In the visually sumptuous book Art as Jewellery: From Calder to Kapoor, London gallerist and author Louisa Guinness showcases little-known jewellery creations by 78 of the 20th century’s most celebrated artists, including Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, Salvador Dalí, Nikki Saint Phalle, Louise Nevelson, Alexander Calder, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, and Jeff Koons.
The sparkling content expands on what Guinness, a stock broker turned art dealer, has spent the past 15 years doing at her Sloane Street gallery—creating a new market for art as jewellery through commissions and acquisitions of already existing original pieces.
You come away having learned about the history of art as personal adornment…
These wearable works of art, often one-of-a kind, handmade objects displaying a uniqueness of design, are collectibles as covetable as anything by Max Ernst or Alberto Giacometti, to mention two more artists included in Guinness’ extraordinary lineup. Each artist is afforded a great deal of respect. Alexander English’s full-page interpretative photographs of their creations accompany insightful essays explaining not just the aesthetic importance of the work, but where they fit in the artist’s oeuvre. Archival images and documentary-style photography produced in house by Guinness gallery photographer Richard Valencia lend the book pictorial variety and an air of scholarship that draws you in, not just through the eyes but through the intellect.
You come away having learned about the history of art as personal adornment during the Renaissance and how artists today, among them Peter Blake and Michael Craig-Martin, British creators who have worked collaboratively with the Louisa Guinness Gallery, are taking jewellery design in fresh new directions.
Art as Jewellery: From Calder to Kapoor from ACC Art Books, 2017.
