Friday, November 27, 2009

Imperishable Beauty at the Cincinnati Art Museum



For those of you in the Ohio area, there's a new exhibit of Arts Nouveau Jewellery at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Entitled "Imperishable Beauty," the exhibit opened November 17, 2009, and features jewellery designed by René Lalique, Henri Vever, Philippe Wolfers and Tiffany & Co. In addition, textiles by William Morris, posters by Alphonse Mucha, Tiffany glass, silver, and ceramics from the Cincinnati Art Museum’s permanent collection will also be featured in order to give a background for the art movements that influenced these designers.

One of the staggering aspects of Art Nouveau jewellery is the realism and detail that the best designers were able to bring to their work. This dragonfly brooch by Belgian artist Philippe Wolfers (Belgian, 1858–1929) is constructed from platinum, gold, enamel, diamond, ruby, and pearl, but it looks so life-like. Beautiful, useful, and true to nature - definitely wearable art!


The exhibition will run from now until January 17, 2010. For more information, visit the Cincinnati Art Museum website. There are a number of related programmes and events that sound like a lot of fun!

Images courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Top image: Orchid brooch, 1901. Georges Fouquet (French, 1862–1957). Gold, enamel, diamond, and pearl.
at

5 comments:

  1. RobinNovember 27, 2009 at 7:42 PM

    Headed to see this next month! I can't wait :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. TracyNovember 28, 2009 at 7:00 AM

    Oh...wish I were closer to go see! I'm a big fan of Art Nouveau jewelry--the excellent of craftsmanship and attention to accurately portray items inspired by the natural world is quite unsurpassed. These examples are exquisite! Happy Weekend, Margaret! :o)

    ReplyDelete
  3. RowanNovember 30, 2009 at 12:30 AM

    What beautiful pieces of jewellery, I'd love to see this exhibition.

    ReplyDelete
  4. HelsNovember 30, 2009 at 2:51 PM

    Art Nouveau had a fascination for nature, fantasy and the exotic East, even in stylised organic forms. It is a shame, but I doubt that young women would love those jewellery styles now.

    Another of the joys of Victorian and Edwardian jewellery was the meaning of the materials and shapes - love, remembrance, eternity, purity etc. We seem to have lost this, too, in the last 100 years.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Tess KincaidDecember 1, 2009 at 7:57 AM

    Thanks for the heads up, Margaret! I'm planning a trip south!

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.