Seeing jewelry in museums seems natural enough, but that wasn’t the case for the longest time! Until the end of the 19th century, such institutions were dedicated to painting, sculpture or even goldsmithing. No museums, galleries or even showcases were  specifically dedicated to jewelry. The Victoria & Albert Museum (London) was the first to buy a jewel in 1851, during the world fair in London known as the Great Exhibition. Meanwhile, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris received its first jewel in 1878: a necklace donated by the jeweler Émile-Désiré Philippe. Jewelry was at last seen as heritage – better late than never!

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Coming soon: 5 new ways to discover jewelry in museums

Shored up by the success of his jewelry created by Mucha for the 1900 Universal Exhibition, Fouquet asked the famous Czech artist to design his new store at 6 Rue Royale, opposite Maxim’s.

The Musée des Arts Décoratifs has just bought  a unique book from Wartski, entitled, “Les Émaux Cloisonnés Anciens et Modernes” (“Ancient and Modern Cloisonné Enamels”). A very fitting purchase, because the enamel plaque, whose cover was inlaid and made by the jeweller Alexis Falize, was first exhibited there in 1869. It was Katherine Purcell, associate director of Wartski and author of “Falize: A Dynasty of Jewelers” who spotted it and describes it in this video. During your trip to see it at the MAD (from April in the “Japonism” room), don’t miss Falize’s other pieces in the gallery des Bijoux.

When I saw the exhibition “Fendre l’air – Art of bamboo in Japan”, I immediately thought of Tina Chow’s jewelry.

The Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris has a collection of over 5,000 necklaces, bracelets, brooches and rings. A thousand of them are presented in two rooms of the gallery des Bijoux. A presentation of the historical part in a video with a commentary by the chief curator, Evelyne Possémé.

The French Jewelry Post is not only a news site: I also organize events, private visits, meetings, and more besides. As part of the partnership with the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, TFJP recently held a mother-daughter workshop. After a visit to the gallery des Bijoux to explore the various materials and periods, Romy, Blanche, Salomé, Anaïs, Alice, Manon and others created their own jewelry. Selected highlights.

Alongside works by architects, builders and interior designers, the exhibition “U. A. M. : une aventure moderne” features around twenty jewelry items from the collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. In 1929, designers including Jean Desprès, Jean Fouquet, Gérard Sandoz and Raymond Templier joined the U. A. M. (Union of Modern Artists), eager to move fast, change the world and create something new. A world away from jewelers like Boucheron and Cartier, these inventors of modern jewelry banished all superfluous ornamentation, simplified lines and found stimulation in machines, speed and mechanical pieces like nuts, bolts and ball bearings. To create more affordable pieces, they used cheaper stones like citrine and amethyst, or lacquer. And yet they only really appealed to enthusiasts and an elite that included the Maharajah of Indore. The U. A. M. was dissolved in 1958.

« U. A. M., une aventure moderne », 30 May to 27 August 2018 at the Centre Pompidou

To read : « Raymond Templier – Le bijou moderne » by Laurence Mouillefarine and Véronique Ristelhueber,  Norma Editions , 2005.

Though the name of Henri Vever was eclipsed by René Lalique’s, this Paris jeweler played a key role in Art nouveau.

The Palais Galliera and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs are both organizing exhibitions devoted to Martin Margiela: one on his company, the other on his years at Hermès. The perfect opportunity to discover his jewelry, which is no less design-driven than his clothes.

The exhibition features five jewelry items by one of the French artists who founded Cubism. In 1961, the octogenarian Georges Braque asked the jeweler- lapidary Heger de Löewenfeld to transform a series of his gouaches based on Greek mythology. “Find the truth in the object; don’t represent it. Prove its existence, but don’t get hung up on similarities,” were his instructions. Two of the pieces on show belong to Diane Venet’s collection, and two others to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, which in 1963, at André Malraux’s behest, devoted an exhibition to them called “Bijoux de Braque”.

“Artists’ jewelry from Calder to Koons – Diane Venet’s ideal collection” at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, from March 7^th until July 8^th, 2018

Image : Georges Braque and Heger of Löwenfeld

From Picasso’s jewels to those of Ai Weiwei, this exhibition featuring Diane Venet’s personal collection, enriched with exceptional loans, shines a spotlight on a more intimate history of art.