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Archive for the 'jewellery' Category

Oct

Exhibition: ‘Jewels, Gems, and Treasures: Ancient to Modern’ at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Categories: American, beauty, colour photography, designer, documentary photography, English artist, exhibition, gallery website, jewellery, memory, photography, portrait and sculpture
Tags: 60-ct carved Mughal emerald, Abraham Lincoln, American jewellery, Ancient to Modern, Armlet with feline-head terminals, Art Deco, Art Noveau, Arts and Crafts, Arts and Crafts jewellery, Birmingham Group, Birmingham Municipal Art School, Boston, British artist, British Arts and Crafts movement, British jewellery, Brooch worn by Mary Todd Lincoln, Cameo with portrait busts of an Imperial Julio-Claudian couple, Charles Robert Ashbee, Charles Robert Ashbee Marsh-bird brooch, Cooper Big double gold brooch, Cooper Family Archives, Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend, Earring with Nike driving a two-horse chariot, Egyptian artefacts, English Arts and Crafts brooch, Etruscan Spool earring, exquisite jewellery, French jewellery, Guild of Handicraft, Hair ornament with antennae, Hathor-headed crystal pendant, Industrial Revolution, Japanesque brooch, Jewels Gems and Treasures, Jewels Gems and Treasures Ancient to Modern, John D. Sedding, John Paul Cooper, John Paul Cooper English Arts and Crafts brooch, John Ruskin, King Piye, Lacloche Frères, Lacloche Frères Japanesque brooch, Lalique, Lorenzo Colarosi, Marjorie Merriweather Post, Marjorie Merriweather Post's platinum brooch, Marsh-bird brooch, Mary Todd Lincoln, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Napatan Period, Oscar Heyman & Bros, Paul Lienard, Paul Lienard Seaweed brooch, Pin with sphinxes lions and bees, platinum brooch, René Lalique, René Lalique Hair ornament with antennae, Sardonyx, Seaweed brooch, Spool earring

Exhibition dates: 19th July 2011 – 25th November 2012

“Today, in the West, we have come to regard diamond, pearl, emerald, sapphire, and ruby as the most precious of materials. That has not always been the case. Other substances have commanded equal attention, from feathers, claws, and mica appliqués to coral and rock crystal, serving a protective role, guarding their wearer from dangerous circumstances or malevolent forces. Other substances, especially those that are rare and available to a select few, are signifiers of wealth and power.”

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Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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Continuing my love affair with exquisite jewellery. What splendour! I love them all…

Many, many thankx to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston for allowing me to publish the reproduction of the jewellery in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the art works.

Anon
Bracelets
about 40-20 BC
Gold, emeralds, and pearls (modern)
Classical Department Exchange Fund
Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Anon
Armlet with feline-head terminals
Late 5th century BC
Gold
John Michael Rodocanachi Fund
Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Anon
Spool earring
Italic, Etruscan, Late Archaic or Classical Period
early 5th century BC
Gold
Francis Bartlett Donation of 1900
Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Anon
Cameo with portrait busts of an Imperial Julio-Claudian couple
mid-1st century AD
Sardonyx
Henry Lillie Pierce Fund
Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Paul Lienard (French, 1849)
Seaweed brooch
French, about 1908
Gold and mabe pearl
Height x width x depth: 5.4 x 11 x 1 cm
Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

As the saying goes, “diamonds are a girl’s best friend” – at least in modern times – but as the exhibition Jewels, Gem, and Treasures: Ancient to Modern illustrates, ornaments made of ivory, shell, and rock crystal were prized in antiquity, while jewelry made of diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, rubies, and pearls became fashionable in later years. On view July 19, 2011, through November 25, 2012, this exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), highlights some 75 objects representing the rich variety of jewels, gems, and treasures that have been valued over the course of four millennia.

Drawn from the MFA’s collection and select loans, these range from a 24th-century BC Nubian conch shell amulet, to Mary Todd Lincoln’s 19th-century diamond and gold suite, to a 20th-century platinum, diamond, ruby, and sapphire Flag brooch honoring the sacrifices of the Doughboys in World War I. Jewels, Gems, and Treasures is the inaugural exhibition in the MFA’s new Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation Gallery, which debuts on July 19. The gallery – one of only a few at US museums solely dedicated to jewelry – will feature works from the Museum’s outstanding collection of approximately 11,000 ornaments. It is named in recognition of the generosity of the Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation.

“The opening of the Museum’s first jewelry gallery provides an ongoing opportunity for the MFA’s collection to shine,” said Malcolm Rogers, Ann and Graham Gund Director of the MFA. “In this inaugural exhibition, visitors will see a wide range of gems that will both inform and dazzle in a beautiful new space that will allow the MFA to showcase its stellar assemblage of jewelry, which ranges from ancient to modern.”

Jewels, Gems, and Treasures sheds light on how various cultures throughout history have defined the concept of “treasure,” showcasing an exquisite array of necklaces, rings, bracelets, pendants, and brooches, as well as mineral specimens. In addition, the exhibition explains the significance of jewelry, which can be functional (pins, clasps, buckles, combs, and barrettes); protective (talismans endowed with healing or magical properties); and ornamental, making the wearer feel beautiful, loved, and remembered. Beyond functionality and adornment, jewelry can also establish one’s status and role in society. Rare gems and precious metals, made into fabulous designs by renowned craftsmen, have often served as symbols of wealth and power. This is especially evident in a section of the show where jewelry worn by celebrities is on view, including fashion designer Coco Chanel’s enameled cuff bracelets accented with jeweled Maltese crosses (Verdura, New York, first half of 20th century) and socialite Betsey Cushing Whitney’s gold and diamond “American Indian” Tiara (Verdura, New York, about 1955), which she wore to her presentation to Queen Elizabeth II in 1956 as the wife of the US Ambassador to the Court of St. James.

The significance of precious materials in jewelry in the 20th century is explored in the exhibition, where several modern adornments from the MFA’s Daphne Farago Collection examine jewelry’s traditional roles in society. Among them are a 1985 brooch of iron, pyrite, and diamond rough by Falko Marx and a 1993 ring by Dutch jeweler Liesbeth Fit entitled Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend. (The Daphne Farago Collection comprises 650 pieces of contemporary craft jewelry made by leading American and European artists from about 1940 to the present.)

Jewels, Gems, and Treasures begins with a look at jewelry made of organic materials - substances readily available and easy to work with, such as ivory, shell, wood, and coral. These range from a pair of ivory cuff bracelets from Early Kerma culture in modern Sudan (2400-2050 BC) to more sophisticated creations made possible through the advancement of tools. Examples include a gold, silver, carnelian and glass Egyptian Pectoral (1783-1550 BC) and a Nubian gold and rock crystal Hathor-headed crystal pendant (743-712 BC) recovered from the burial of a queen of King Piye, the great Kushite ruler who conquered Egypt in the eighth century BC. In addition to having magical properties that protected the wearer against malevolent forces, adornments such as these were often buried with their owners as their amuletic capabilities were needed during the arduous journey to the afterlife. On the other side of the globe, Mayans wore ear flares – conduits of spiritual energy – made of sacred green jadeite that represented key elements of human life. Various cultures throughout the ages at one point believed that amber could cure maladies, coral could safeguard children, an animal’s tooth or claw could invest the wearer with strength and ferocity, and gold and silver invoked the cosmic power of the sun and moon. In Medieval and Renaissance Europe, many hard stones were believed to have magical properties (some were even ground and consumed), and pendant reliquaries containing a holy person’s cremated ashes or bone fragments were often donned, along with rosaries (Rosary, South German, mid-17th century), as sacred adornments. Even today, zodiac ornaments and good luck charms are sometimes worn as tokens, recalling their earlier mystical importance.

Throughout much of history, jewelry’s role as a symbol of one’s elevated status has inspired the wealthy to seek out stones that sparkle, gold that gleams, and designs that reflect the greatest artistry money can buy. To illustrate this, Jewels, Gems, and Treasures features some of the most opulent works from the Museum’s jewelry collection, including an 1856 diamond wedding necklace and earrings suite given by arms merchant Samuel Colt to his wife (the 41.73-carat suite, purchased for $8,000, is now valued at $190,000) and Mary Todd Lincoln’s gold, enamel, and diamond brooch with matching earrings, which she acquired around 1864, shortly after the death of the Lincolns’ beloved son, Willy, and then sold in 1867 to pay mounting debts. Also on view is a Kashmir sapphire and diamond brooch (around 1900); a gold and diamond necklace made by August Holmström for Peter Carl Fabergé, the famous Russian jeweler to the czars; and cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post’s lavish platinum brooch from the 1920s, featuring a spectacular 60-carat carved Mughal emerald surrounded by diamonds, which she purchased in anticipation of her presentation at the British court in 1929.

Also on view in the exhibition are superb adornments made by leading French Art Nouveau jewelers, which were fashioned for a wealthy and artistic clientele in the late 19th to early 20th centuries. The Art Nouveau movement, which originated in Europe, embraced an aesthetic that was avant-garde, sensuous, and symbolic – one that looked to the natural world, the Impressionists, and the arts of Japan for inspiration. In response to the “tyranny of the diamond” – the all white platinum and diamond jewelry previously in vogue – these elaborate, one-of-a kind pieces often featured colored gems and unusual materials, such as horn, enamel, irregularly shaped pearls, steel, and glass. Examples in the show include René Lalique’s fanciful gold, silver, steel, and diamond Hair ornament with antennae (about 1900), and Paul Lienard’s gold and mabe pearl Seaweed brooch (about 1908). The Arts and Crafts movement, which emerged in Britain during the 1870s as a reaction to the mechanization and poor working conditions of the Industrial Revolution, is represented by Marsh-bird brooch (1901-02) by Charles Robert Ashbee, who sought to create a delicate stained-glass effect with this piece. The refined techniques of the Art Deco movement are evident in Japanesque brooch (about 1925), incorporating platinum, gold, enamel, diamonds, rubies, and onyx. The movement arose after World War I and continued through the 1930s. It was influenced by avant-garde ideology, as was the Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts movements, but instead chose to express its aesthetic through geometric shapes, linear stylization, and a return to platinum and diamonds.

Jewels, Gems, and Treasures also highlights a variety of interesting and unique pieces, such as a Suite of hummingbird jewelry (brooch and earrings, about 1870), made out of gold, ruby, and taxidermied hummingbirds; an ebony, ivory, silver lapis lazuli, and amber casket designed to showcase the amber cameos and intaglios collected by Arnold Buffum (about 1880-85); an Indian silver and tiger claw necklace (19th century); and a gold, silver, agate, diamond, and ruby animal sculpture, The Balletta Bulldog (about 1910) made by the workshop of Peter Carl Fabergé Fabergé. In addition, the exhibition features jewelry as seen in William McGregor Paxton’s painting, The New Necklace (1910).”

Press release from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston website

René Lalique (French, 1860–1945)
Hair ornament with antennae
c. 1900
Gold, silver, steel, and diamond
Height x width x depth: 8.8 x 12.5 x 7 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of the Sataloff and Cluchey Family
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris
Photo: © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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This hair ornament with its whimsical character is a unique piece by Lalique. It features the unusual exclusive use of diamonds which were sparingly used by the Art Nouveau jewelers who preferred less precious stones and enamel to provide color and opalescence. From the gold wire headband emerge two antenna composed of hollow silver cubes in which are set graduated brilliants each secured by four prongs. A steel wire runs through the cubes to form the curved shape of each antenna. Except for the scroll terminals of the antennae, each cube is individually mounted and stacked without being attached to each other so that they tremble when the wearer moves, accentuating the sparkle of the diamonds.

Probably by Lacloche Frères, Spanish, founded in 1875 (also working in Paris)
Japanesque brooch
French, about 1925
Platinum, gold, enamel, diamond, ruby, and onyx
Height x width x depth: 3.6 x 5.2 x 0.6 cm
Photo: © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Anon
Brooch worn by Mary Todd Lincoln (American, 1818-1882)
American, about 1860
Gold, enamel, and diamond
Depth x diameter: 1.3 x 3 cm
Photo: © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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The brooch is part of a suite with matching earrings. Each element is quatrefoil in shape and has a central diamond with a diamond surround. Eight smaller diamonds form a second tier of stones. The stones are all mine-cut and are probably original to the suite. The color range is J-K with VS-VS1 clarity. there are some losses to the tracery enamel. The suite was featured in Frank Lesley’s Illustrated Newspaper (Oct. 26, 1867). It was part of a large group of Mrs. Lincoln’s clothes, jewelry, and furnishings that were offered for sale through Brady & Company of New York City. Apparently, Mrs. Lincoln fell into dire financial circumstances after the assassination of her husband, Abraham Lincoln. The sale price was listed as $350.00.

Charles Robert Ashbee (English, 1863-1942)
Marsh-bird brooch
1901-02
Gold, silver, enamel, moonstone, topaz, and freshwater pearl
Height x width x depth: 9 x 10.5 x 1.5 cm
Photo: © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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The brooch was originally a hair ornament that was converted to a brooch (silver pin stem and “C” hook added). Conversion probably occurred shortly after the ornament was made. The hair comb was fabricated by A. Gebhardt and enamelist William Mark, both members of the Guild of Handicraft.

Anon
Hathor-headed crystal pendant
Napatan Period, reign of King Piye
743-712 BC
from el-Kurru, tomb Ku 55 (Sudan)
Gold, rock crystal
Height x diameter: 5.4 x 3.3 cm
Photo: © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

John Paul Cooper (English, 1869-1933)
English Arts and Crafts brooch
1908
Gold (15 kt), ruby, moonstone, pearl, amethyst, and chrysoprase
Height x width x depth: 14 x 9.6 x 0.8 cm
Photo: © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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John Paul Cooper, a leading figure in the British Arts and Crafts movement, was an architect, designer, and metalsmith. Born into an affluent Leicester family, Cooper prepared for a career as a writer but was discouraged from pursuing this endeavor by his industrialist father. Instead, he apprenticed to London architect John D. Sedding, a strong proponent of the ideas of John Ruskin and Henry Wilson, an architect with interests in craft, especially metalwork and jewelry. Afterwards, Cooper joined the “Birmingham Group” and served as head of the Metalwork Department of the Birmingham Municipal Art School (1901-1906). He exhibited regularly at the Arts and Crafts Society exhibitions and completed several important public commissions, including two crosses and a pair of altar vases for Birmingham Cathedral. Additionally, his work often appeared in article published in Studio and Art Journal.

Cooper’s interest in jewelry design and fabrication began shortly after his association with Wilson. Like Wilson, he eventually employed others to fabricate his jewelry designs although he sometimes did the chasing and repoussé work himself. The jewelry was crafted primarily in 15 kt gold, utilizing semi-precious cabochons (domed, unfaceted stones) and mother-of-pearl. Unlike many Arts and Crafts jewelry designers, Cooper often worked his designs from a selection of stones, rather than creating a design and then finding suitable gems. He once commented that stones should “… play on one another as two notes of music…”

In addition to jewelry, Cooper’s workshop designed and fabricated ecclesiastical objects and various decorative arts, including hollowware and frames. Many of the objects incorporate unusual materials, such as coconut shell, ostrich-egg shell, and narwhal tusk. At the beginning of his career, he often used gesso and plaster modeling to decorate surfaces and, at the end of the 1890s, he began making wooden boxes which he covered with shagreen, a decorative veneer made from the skin of certain sharks and rays.

This brooch is a major work by Cooper. Created during a period when the artist relied less on chased representational imagery and more on stones, the ornament conveys a sense of refined opulence. Inspired by medieval and Celtic design, the brooch is both airy and graceful. The goldwork is decorated with finely chased leaves and tendrils and the bezel-set stones include ruby, pearl, moonstone, amethyst, and chrysoprase. It took 273 hours to produce the brooch and Lorenzo Colarosi, Cooper’s chief craftsman, was the primary fabricator. It’s possible that Cooper did the chasework. The drawing for the brooch, which is dated 3 December 1908, can be found in Stockbook I, p. 81 in the Cooper Family Archives. Cooper entitled the piece Big double gold brooch.

Anon
Earring with Nike driving a two-horse chariot
about 350-325 BC
Gold
Henry Lillie Pierce Fund
Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Possibly by Oscar Heyman & Bros., American, founded in 1912 for Marcus & Co., American, 1892-1941
Marjorie Merriweather Post’s platinum brooch
American, late 1920s
Platinum, diamond, and emerald featuring a spectacular 60-ct carved Mughal emerald surrounded by diamonds, which she purchased in anticipation of her presentation at the British court in 1929
Overall: 5.3 x 5.4 x 1.1 cm
Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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The brooch was purchased by Marjorie Merriweather Post (1887-1973) and is documented by two portraits; one by Frank O. Salisbury (Palm Beach Bath and Tennis Club) and the other by Douglas Chador (Hillwood Museum). Both date to 1952. The central stone in the brooch is a mid-17th century carved emerald that was purchased by Marcus and Co.’s agent in Bombay in the 1920s. Oscar Heyman & Bros. made many of the jewels marketed by Marcus & Co. during the 1920s.

Anon
Pin with sphinxes, lions, and bees
Late 5th century BC
Gold
Catharine Page Perkins Fund
Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Avenue of the Arts
465 Huntington Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts

Opening hours:
Monday and Tuesday 10am – 4.45pm
Wednesday – Friday 10am – 9.45pm
Saturday and Sunday 10am – 4.45pm

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston website

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Apr

Exhibition: ‘Unexpected Pleasures: The Art and Design of Contemporary Jewellery’ at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

By Dr Marcus Bunyan 3 Comments

Categories: Australian artist, colour photography, designer, exhibition, gallery website, jewellery, Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria, photography and sculpture
Tags: Art and Design of Contemporary Jewellery, art of contemporary jewellery, arts, Beverley Price, Beverley Price Nespresso Collier, Blanche Tilden, Blanche Tilden Speed neckpiece, Caroline Broadhead, Caroline Broadhead Veil, collar, Contemporary Exhibitions space at NGV International, contemporary jewellery, contemporary jewellery design, Contemporary Jewellery Movement, David Bielander, David Bielander Scampi, Doug Bucci, Doug Bucci Trans-Hematopoietic neckpiece, fashion, Grjs Bakker, Grjs Bakker Shoulder piece, intersection of art and design, jewellery, Karl Fritsch, Karl Fritsch Screw ring, Kiko Gianocca, Kiko Gianocca Who am I? rings, Lisa Walker, Lisa Walker Necklace, National Gallery of Victoria, necklace, Nespresso, NGV International, Otto Künzli, Otto Künzli Wallpaper brooches, Paul Derrez Pleated Collar, style, Susanne Klemm, Susanne Klemm Frozen, Theorie du champ mechanique, Tota Recliclados, Tota Recliclados Theorie du champ mechanique, Trans-Hematopoietic neckpiece, Unexpected Pleasures, Unexpected Pleasures: The Art and Design of Contemporary Jewellery, veil, wallpaper, Wallpaper brooches, Worn Out

Exhibition dates: 20th April – 26th August 2012

An elegant, refined exhibition of contemporary jewellery at the National Gallery of Victoria’s newly redeveloped Contemporary Exhibitions space. The most striking and beautiful pieces are the neck ornaments, although I am a very much over some relatively unstructured jewellery made out of found objects. It really has been done to death. Trying to take photographs of jewellery in cases with reflections and extraneous light is very difficult but I hope my photographs below give you an idea of the design, installation and some specific pieces in the exhibition.

Many thankx to the NGV for inviting me to the media preview and for allowing me to take photographs of the exhibition. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image. All photographs not otherwise labelled © Marcus Bunyan and the National Gallery of Victoria.

Installation photograph of the exhibition Unexpected Pleasures at the National Gallery of Victoria

Caroline Broadhead
Necklace/Veil
1983
Nylon

Caroline Broadhead
Veil, necklace
1983
Nylon
60.0 x 30.0 x 30.0 cm
Collection of the artist
© Caroline Broadhead
Photo: David Ward

Susanne Klemm
Frozen
2007
Polyolefin
Courtesy of Anna Schwartz Gallery

Lisa Walker
Necklace
2009
Plastic, thread

Beverley Price
Nespresso Collier
2012
Anodised aluminium, plastic coated wire, fine gold

Grjs Bakker
Shoulder piece
1967
Anodised aluminium

“Unexpected Pleasures: The Art and Design of Contemporary Jewellery displays over 200 works by important Australian and international contemporary jewellers who have pushed conceptual and material boundaries within their practices. This Design Museum, London exhibition is curated by Guest Curator and Melbourne jeweller Susan Cohn, and is complemented by a selection of NGV Collection works and private loans.

Unexpected Pleasures looks at what we mean by jewellery from a number of different perspectives. Taking as its starting point the radical experiments of the Contemporary Jewellery Movement that challenged a conventional understanding of the language of personal adornment, and looking instead at the essential meanings of jewellery, the exhibition brings together important work from around the world, and looks at it from the point of view of the wearer as well as the maker. Contemporary Jewellery in this sense is at the intersection of art and design.

Dr Gerard Vaughan, Director, NGV said: “This is a remarkable and exciting exhibition, brilliantly installed in the Gallery’s newly redeveloped Contemporary Exhibitions space at NGV International.”

The exhibition explores the essential meanings of jewellery, bypassing traditional perceptions and instead tracing the radical experiments of contemporary jewellers who have challenged the conventions of jewellery design. The exhibition is curated through a number of themes: Worn Out – celebrating the experience of wearing jewellery; Linking Links – looking at the ways in which ‘meaning’ and narratives are invested and expressed through sub-themes such as Social Expressions and Creative Systems, and; A Fine Line – offering insight into the origins of contemporary jewellery today, highlighting key instigators of the Contemporary Jewellery Movement that started in the late 1970s.

Each theme within the exhibition provides an outline of current thinking and offers a unique view on how people use and interact with objects, through which design and production processes come to light. Photography in this context becomes a vital instrument for expressing the ‘wearability’ and the performative aspects of jewellery, and a selection of photographic works are also included in the exhibition.

New techniques and experimentation continue to question the relevance of preciousness, highlighting the shifting values from material worth to the personal associations that jewellery holds. The exhibition celebrates jewellery from the point of view of both the maker and the wearer. It considers the pleasures of wearing jewellery and the many meanings associated with jewellery which are at times unpredictable and, in turn, unexpected.”

Press release from the NGV website

Otto Künzli
Wallpaper brooches
1982
Wallpaper, synthetic polymer core, steel

Kiko Gianocca
Who am I? rings
2008-11
gold, silver, polyurethane
various sizes
Collection of the artist
© Esther Knobel
Photo: Jeremy Dillon

Paul Derrez
Pleated Collar
1982
Plastic, steel
Collection of Paul Derrez

Doug Bucci
Trans-Hematopoietic neckpiece
2010
3-D printed acrylic resin as one interlinked piece
45.7 x 45.7 x 5.1 cm
Collection of the artist
© Doug Bucci
Photo: Rebecca Annand

David Bielander
Scampi
2007
silver (copper anodised), elastic
10.0 cm (diam)
Collection of the artist
© David Bielander
Photo: Simon Bielander

Blanche Tilden
Speed, neckpiece
2000
borosilicate glass, titanium, anodised aluminium
1.2 x 24.0 cm
Collection of the artist
© Blanche Tilden
Photo: Marcus Scholz

Karl Fritsch
Screw ring
2010
silver, nails, screws
6.0 x 4.0 x 4.0 cm
Collection of the artist
© Karl Fritsch
Photo: Karl Fritsch

Tota Recliclados
Theorie du champ mechanique
2010
Found objects, book cover, mixed media

NGV International
180 St Kilda Road

Opening hours
10am – 5pm. Closed Tuesdays.

National Gallery of Victoria website

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Jun

Exhibition: ‘Vienna – Art & Design’ at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

By Dr Marcus Bunyan Leave a Comment

Categories: Melbourne, documentary photography, sculpture, National Gallery of Victoria, architecture, works on paper, painting, gallery website, jewellery, exhibition, intimacy, photography, designer, film, portrait, existence, time, space, black and white photography, beauty, landscape, memory and light
Tags: Vienna, design, Max Klinger, Vienna - Art & Design, art, Austria, Wilhelm Gause, Wilhelm Gause Vienna Municipal Ball, Vienna Municipal Ball, Otto Wagner Chair for Dr Karl Lueger, Chair for Dr Karl Lueger, Otto Wagner, Otto Wagner Reconstruction of facade for Die Zeit, Reconstruction of facade for Die Zeit, Die Zeit, Gustave Klimt The Park, The Park, Gustave Klimt, Wilhelm Otto List Young lady in black and white, Young lady in black and white, Wilhelm Otto List, Charles Robert Ashbee, Charles Robert Ashbee Standing cup and cover, Josef Hoffmann, Josef Hoffmann Sports Trophy, Josef Hoffmann Tea service, Gustave Klimt Beethoven Frieze, Max Klinger Beethoven, Gustave Klimt Emilie Flöge, Emilie Flöge, Koloman Moser, Koloman Moser Armchair, Josef Hoffmann Collapsible library steps, Fritza Riedler, Gustave Klimt Fritza Riedler, Josef Hoffmann Tea and coffee service, Adolf Loos Sideboard, Adolf Loos, Ferdinand Andri The Gallia children, The Gallia children, Ferdinand Andri, Gustave Klimt Portrait of Hermine Gallia, Portrait of Hermine Gallia, Dagobert Peche, Egon Schiele Portrait of a boy, Egon Schiele, Portrait of Herbert Rainer aged approximately six, Herbert Rainer

Exhibition dates: 18th June – 9th October 2011

A subtle pleasure

The delicate paintings are smaller with a flatness of texture and a sombreness that I had not imagined; magnificent in their subtlety. The real stars of this wonderful exhibition, however, are the design pieces. Whether silver, wood, ceramic, glass or jewellery the designs are balanced by a glorious aesthetic. Never has a tea service looked so ravishing or decadent.

This is not a wham bang show like Dali or that other King of some fame showing elsewhere. This is for a discerning audience – one that can take time (between pots of tea) to study and go ooh and aah!

Many thankx to the National Gallery of Victoria for inviting me and for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image. All photographs © Marcus Bunyan 2011 except the photographs of the full paintings which come from the NGV press CD ROM.

Media preview for ‘Vienna – Art & Design’ at the National Gallery of Victoria

I just couldn’t help myself!

Installation view of first room

At right

Wilhelm GAUSE
Germany 1853 – 1916
Vienna Municipal Ball
1904
watercolour and oil on cardboard
62.0 x 88.0 cm
Wien Museum, Vienna
Commissioned by the City of Vienna, 1904

Otto WAGNER (designer)
Austria 1841 – 1918
Alexander ALBERT (manufacturer)
Austria active c.1904
Chair for Dr Karl Lueger
1904
Rosewood (Dalbergia sp.), mother-of-pearl, leather
98.5 x 63 x 59.5 cm
Wien Museum, Vienna
Estate of Karl Lueger, 1910

Otto WAGNER (architect)
Austria 1841 – 1918
Reconstruction of facade for Die Zeit
1902 designed, 1985 made
iron, aluminium, nickel-plated iron, glass
450.0 x 332.0 cm
Wien Museum, Vienna
Commissioned by the Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien, 1985

Otto WAGNER (architect)
Austria 1841 – 1918
Reconstruction of facade for Die Zeit (detail)
1902 designed, 1985 made
iron, aluminium, nickel-plated iron, glass
450.0 x 332.0 cm
Wien Museum, Vienna
Commissioned by the Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien, 1985

Various Otto Wagner objects including shelving, stool, chair and hot air blower (rear)

Gustave Klimt
The Park (detail)
1909
oil on canvas

Installation view part of the second room

Wilhelm Otto List
Young lady in black and white (detail)
1904
oil on canvas

Charles Robert Ashbee (designer)
Standing cup and cover
1901
silver, turqoise

Josef Hoffmann (designer)
Sports Trophy
1902
silver, gilt, malachite

Josef HOFFMANN (designer)
Austria-Hungary 1870 – 1956
WIENER WERKSTÄTTE, Vienna (manufacturer) Austria-Hungary 1903 – 32
Tea service
c. 1909 – 1911
silver-gilt, wood
(1.A-E) 21.5 x 29.0 x 26.8 cm (overall) (kettle, stand and burner)
(2) 10.8 x 15.4 x 20.2 cm (teapot)
(3.A-B) 8.7 x 8.8 x 6.8 cm (overall) (sugar basin and lid)
(4) 4.8 x 8.5 x 15.6 cm (milk jug)
(5) 3.4 x 36.3 x 29.9 cm (tray)
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Purchased, 1985

Installation view of room three showing part of Gustave Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze: Central wall 1901 – 02 (detail at top)

Max Klinger
Beethoven
c.1902
plaster

Installation view of room four

Gustav KLIMT
Austria 1862 – 1918
Emilie Flöge
1902
oil on canvas
178.0 x 80.0 cm
Wien Museum, Vienna

Gustav KLIMT
Austria 1862 – 1918
Emilie Flöge (detail)
1902
oil on canvas
178.0 x 80.0 cm
Wien Museum, Vienna

Installation view of room five

At right

Koloman Moser (designer)
Armchair
1903
Painted Beech

Second right

Josef Hoffmann (designer)
Collapsible library steps
1905

Gustav KLIMT
Austria 1862 – 1918
Fritza Riedler (detail)
1906
oil on canvas

Gustav KLIMT
Austria 1862 – 1918
Fritza Riedler
1906
oil on canvas
152.0 x 134.0 cm
Belvedere, Vienna

Installation views of room six

Josef Hoffmann
Tea and coffee service
1909
Silver, ivory

Installation view of room seven with, against the wall,

Adolf LOOS (designer)
Austria 1870 – 1933
Sideboard, from the Langer apartment
1903
Mahogany (Swietenia sp.), mirror, brass

Installation view of room seven

Ferdinand Andri
The Gallia children
1901
oil on canvas

with Josef Hoffmann furniture in the foreground

Gustave Klimt
Portrait of Hermine Gallia (detail)
1904
oil on canvas

Various pieces of Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Mosser silver. Love the reflected light!

Installation views of room eight

Various objects by Dagobert Peche (left, right and second right) and Josef Hoffmann

Egon SCHIELE
Austria 1890 – 1918
Portrait of a boy (Portrait of Herbert Rainer aged approximately six) (detail)
1910
oil on canvas

Egon SCHIELE
Austria 1890 – 1918
Portrait of a boy (Portrait of Herbert Rainer aged approximately six)
1910
oil on canvas
101.0 x 101.5 cm
Belvedere, Vienna

NGV International
180 St Kilda Road

Opening hours
10am – 5pm. Closed Tuesdays.

National Gallery of Victoria website

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Jun

Review: ‘Ice Structure’ by Kirsten Haydon at Gallery Funaki, Melbourne

By Dr Marcus Bunyan 2 Comments

Exhibition dates: 24th May 2011 – 18th June 18, 2011

“Confronted by the immensity and power of desert and ice, one cannot simply stand to the side and evaluate as though one were standing before a landscape garden and other works of art. Conflicting emotions, including fear, are aroused and simultaneously absorbed or taken over by the overmastering presence of nature.”

Yi Fu Tuan. Desert and Ice: Ambivalent Aesthetics, 1993

Kirsten Haydon
ice objects
2011
enamel, copper, reflector beads
various dimensions

Kirsten Haydon
ice edge (left)
object
2011, enamel, reflector beads, copper, silver
60 x 350 x 210 mm

ice sheet flow (right)
object
2011
enamel, reflector beads, copper, silver
70 x 130 x 195 mm

There are many things to like about this exhibition: the fine craftsmanship, the forms, the observation and the beauty of some of the pieces. The symbolism is simple and effective – re-imaged relics of white, vitreous enamel objects from the huts of Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton, the use of reflector beads to imitate snow and Meccano-like steel girders to symbolise human construction and encroachment on a pristine land.
Some of the ‘objects’ remind me of the beauty and simplicity of Etruscan vessels, seemingly delicate apports, being the transference of an article from one place and time to another; the use of reflector beads at the bottom of ice sample (2011, below) is also inspired. So too is the occlusion of the image in the brooch ice plane (2011, below) which adds further mystery to an already surreal landscape. One piece is absolutely stunning. The wonderful neckpiece ice movement (2011, see two photographs below) is ravishing in it’s articulation and form, its snow-covered twig-like coolness.

Unfortunately where the exhibition fails is in the use of banal images in several works such as ice depot, ice runway, ice industry (brooch, all 2011, not pictured) and ice industry (2011, neckpiece, below). The obvious point being made is that of man made construction in a pristine landscape but the simple symbology used so effectively in other pieces becomes a little awkward in these pieces. The images used are quite ugly and while this fits the symbolic use of them it doesn’t make for very interesting or illuminating art. There needed to be more layering for the message to be effective – which is why the occluded brooch works so well, human construction blinded, dissolved.

This is a pity because the rest of the exhibition is excellent. Enter this ice world and you will be delightfully surprised!

Many thankx to Katie Scott for her help and Gallery Funaki for allowing me to publish the photographs and text in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

Kirsten Haydon
ice plane
brooch
2011
enamel, photo transfer, reflector beads, silver, copper, steel
80 x 80 x 10 mm

Kirsten Haydon
ice industry
neckpiece
2011
enamel, copper, photo transfer, paint, silver
280 x 160 x 10 mm

“I make jewellery and objects that both connect to and explore human experience and place. Since Antarctica’s discovery explorers, expeditioners, artists and writers have attempted to record and visualise this isolated continent. In 2004 I was awarded a New Zealand Antarctic Arts Fellowship en joined those who communicate their experiences of Antarctica.

Antarctica is often regarded as a pristine yet harsh environment, home to extraordinary wildlife and the domain of scientists. Due to its remoteness projects that are supported by international Antarctic programmes are predominantly science-based and as a result artistic research in Antarctica is limited. The cultural theorist, Yi Fu Tuan describes the experience of the explorer as: “the longing to be taken out of oneself and ones habitual world into something vast, overpowering and indifferent.” His statement resonates with my experience of Antarctica where I found myself drawn to the minutiae of the ice crystal and the structures and forms that I could associate with in the extraordinary landscape. While in that place, so removed from the conventions of civilisation, I came to understand the immensity of nature and to see that it exists without the necessity for human presence …

Inside the historic huts of Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton I was captivated by the history, contained both in the interior spaces themselves and in the material artefacts left by the expeditioners … These seemingly mundane objects are transformed into a still life of significant artefacts of a previous time, preserving the memory and story of their parties of explorers.

My interpretations engage through the iconography of personal jewellery, domestic objects and the environment of Antarctica. In the course of making I continue to investigate and portray Antarctica through my own and others’ personal experiences. The objects I produce reference valued souvenir jewellery and objects now displayed in museums as historical artefacts, which were once personal mementos …”

Excerpts from the catalogue text by Kirsten Haydon May 2011

Kirsten Haydon
ice movement
neckpiece
2011
enamel, copper, reflector beads, silver

Kirsten Haydon
ice sample
object
2011
enamel, copper, reflector beads

Gallery Funaki
4 Crossley St.,
Melbourne 3000
T: 03 9662 9446

Opening hours:
Tues – Friday, 11 – 5pm, Sat 11 – 4pm

Gallery Funaki website

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Mar

Exhibition: ‘The Immortal Alexander the Great: The myth, the reality, his journey, his legacy’ at Hermitage Amsterdam

By Dr Marcus Bunyan Leave a Comment

Categories: beauty, colour photography, documentary photography, existence, gallery website, intimacy, jewellery, memory, portrait and sculpture
Tags: Alexander the Great, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Black-figure hydria: Achilles with Hector's body, Bronze leg-protectors, Cameo. Twin portrait of Ptolemy II Philadelphos and Arsinoe II, Cameo: triumph of Dionysus, Cleopatra, Cuirass breastplate, Figure of Bacchus, Figure of Bacchus/Dionysus, Figure of Cleopatra VII, Figure of Dionysus, Gonzaga Cameo, Greece, Greek sculpture, Head of Alexander, Heracles fighting the Nemaean lion, Hermitage Amsterdam, hydria, immortality, Roman sculpture, Rome, Sardonyx, St Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum, Table clock: the vigil of Alexander the Great, The Immortal Alexander the Great, The vigil of Alexander the Great, triumph of Dionysus, Twin portrait of Ptolemy II Philadelphos and Arsinoe II

Exhibition dates: 18th September 2010 – 18th March 2011

What beautiful artefacts!

Many thankx to the Hermitage Amsterdam for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

Black-figure hydria: Achilles with Hector’s body
Attica, Leagros group, Antiopa Painter
c. 510 BC
Earthenware
h 49 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

Head of Alexander (fragment of a figure)
Asia Minor, Bithynia (?)
Roman copy, 1st century BC, after Greek original
175-150 BC
Fine-grained marble
h 6 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

Cameo. Twin portrait of Ptolemy II Philadelphos and Arsinoe II (Gonzaga Cameo)
Alexandria
3rd century BC
Three-layer sardonyx
15.7 x 11.8 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

Figure of Cleopatra VII
Egypt
51-30 BC
Basalt
h 104 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

Cuirass breastplate
Italy
Late 16th century
Steel, bone, wrought and carved
h 42 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

“No other king from antiquity has such a powerful appeal to the imagination as Alexander the Great (356-323 BC). Nor other king has been so often cited and depicted as an example.

The exhibition The Immortal Alexander the Great will be on view from 18 September 2010 until 18 March 2011 in the Hermitage Amsterdam, with over 350 masterpieces, including the famous Gonzaga cameo from the State Museum the Hermitage in St Petersburg. This is the first time that any Dutch museum has devoted an exhibition to Alexander the Great, his journey to the East, and the influence of Hellenism. The exhibition spans a period of almost 2500 years. In the Hermitage Amsterdam, the ‘immortal’ Alexander will be brought to life for six months.

Alexander was born in 356 BC as the son of King Philip II of Macedonia. In boyhood he was taught by Aristotle, who would be an abiding influence on him. At twenty years of age Alexander succeeded to the throne, following his father’s assassination. Two years later he embarked on the great expedition that would seal his fame. His conquests brought him into contact with numerous countries and cultures: Syria, Egypt, Persia, Bactria, and India. He founded new cities wherever he went, naming many of them Alexandria. His arrival had a lasting impact on local architecture, art, language, and ways of life: in the course of time they assimilated and displayed Greek influence, a process that became known as Hellenism.

The Greek sphere of influence was vast: it extended from Asia Minor to India, from Egypt to Mongolia. Alexander’s name and fame has endured down to the present day.

The exhibition in the Hermitage Amsterdam gives a picture of Alexander himself and of the great cultural and artistic changes that followed in the train of his conquests.

The exhibition begins with the myth of Alexander. Images in paintings dating from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, tapestries, and decorative arts display his heroic deeds and conquests. Impressive examples include paintings by Pietro Antonio Rotari (Alexander the Great and Roxana) and Sebastiano Ricci (Apelles painting Campaspe), and a tapestry depicting The Family of Darius before Alexander the Great.

The exhibition then moves on to Alexander’s reality, his native Macedonia, his teachers, his heroes Achilles and Heracles, and his ideals. The lion’s share of this reality consists of his journey, the Great Expedition to the East: an unparalleled campaign of conquest lasting over ten years, with an army that was more than 50,000 strong. Objects from Egypt and Persia, from the nomads and the Babylonians, attest to the rich cultures that he encountered on his travels. Visitors can follow the route of his celebrated journey on interactive maps and computers.

This part of the exhibition also highlights the Greek influence on those other cultures. Terracotta figurines depicting men and women, gods and satyrs, musicians and Eros, and stone fragments of architecture, testify to the artistic wealth that characterized the Hellenistic territories from the fourth century BC to the first few centuries AD. While many of these works reflect the Greek spirit of cheerfulness and playfulness, the Greeks also took an interest in the atypical, such as disabilities and deformities.

Finally, the exhibition dwells on Alexander’s heritage. Fourth-century reliefs from Palmyra demonstrate the endurance of Greek traditions outside Greece, as do papyruses bearing texts in Greek, which were still being produced in the ninth century. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Alexander played a prominent role in Persian literature, in which he is known as Iskander. He is recognizable in finely executed miniatures.

Alexander the Great is still a topical figure in our own times. Very recently (2004) a broad international public became better acquainted with him thanks to Oliver Stone’s film of his life. Alexander is a phenomenon. He is immortal. And the exhibition on show at the Hermitage Amsterdam makes this abundantly clear.

Erwin Olaf was asked to make photographic interpretations of Alexander, which he did in a photographic series and a short film. By interlacing objects from the exhibition with photographs of an actual model, Olaf has succeeded in skilfully conveying Alexander’s character traits and his handsome features.”

Press release from the Hermitage Amsterdam website

Figure of Bacchus/Dionysus
Roman copy, 2nd century AD, after Greek original
Late 4th-early 3rd century BC
Marble
h 207 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

Heracles fighting the Nemaean lion
Rome
2nd-3rd century AD fragments with possible Italian additions 16th-17th century
Marble
h 65
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

Bronze leg-protectors
Greece
4th century BC
Bronze
h right protector 41, h left protector 40 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

Table clock: the vigil of Alexander the Great
Russia, St Petersburg (?), after original by Pierre Philippe Thomire
1830-40 (?)
Bronze, cast, chased and gilded
70 x 30 x 70 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

Cameo: triumph of Dionysus
Alexandria
1st century BC
Sardonyx (on carnelian plaque)
4.2 x 2.7 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

The Hermitage Amsterdam
Amstel 51, Amsterdam

Opening hours:
Daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Wednesdays to 8 p.m.

Hermitage Amsterdam website

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Feb

Exhibition: ‘Artist’s jewels. From Modernisme to the avant-garde’ at Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona

By Dr Marcus Bunyan Leave a Comment

Categories: American, beauty, colour photography, designer, documentary photography, exhibition, gallery website, jewellery, sculpture and surrealism
Tags: Alexander Calder, Alexander Calder jewellery, Alexander Calder The jealous husband, Artist's jewels, Artist's jewels. From Modernisme to the avant-garde, avant-garde, Barcelona, Boucheron Corsage ornament, Boucheron Paris, Corsage ornament, Erich Heckel, Erich Heckel Drei Badende, Erich Heckel Three bathers, Hector Guimard, Lucien Hirtz, Manuel Capdevila, Manuel Capdevila / Ramon Sarsanedas, micro-sculptures, modernism, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, painted jewels, Ramon Sarsanedas, Ruby's lips, Ruby's lips jewel, Salvador Dalí, Salvador Dalí Ruby's lips, Salvador Dalí Time's Eye, Spain falled back, The jealous husband, Three bathers, Time's Eye, Time's Eye jewel

Exhibition dates: 27th October 2010 – 13th February 2011

Anyone who reads this blog regularly will know of my love of exceptional jewellery. This posting satiates my desire!

The Calder pieces are just oustanding.

“Calder possessed an uncanny ability to synthesize a variety of influences from the world around him to create often simple, always meaningful, and ultimately modern jewelry. In the early 20th century, many avant-garde artists began to collect African tribal art and to reference it in their paintings and sculptures. Likewise, Calder’s brooches, tiaras, and necklaces have more in common with the pectorals, collars, diadems, and neckpieces made by ancient cultures than traditional western European jewelry. For example, Calder repeatedly incorporated the spiral – a typical motif in late Bronze Age artifacts – into his jewelry, as well as his wire figures, drawings, paintings, and other decorative arts. The artist’s personal collections, which included objects from African, Oceanic, and Precolumbian cultures, substantiate his eclectic taste.

Calder’s exploration of jewelry in the 1930s also coincided with his burgeoning interest in Surrealism. As his largest and most dramatic ornaments are unwieldy to wear, Calder’s jewelry may be seen as a Surrealistic strategy to entrap the wearer into participating in an art performance or being metamorphosed by the object. Among those who wore his jewelry were sophisticated art aficionados and artists, such as Peggy Guggenheim, Mary Rockefeller, French actress Jeanne Moreau, and Georgia O’Keeffe.

His sculptural art, regardless of category, has less to do with solidity than with lightness, air, motion, and graceful formal relationships. Calder’s sense of economy, balance, and adaptability, so characteristic of the artist’s much larger and more familiar mobiles and stabiles, extends to his jewelry. While Calder’s more diminutive avant-garde creations converged closely with the aesthetics of the modern age, they remain unmistakably Calder.”1

Many thankx to the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs to see a larger version of the image.

Hector Guimard
Brooch
1909
© 2010 Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence

Alexander Calder
Jewellery by US artist Alexander Calder from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
© Calder Foundation New York/ VEGAP, Barcelona, 2010

Alexander Calder
Still life
© Calder Foundation New York/ VEGAP, Barcelona, 2010

Salvador Dalí
Time’s Eye
nd
© Salvador Dali, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dali, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2010

Salvador Dalí
Ruby’s lips
1949
© Salvador Dali, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dali, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2010

“‘Artist’s jewels. From Modernisme to the avant-garde’ explores the approach to the world of jewellery by leading artists of the main art movements in the first decades of the fertile 20th century. The exhibition gathers almost 350 works, chiefly jewels, that strike a dialogue with paintings, sculptures, photographs, fabrics and objets d’art, showing how jewellery made up the little universe of great artists.

Artist’s jewels. From Modernisme to the avant-garde reveals the relations between jewellery and the work of art. This exhibition, the first on this subject to be held in our country, shows the less well-known side of Auguste Rodin, Hector Guimard, Josef Hoffmann, Josep Llimona, Serrurier-Bovy, Henri Van de Velde, Manolo Hugué, Paco Durrio, Pau Gargallo, Max Ernst, Salvador Dalí, Georges Braque, Alexander Calder, Charlotte Perriand, Hans Arp, Pablo Picasso, Juli González, Henri Laurens and many others.

Painters and sculptors, since earliest times, have transferred their artistic forms to the world of jewellery, but it was not until the end of the 20th century, under the powerful influence of Art Nouveau, that artists approached this discipline more openly: ‘Carrying out a large work’, according to Otto Wagner, ‘means expressing beauty without distinguishing between large and small’.

The merger of arts that was a feature of Modernisme and the subsequent elimination of borders between the arts reached a crescendo in the 1920s and 1930s and crystallised in the numerous interesting incursions into the world of jewellery by the painters, sculptors and architects of the historic avant-garde. In producing these small-format objects (‘micro-sculptures’ or ‘painted jewels’), artists channelled their artistic thinking from different perspectives.

The exhibition opens with a selection of items produced by jeweller artists, who very often also cultivated multiple skills and who incorporated into their creations the offerings of the artistic movements of the time.

The high point of the first section of the exhibition are the jewels by René Lalique, which were purchased at the time of their production by European museums, rich amateurs and collectors. This is the case of the pendant purchased by the director of the Hamburg Museum at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900, the jewels purchased by Calouste Gulbenkian and the unique pendant Antoni Amatller bought in Paris for his daughter Teresa. In a dialogue with these works are the ones with rich enamelling and varied ranges of colour made by the Barcelona jeweller Lluís Masriera, who played a key role in introducing the new style to Barcelona.

Making up the core of the exhibition are the jewels conceived by artists who were not jewellers, such as Hector Guimard, Paco Durrio, Manolo Hugué, Herich Heckel, Pau Gargallo, Juli González, Joaquim Gomis, Ramón Teixé, Anni Albers, Charlotte Perriand, Alexander Calder, Henri Laurens, Hans Arp, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Salvador Dalí. This second section shows these artists’ production in relation to their usual work of painting, sculpture, photography and other creations, establishing parallels with the artistic disciplines they worked at and revealing the affinities and echoes between them.

The legacy of the Arts and Crafts movement and the Bauhaus, which were committed to integration between all the arts, can clearly be seen in the work of these artists, who opened the way to experimentation in the arts, questioning the very nature of jewellery, and who incorporated new materials into their production that were foreign to the tradition of precious metals. Examples of this are Ramon Teixé’s unusual creations in iron, glass, enamel and string and the jewellery by the sculptor Josep de Creeft made with bits of scrap metal from his motor car, not forgetting the jewellery by the architect and designer Charlotte Perriand or the ones produced by the photographer Joan Gomis in collaboration with Manuel Capdevila, which make use of shells and pebbles like real objets trouvées.

Alongside these hand-made items of jewellery that are often produced with non-precious materials, we are exhibiting the ones designed by Braque and Dalí and manufactured by professional jewellers using noble materials like rubies, sapphires or diamonds.

A third section of the exhibition explores the relationship between jewels and the body and shows a selection of clothes, mainly loaned by the Museo del Traje in Madrid, and photographs from the 1930s by Man Ray, Edward Steichen, George Hoyningen-Huené and Horst P. Horst.

The works presented in this exhibition come from public institutions and museums all over the world, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée Rodin in Paris, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Institut d’Art Modern (IVAM) in Valencia, the Museo de Bellas Artes in Bilbao and the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí in Figueres, who have generously made an exception in lending some of the most emblematic jewels in their collections, as well as from the MNAC itself and from numerous European and American private collections.”

Press release from the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya website

Manuel Capdevila / Ramon Sarsanedas
Brooch
Spain falled back
nd
Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya – MNAC

Alexander Calder
Necklace
The jealous husband
ca. 1940
Brass wire
14″ x 16″
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
© Calder Foundation New York/ VEGAP, Barcelona, 2010

Erich Heckel
Drei Badende (Three bathers)
1912
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg
© Erich Heckel, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2010

Boucheron, Paris (design by Lucien Hirtz)
Corsage ornament
1925
© Boucheron, Paris

1. Anon. “Metropolitan Museum of Art features Alexander Calder – Inventive Jewelry” on Art Knowledge News website. nd. [Online] Cited 11/01/2011. www.artknowledgenews.com/Alexander_Calder_Jewelry.html

Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya
Palau Nacional
Parc de Montjuïc
08038 Barcelona

Opening hours:
Tues – Sat 10am – 7pm
Sunday and public holidays: 10am – 2.30pm

Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya website

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Dec

melbourne’s magnificent eleven 2010

By Dr Marcus Bunyan Leave a Comment

Categories: ACCA, American, Australian artist, beauty, black and white photography, digital photography, exhibition, existence, gallery website, installation art, intimacy, jewellery, light, Melbourne, memory, National Gallery of Victoria, photographic series, photography, portrait, psychological, reality, review, sculpture, space, surrealism, time and video
Tags: All Professionals Are Crackpots, Carol Jerrems, Carol Jerrems Mark and Flappers, glass blowing, glass sculpture, Ian Burns, Ian Burns 'AND THEN...', installation art, Jenny Holzer, Jill Orr, Jill Orr Vision, John Davis, John Davis: Presence, John Young, John Young Safety Zone, Julia deVille, Julia deVille Night's Plutonian Shore, Kiko Gianocca, Kiko Gianocca To Hold and Be Held, Mari Funaki, Mari Funaki: Objects, mortality, Nanjing Safety Zone, Night's Plutonian Shore, performance, Pondlurking, Safety Zone, To hold and be held, Tom Moore, Tom Moore Pondlurking, Up Close, Up Close: Carol Jerrems with Larry Clark Nan Goldin and William Yang

Here’s my pick of the eleven best exhibitions in Melbourne for 2010 that featured on the Art Blart blog (in no particular order). Enjoy!

Marcus

1/ Jenny Holzer at The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA)

Jenny Holzer
‘Right Hand (Palm Rolled)’
2007
Oil on linen
80 x 62 in. (203.2 x 157.5 cm)
Text: U.S. government document

The reason that you must visit this exhibition is the last body of work. Working with declassified documents that relate to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan Holzer’s ‘Redaction’ paintings address the elemental force that is man’s (in)humanity to man (in the study of literature, redaction is a form of editing in which multiple source texts are combined (redacted) and subjected to minor alteration to make them into a single work) … I left the exhibition feeling shell-shocked after experiencing intimacy with an evil that leaves few traces. In the consciences of the perpetrators? In the hearts of the living! Oh, how I wish to see the day when the human race will truly evolve beyond. We live in hope and the work of Jenny Holzer reminds us to be vigilant, to speak out, to have courage in the face of the unconscionable.

2/ ‘Pondlurking’ by Tom Moore at Helen Gory Galerie, Prahran

This exhibition produced in me an elation, a sense of exalted happiness, a smile on my dial that was with me the rest of the day. The installation features elegantly naive cardboard cityscape dioramas teeming with wondrous, whimsical mythological animals that traverse pond and undulating road. This bestiary of animals, minerals and vegetables (bestiaries were made popular in the Middle Ages in illustrated volumes that described various animals, birds and even rocks) is totally delightful … What really stands out is the presence of these objects, their joyousness. The technical and conceptual never get in the way of good art. The Surrealist imagining of a new world order (the destruction of traditional taxonomies) takes place while balanced on one foot. The morphogenesis of these creatures, as they build one upon another, turns the world upside down … Through their metamorphosed presence in a carnivalesque world that is both weird and the wonderful, Moore’s creatures invite us to look at ourselves and our landscape more kindly, more openly and with a greater generosity of spirit.

Tom Moore
‘Birdboat with passenger with a vengeance’ (left) and ‘Robot Island’ (right)
2010 and 2009

3/ ‘Safety Zone’ by John Young at Anna Schwartz Gallery

What can one say about work that is so confronting, poignant and beautiful – except to say that it is almost unbearable to look at this work without being emotionally charged, to wonder at the vicissitudes of human life, of events beyond one’s control.

The exhibition tells the story of the massacre of 300,000 people in the city of Nanjing in Jiangsu, China by Japanese troops in December, 1937 in what was to become known as the Nanjing Massacre. It also tells the story of a group of foreigners led by German businessman John Rabe and American missionary Minnie Vautrin who set up a “safety zone” to protect the lives of at least 250,000 Chinese citizens. The work is conceptually and aesthetically well resolved, the layering within the work creating a holistic narrative that engulfs and enfolds the viewer – holding them in the shock of brutality, the poignancy of poetry and the (non)sublimation of the human spirit to the will of others.

Simply, this is the best exhibition that I have seen in Melbourne so far this year.

John Young
‘Flower Market (Nanjing 1936) #1′
2010
digital print and oil on Belgian linen
240 x 331 cm
image courtesy of the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery

John Young
‘Safety Zone’
2010
60 works, digital prints on photographic paper and chalk on blackboard-painted archival cotton paper
Installation shot, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne
image courtesy of the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery

4/ ‘To Hold and Be Held’ by Kiko Gianocca at Gallery Funaki

Kiko Gianocca
‘Man & dog’
found image, resin, silver
2009

A beautiful exhibition of objects by Swiss/Italian artist Kiko Gianocca at Gallery Funaki, Melbourne, one full of delicate resonances and remembrances.

Glass vessels with internal funnels filled with the gold detritus of disassembled objects, found pendants: Horse, Anchor, Four leaf clover, Swan, Hammer & sickle … Brooches of gloss and matt black resin plates. On the reverse images exposed like a photographic plate, found images solidified in resin.

The front: the depths of the universe, navigating the dazzling darkness
The back: memories, forgotten, then remade, worn like a secret against the beating chest. Only the wearer knows!

As Kiki Gianocca asks, “I am not sure if I grasp the memories that sometimes come to mind. I start to think they hold me instead of me holding them.”

5/ ‘Jill Orr: Vision’ at Jenny Port Gallery, Richmond

The photographs invite us to share not only the mapping of the surface of the skin and the mapping of place and identity but the sharing of inner light, the light of the imaginary as well – and in this observation the images become unstable, open to reinterpretation. The distance between viewer and subject is transcended through an innate understanding of inner and outer light. The photographs seduce, meaning, literally, to be led astray … I found myself looking at the photographs again and again for small nuances, the detail of hairs on the head, the imagining of what the person was thinking about with their eyes closed: their future, their fears, their hopes, the ‘active imagination as a means to visualise sustainable futures’ (Orr, 2010) …

In the imagination of the darkness that lies behind these children’s closed eyes is the commonality of all places, a shared humanity of memory, of dreams. These photographs testify to our presence and ask us to decide how we feel about our life, our place and the relation to that (un)placeness where we must all, eventually, return.

Jill Orr
‘Jacinta’
2009

6/ ‘AND THEN…’ by Ian Burns at Anna Schwartz Gallery

These are such fun assemblages, the created mis en scenes so magical and hilarious, guffaw inducing even, that they are entirely delightful.

There is so much to like here – the inventiveness, the freshness of the work, the insight into the use of images in contemporary culture. Still photographs of this work do not do it justice. I came away from the gallery uplifted, smiling, happy – and that is a wonderful thing to happen.

Ian Burns
’15 hours v.4′
2010
Found object kinetic sculpture, live video and audio
Image courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery

7/ ‘Night’s Plutonian Shore’ by Julia deVille at Sophie Gannon Gallery, Richmond

Julia deVille
‘Nevermore’
2010

This is an excellent exhibition by Julia deVille at Sophie Gannon Gallery in Richmond … This exhibition shows a commendable sense of restraint, a beautiful rise and fall in the work as you walk around the gallery space with the exhibits displayed on different types and heights of stand and a greater thematic development of the conceptual ideas within the work. There are some exquisite pieces.

In these pieces there is a simplification of the noise of the earlier works and in this simplification a conversant intensification of the layering of the conceptual ideas. Playful and witty the layers can be peeled back to reveal the poetry of de Sade, the stories of Greek mythology and the amplification of life force that is at the heart of these works. Good stuff.

8/ ‘Mari Funaki; Objects’ at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia

Mari Funaki
born Japan 1950, arrived Australia 1979, died 2010
‘Object’
2008
heat-coloured mild steel
36.0 x 47.5 x 14.5 cm
Collection of Johannes Hartfuss & Fabian Jungbeck, Melbourne
© The Estate of Mari Funaki

Quiet, precise works. Forms of insect-like legs and proboscises. They balance, seeming to almost teeter on the edge – but the objects are incredibly grounded at the same time. As you walk into the darkened gallery and observe these creatures you feel this pull – lightness and weight. Fantastic!

And so it came to pass in silence, for these works are still, quiet and have a quality of the presence of the inexpressible. Funaki achieves these incredible silences through being true to her self and her style through an expression of her endearing will. While Mari may no longer be amongst us as expressions of her will the silences of these objects will be forever with us.

9/ ‘Up Close: Carol Jerrems with Larry Clark, Nan Goldin and William Yang’ at Heide Museum of Modern Art

When looking at art, one of the best experiences for me is gaining the sense that something is open before you, that wasn’t open before. I don’t mean accessible, I mean open like making a clearing in the jungle, or being able to see further up a road, or just further on. And also like an open marketplace – where there were always good trades. There is the feeling that if you put in a certain amount of honesty, then you would get something back that made some room for you in front – some room that would allow you to look forward, and maybe even walk into that space. Seeing Jerrems work gives you that feeling.

Carol Jerrems
‘Mark and Flappers’
1975
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of James Mollison, 1994
© Ken Jerrems & the Estate of Lance Jerrems

10/ ‘John Davis: Presence’ at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia

John Davis
Australia 1936–99
(Spotted fish)
1989
twigs, cotton thread, calico, bituminous paint
55.0 x 145.0 x 30.0 cm
Private collection, Melbourne
© Penelope Davis & Martin Davis. Administered by VISCOPY, Australia

This is a superlative survey exhibition of the work of John Davis at NGV Australia, Melbourne.

In the mature work you can comment on the fish as ‘travellers’ or ‘nomads’, “a metaphor for people and the way we move around the world.” You can observe the caging, wrapping and bandaging of these fish as a metaphor for the hurt we humans impose on ourselves and the world around us. You can admire the craftsmanship and delicacy of the constructions, the use of found objects, thread, twigs, driftwood and calico and note the ironic use of bituminous paint in relation to the environment, “a sticky tar-like form of petroleum that is so thick and heavy,” of dark and brooding colour.

This is all well and true. But I have a feeling when looking at this work that here was a wise and old spirit, one who possessed knowledge and learning … a human being who attained a state of grace in his life and in his work.

11/ ‘Mortality’ at The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA)

Fiona Tan
‘Tilt’
2002
DVD
courtesy of the artist, Frith Street Gallery London

I never usually review group exhibitions but this is an exception to the rule. I have seen this exhibition three times and every time it has grown on me, every time I have found new things to explore, to contemplate, to enjoy. It is a fabulous exhibition, sometimes uplifting, sometimes deeply moving but never less than engaging – challenging our perception of life. The exhibition proceeds chronologically from birth to death. I comment on a few of my favourite works below but the whole is really the sum of the parts: go, see and take your time to inhale these works – the effort is well rewarded. The space becomes like a dark, fetishistic sauna with it’s nooks and crannies of videos and artwork. Make sure you investigate them all!

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Sep

Review: ‘Mari Funaki: Objects’ at the The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne

By Dr Marcus Bunyan 2 Comments

Exhibition dates: 6th August – 24th October 2010

Apologies for the lack of local postings in the last two weeks, I have been very sick with the flu. Many thanxk to Alison Murray, Jemma Altmeier and The National Gallery of Victoria for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image. All individual photographs of work by Jeremy Dillon.

Mari Funaki
born Japan 1950, arrived Australia 1979, died 2010
Object
2008
heat-coloured mild steel
20.0 x 28.0 x 5.0 cm
Collection of Raphy Star, Melbourne
© The Estate of Mari Funaki

Mari Funaki
born Japan 1950, arrived Australia 1979, died 2010
Container
2008
heat-coloured mild steel
(a–c) 21.3 x 40.5 x 8.5 cm (overall)
Private collection, Melbourne
© The Estate of Mari Funaki

Mari Funaki
born Japan 1950, arrived Australia 1979, died 2010
Container
2008
heat-coloured mild steel
4.8 x 16.0 x 15.5cm
Private Collection, Melbourne
© The Estate of Mari Funaki

Mari Funaki
born Japan 1950, arrived Australia 1979, died 2010
Object
2008
heat-coloured mild steel
20.0 x 28.0 x 5.0 cm
Collection of Raphy Star, Melbourne
© The Estate of Mari Funaki

Let us drop away all interpretation and look at the thing in itself.
The literal feeling of standing before these objects.

Form

Balance

Colour

Surface

Precision

Will

Style

Silence

The surfaces, sublime matt grey colour and precision of their manufacture add to this sense of the ineffable. These are not mere renderings of content, but expressions of things that cannot be said.

Sontag observes, “Art is the objectifying of the will in a thing or performance, and the provoking or arousing of the will … Style is the principle of decision in a work of art, the signature of the artist’s will.”1

Sontag insightfully notes, “The most potent elements in a work of art are, often, its silences.”2

And so it came to pass in silence, for these works are still, quiet and have a quality of the presence of the inexpressible.

Funaki achieves these incredible silences through being true to her self and her style through an expression of her endearing will.

While Mari may no longer be amongst us as expressions of her will the silences of these objects will be forever with us.

Marcus Bunyan for the Art Blart blog

‘Mari Funaki: Objects’ installation shots on opening night at NGV Australia

“Opening 6 August, the National Gallery of Victoria will present Mari Funaki: Objects, an exhibition showcasing a range of sculptural objects by the renowned contemporary jeweller and metalsmith, Mari Funaki (1950 – 2010).

This exhibition will present a selection of Funaki’s distinctive objects, dating from the late 1990s to 2010 including four recent large scale sculptures. The artist was working on the exhibition right up until the time of her recent death.

Jane Devery, Acting Curator, Contemporary Art, NGV said: “It was a great privilege to work with Mari Funaki on this exhibition. She possessed a clarity of vision and a capacity for ongoing invention that is rare among artists. Funaki produced some of the most captivating works in the field of contemporary jewellery and metalwork. Her unique geometric objects, meticulously constructed from blackened mild-steel, stemmed from a desire to express the world around her.”

“Funaki was interested in the expressive and associative capacities of her objects, creating forms that might stir our imaginations or trigger something from our memories. It has been particularly thrilling to see her extend these concerns in large scale works,” said Ms Devery. In 1979 Funaki left her home in Japan for Melbourne where she pursued her creative ambitions, enrolling in Gold and Silversmithing at RMIT in the late 1980s. At RMIT she studied under the prominent jewellers Marian Hosking, Robert Baines and Carlier Makigawa.

In 1995, Mari Funaki established Gallery Funaki in Melbourne’s CBD which remains Australia’s most important space dedicated to contemporary jewellery. Throughout her career she exhibited widely within Australia and overseas and won many awards, twice winning the prestigious Herbert Hoffman prize in Munich. In 2007 she was awarded an Australian Council Emeritus Award for her work as an artist and for her success in promoting Australian and international contemporary jewellery.

Frances Lindsay, Deputy Director, NGV said: “The NGV is delighted to exhibit many never-before-seen works by such an innovative and celebrated Melbourne artist. The exquisite objects assembled in this exhibition allow us to appreciate Mari Funaki’s remarkable artistic achievements.”

Mari Funaki: Objects will be on display at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Federation Square from 6 August to 24 October, 2010. The exhibition will be open from 10am-5pm. Closed Mondays. Entry is free.”

Press release from the National Gallery of Victoria website

Mari Funaki
born Japan 1950, arrived Australia 1979, died 2010
Object
2008
heat-coloured mild steel
36.0 x 47.5 x 14.5 cm
Collection of Johannes Hartfuss & Fabian Jungbeck, Melbourne
© The Estate of Mari Funaki

Mari Funaki
born Japan 1950, arrived Australia 1979, died 2010
Container
2006
heat-coloured mild steel
26.0 x 8.5 x 6.0 cm
Collection of Peter and Jennifer McMahon, Melbourne
© The Estate of Mari Funaki

Mari Funaki
born Japan 1950, arrived Australia 1979, died 2010
Object
2010
heat-coloured mild steel
30.0 x 19.0 x 20.5 cm
Collection of the Estate of Mari Funaki, Melbourne
© The Estate of Mari Funaki

Mari Funaki
born Japan 1950, arrived Australia 1979, died 2010
Object
2010
heat-coloured mild steel
45.0 x 52.0 3.5 cm
Collection of the Estate of Mari Funaki, Melbourne
© The Estate of Mari Funaki

Mari Funaki
born Japan 1950, arrived Australia 1979, died 2010
Object
2010
heat-coloured mild steel
12.0 x 44.0 x 14.0 cm
Collection of the Estate of Mari Funaki, Melbourne
© The Estate of Mari Funaki

1. Sontag, Susan. “On Style,” in Against Interpretation and Other Essays. New York: Delta Book, 1966, pp.31-32.

2. Ibid., p.36.

The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia
Federation Square
Corner of Russell and  Flinders Streets, Melbourne

Opening hours:
10am – 5pm
Closed Mondays

National Gallery of Victoria website

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Aug

Review: David Neale and Emma Price at Gallery Funaki, Melbourne

By Dr Marcus Bunyan 7 Comments

Categories: Australian artist, gallery website, jewellery, Melbourne and sculpture
Tags: brooch, David Neale, Emma Price, gallery funaki, necklace

Exhibition dates: 10th August – 4th September 2010

A nice double act of an exhibition at Gallery Funaki that showcases the jewellery of David Neale and first time exhibitor Emma Price. Neale’s delicate folded and layered brooches of bud and leaf-life forms sparkle with crushed marble, turquoise and lapis lazuli forming a palette of pale blues, pinks, greens and vibrant hints of red, the shapes almost a form of metal collage. As pieces of art they work excellently but as jewellery they seem fragile perhaps due to the thinness of the metal used and what I perceived as a lack of structural integrity. As brooches I wonder how carefully one would have to wear them (very carefully I suspect) and how long the crushed sparkling rock would adhere to the surface of the metal (I have since been reliably informed by Simon that they are very sturdy but this was an initial reaction on picking up the brooches).

Of more significance are the articulated trapezoid necklaces by Emma Price. These are stunning architectural works (at very reasonable prices!) that are made of gold, silver, brass and copper. They exude a quietness and balance that is beautiful and a playfulness (because of the interlinked forms that actually move) that is delightful. In these geometric forms there seems to be a suspension in/of reality as if the world is hanging by a thread. A bright future awaits for this artist.

Many thankx to Katie Scott and Gallery Funaki for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

David Neale
‘Brooch’
Steel, paint, marble, lapis lazuli
2009-10

“Highly respected Melbourne jeweller David Neale presents new pieces alongside Emma Price, who will be showing her first significant group of work at Gallery Funaki in this exhibition.

David Neale’s intriguing folded forms, borne of his sensitive treatment of metal sheeting using texture and paint, have earned him a significant reputation both in Australia and overseas. His recent work shows a shift away from botanical influences, towards more abstract and expressive forms. There is a bold sense of the painterly in these works, as Neale’s powdery, textured colours become a dominant focus.

Emma Price completed her Masters of Gold and Silversmithing at RMIT in 2005 before spending a year at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts in 2008. Her finely balanced structures are constructed from painstakingly drawn down tubing in gold, brass, silver and copper. The shifting, architectonic forms of her neckpieces seem to dance against the body.”

Text from the Gallery Funaki website

Emma Price
‘Necklace 2′
silver, brass, gold
2010

Emma Price
‘Necklace 6′
silver, brass, copper, gold
2010

Emma Price
‘Necklace 8′
silver
2010

Gallery Funaki
4 Crossley St.,
Melbourne 3000
03 9662 9446

Opening hours:
Tues – Friday, 11 – 5pm, Sat 11 – 4pm

Gallery Funaki website

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Jul

Review: ‘Simryn Gill: Gathering’ at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne

By Dr Marcus Bunyan 4 Comments

Exhibition dates: 22 April – 18 July 2010

Many thankx to Jade Enge and the Heide Museum of Modern Art for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

“The work of Simryn Gill considers questions of place and history, and how they might intersect with personal and collection experience … Using objects, language and photographs, her work conveys a deep interest in material culture, and in the ways that meaning can transform and translate in different contexts. Through the reinterpretation or alteration of existing objects, the photographing of specific locations, and the forming of collections, Gill contemplates how ideas and meanings are communicated between people, objects and sites.”

Wall text from the exhibition

Simryn Gill
‘Untitled’
1999
gouache on National Geographic magazine pages (1970s)
Courtesy of the artist, BREENSPACE, Sydney and Tracy Williams Ltd, New York

Simryn Gill
‘Pearls’
1999
Private collection

Simryn Gill
‘My own private Angkor’
2007
Courtesy of the artist, BREENSPACE, Sydney and Tracy Williams Ltd, New York

This is a strong survey exhibition of the work of Simryn Gill at Heide Museum of Modern Art. Like most survey exhibitions it suffers from a slightly piecemeal approach, dipping in and out of various bodies of work to try to make up a holistic whole. Conceptually this is not a problem as the thematic development of Gill’s work, her narrative arc if you like, is evident throughout. Visually this causes some work to seem isolated and left me wanting more connection between pieces and rooms as you walk around.

Highlights for me included ‘May 2006′ (2006), ‘Pearls’ (1999 – ongoing), ‘Untitled (interiors)’ 2008 and ‘Throwback’ (2007).

In ‘May 2006′ (2006) 817 silver gelatin photographs are mounted in columns of images, each column making up one of 30 rolls of film, one shot every day of a month photographing the artist’s immediate neighbourhood in Marrickville, Sydney, in the month in which the film expiration date occurred. Each column has a different number of images and are mounted along the one of the largest walls in the Heide galleries, producing an effect almost like a DNA sequence. Abstract scenes of pathways, fences, cars in streets, broken gutters, planes flying houses, trees, people walking, abandoned telephone directories, Hills hoists, coffee shops, windows, rooftops and factories inhabit the frame of reference – the environment seeming to be abandoned both literally and metaphorically. Empty chairs move from picture to picture. No Parking here!

There are some great angles in these photographs a la Robert Frank ‘The Americans’ with excellent use of short depth of field shooting across tabletops for example. Above all there is a sense of abandonment, desolation and isolation in the intersection of spaces. Even in strong sunlight there is a strange, haunting melancholy present – an innate understanding of the subconsciously known archetype of space and place, that sense of belonging – and an absolute recognition in the viewer of that.

In ‘Pearls’ (1999 – ongoing, see photograph above) friends provide Gill with a book of personal value, which she then transforms into beads of paper and then strings them together as necklaces which she then returns to the owner as a gift. The colours, length and heaviness of the necklace depends on the book chosen – the reconstructed text lying like pearls of wisdom against the skin of the giver/receiver, the meaning of the book transformed through the process. What a beautiful gift to receive.

‘Untitled (interiors)’ (2008), my second favourite work of the day, features bronze sculptures cast from the empty spaces created by dry cracks in the ground found near Nyngan and Lake George, New South Wales. The sculptures present the cracks inverted so they become like miniature mountain ranges, the cracks in the earth filled and metamorphosing until they thrust into the air, the empty spaces of the earth uplifted, negative/positive spaces interchangeable. This is a simple but beautifully resolved work. Unfortunately I do not have any photographs to show you of these sculptures.

Other work includes ‘My own private Angkor’ (2007, see photograph above), photographs taken at a housing estate in Port Dickson that is becoming overgrown and returning to the surrounding landscape that Gill has made into her own Angkor Wat in reverse, featuring the detritus of a vanquished, constructed environment; four black and white photographs from ‘Forest’ (1996) featuring text on leaves; a glass case of curiosities like the Victorian cabinet of curiosities that includes a jar of plastic cowboys and indians, a bowl of Mindanao pearls, found and made spherical objects, cast tin and mango seeds (‘Some of my best friends suck mangoes’, 1998) and different noses of cast tin (‘Boquet’ 1994); ‘Untitled’ (1998 – ongoing), a glass case full of found and blunt objects arranged like a seismograph recording, small at the ends and big in the centre featuring scissors, clubs, spoons, knives, bottle top openers, tweezers, letter openers and salad servers!; and ‘Paper boats’ (2008, see photographs below), table and floor covered by paper boats made from the torn out pages of Encyclopedia Britannica 1968 with the invitation to “Please make boats” with no explanation as to how, exactly, to make them – human knowledge as text, detritus, object, place, manufacture and commission.

The absolute star of the exhibition is the installation ‘Throwback’ (2007, see photographs below). The installation features the interior parts of a Tata truck (the engine and axles) recast in termite mound soils, river clay, laterite, sea shells, fruit skins, coconut bark, resin, and fibre laid on a huge dissecting table (much like the body in Rembrandt’s painting ‘The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp’ (1632)) – the layout of the engine and axles evoking the spine and interior skeleton of the body. Unfortunately I do not have an overview photograph of the whole work but parts of the work can be seen in the photographs below. The Tata truck spent its working life plying the roads of the forests of Malaysia:

“With the rise of China and India, a voracious market for scrap metal has developed, hastening the disappearance of particular objects, Gill recovers the modern forms of the truck parts by casting them in natural materials found near her studio in Port Dickson.”

Wall text from the exhibition

This is an outstanding work that left me stunned with it’s beauty and insightfulness. It literally took my breath away and for that reason alone a visit to this exhibition at Heide is well worth the journey.

Marcus Bunyan for the Art Blart blog

Simryn Gill
‘Throwback’ (detail)
2007
interior parts of Tata truck, termite mound soil, river clay, laterite, seashells, fruit skins, leaves, bark and fibre, flowers, glue, resin,
milk
Buxton Collection Melbourne
Courtesy of the artist

“This exhibition (22 April – 18 July) presents the work of leading Sydney-based Malaysian artist, Simryn Gill. Featuring objects, books, collections, photographs and text pieces from the last six years of Gill’s practice, it explores the artist’s pursuit of meaning through materials, forms and ways of working, such as collecting, reading, archiving, arranging, casting and photographing.

Described in 2009 in the New Yorker as ‘quietly dazzling’, Gill’s work is internationally recognised. She has been honoured with solo exhibitions at the Tate Modern, London and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, both in 2006. Born in Singapore in 1959, Gill lives and works in Sydney and Port Dickson, Malaysia, and has participated in significant exhibitions internationally, including documenta 12 in Kassel, Germany (2007), the Singapore Biennale (2006), the Biennale of Sydney (2002 and 2008), the São Paulo Biennial (2004) and the Venice Biennale (1999).

An MCA touring exhibition curated by Russell Storer, it has been expanded by Heide to include the Australian premiere of Gill’s major work Throwback, originally produced for the documenta 12 exhibition in Kassel, Germany, in 2007. Throwback reworks the inner machinery of a 1985 Tata truck that plied the roads of Malaysia. With the economic rise of China and India, a voracious market for scrap metal has developed, hastening the disappearance of particular objects. Gill recovers the modern forms of truck parts by casting them in natural materials – found near her studio in Malaysia – including river mud, coconut husks, reconstituted termite mounds and fruit skins.

Gill has also produced a new work, an artist’s book reflecting on the gardens at Heide.

Gill’s practice considers how we might experience place as an intersection of personal and collective histories and geographies. Through the reinterpretation or alteration of existing objects, the photographing of specific locations, and the forming of collections, Gill contemplates how ideas and meanings are communicated between people, objects, and sites.

Several works in the exhibition invite audience participation. Paper Boats invites visitors to add their own unique paper boat to the installation by tearing pages from a 1968 Encyclopaedia Britannica and using the sheet to make an origami boat. Another work, Garland (2006) encourages us to hold, touch and rearrange objects collected by Gill on the beaches of Port Dickson, Malaysia, and the islands off Singapore – fragments reshaped by sea and sand that take on almost organic form.

A selection of books, sketches, collections and experimental pieces from the early 1990s to the present, some produced for exhibitions and others never intended as artworks will also be presented as part of the exhibition. Together they offer an insight into Gill’s artistic processes and her interest in art-making as an active engagement with the world.”

Press release from the Heide Museum of Modern Art website

Simryn Gill
‘Paper boats’
2008
Encyclopaedia Britannica (1968 edition)
Courtesy of the artist and BREENSPACE, Sydney

Simryn Gill
‘Paper boats’ (detail)
2008
Encyclopaedia Britannica (1968 edition)
Courtesy of the artist and BREENSPACE, Sydney

Addendum: A Pencil for Your Thoughts

Heide pencil, the confounding pencil

I love to visit Heide, the elegant buildings, the art, the cafe, a stroll in the gardens looking at the sculpture. What I don’t like is being accosted by gallery attendants on my last three visits, twice on the last visit alone to review the Simryn Gill exhibition – accost being not too harsh a word for some of the approaches. The request: to not write in the gallery with a pen but to use a pencil (rushed to the scene of the crime post haste!)

I don’t like writing with a pencil, they go blunt and I can’t read my notes. I like writing with a pen.
This is a ridiculous state of affairs, the only gallery in Melbourne that I know of that has such a ‘nanny state’ rule.

Do they think that I am going to:

a) spear the pen into the gallery wall
b) attack the attendant with the pen (after this last visit the thought did cross my mind!) or
c) scribble all over the art work like a child …

The more we are treated like children the more child-like we become.

“Put the pen on the ground … Step away from the pen.”

Heide Museum of Modern Art
7 Templestowe Road, Bulleen, Victoria 3105

Opening hours:
(Heide II & Heide III)
Tue–Fri 10.00am–5.00pm
Sat/Sun/Public Holidays 12.00noon–5.00pm
Closed Good Friday, Christmas Day, Boxing Day

Heide Museum of Art website

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Dr Marcus Bunyan

Dr Marcus Bunyan is an Australian artist and writer. His work explores the boundaries of identity and place. He writes the Art Blart blog which reviews exhibitions in Melbourne, Australia and posts exhibitions from around the world. He has a Dr of Philosophy from RMIT University, Melbourne and is currently studying a Master of Art Curatorship at The University of Melbourne.

Archive for the 'jewellery' Category

Exhibition dates: 19th July 2011 – 25th November 2012

Exhibition dates: 20th April – 26th August 2012

Exhibition dates: 18th June – 9th October 2011

A subtle pleasure

Exhibition dates: 24th May 2011 – 18th June 18, 2011

Exhibition dates: 18th September 2010 – 18th March 2011

Exhibition dates: 27th October 2010 – 13th February 2011

1/ Jenny Holzer at The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA)

2/ ‘Pondlurking’ by Tom Moore at Helen Gory Galerie, Prahran

3/ ‘Safety Zone’ by John Young at Anna Schwartz Gallery

4/ ‘To Hold and Be Held’ by Kiko Gianocca at Gallery Funaki

5/ ‘Jill Orr: Vision’ at Jenny Port Gallery, Richmond

6/ ‘AND THEN…’ by Ian Burns at Anna Schwartz Gallery

7/ ‘Night’s Plutonian Shore’ by Julia deVille at Sophie Gannon Gallery, Richmond

8/ ‘Mari Funaki; Objects’ at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia

9/ ‘Up Close: Carol Jerrems with Larry Clark, Nan Goldin and William Yang’ at Heide Museum of Modern Art

10/ ‘John Davis: Presence’ at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia

11/ ‘Mortality’ at The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA)

Exhibition dates: 6th August – 24th October 2010

Exhibition dates: 10th August – 4th September 2010

Exhibition dates: 22 April – 18 July 2010

Addendum: A Pencil for Your Thoughts

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