Grima. It all started with a small group of innovative designers and artisan-goldsmiths, some art-school educated, some traditionally trained through apprenticeship. London was the place to be in the 60s – the Kings Road, Carnaby Street, Kensington Church Street (I remember my pilgrimages to Biba) – and so it’s not surprising that the wave of modernism that transformed jewelry at that time was born and bred in London. It was a style that captured and crystallized its moment in time, that resonates today as the last cohesive, holistic jewelry style to define a decade and a cultural movement. And just as 1960s youth grabbed fashion, music, art for themselves, seeking a voice and a style of their own instead of mini-me versions of the grown-ups, so a new generation of designers found a dramatically different, relevant and provocative expression for the art of the jewel. Just as `60s radical fashion rejected past values, rigid social rules and anachronistic formality, so the new wave of modernist jewelry design that took hold in the `60s and `70s rebelled against outdated conventions of style and material, challenging roles and rituals harking back to a defunct, elitist social order. A revival of the kind of freedom of expression that characterized the `60s youthquake, a vital ingredient of the social, cultural and artistic revolution of the swinging decade and the hedonistic, disco-dizzy 1970s.įashion’s `60s flavor finds a parallel in today’s massive resurgence of interest in jewelry of the `60s and `70s, defined as it was by the same freedom of creative expression. This season’s fashions are infused with youth-fueled energy and optimism, and certainly with a spirit of freedom and joyful renewal after the darkness of the past year and a half. It was the vision of acid-brights and micro-skirts at the Miu Miu S/S 2021 show, the slinky cut-outs at Mugler and white leather boots at Ralph & Russo, with their echoes of Courrèges, that concentrated my mind on the evergreen, ever-evolving influence of the 1960s on fashion, style and, of course, jewelry. Sold for CHF138,600 at The Geneva Watch Auction: XIII May 2021. ![]()
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