Madame (1960s), by Jean Cocteau. (Greg Favre/Courtesy Norton Museum of Art)
Speedy (2007), by Kenny Scharf. (Courtesy Norton Museum of Art)
Montre petite cuillère (Small Spoon Watch), 1957, by Salvador Dalí. (Philippe Servent/Courtesy Norton Museum of Art)
Jewelry is often viewed as adornment — beautiful, intricate and valuable, but also relegated to the decorative arts section in museum shows and exhibits, and too rarely thought of as art in its own right.
You wouldn’t be alone if you didn’t realize that renowned artists such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Niki de Saint Phalle created jewelry, a genre overlooked by both the public and art experts, most likely because jewelry-making was viewed as a craft and typically considered “women’s wear.”
In the Norton Museum of Art’s latest exhibit Artists’ Jewelry: From Cubism to Pop, the Diane Venet Collection, running through Oct. 5, jewelry comes out of the closet and makes a full appearance as fine art.
The exhibit showcases jewelry made by leading artists alongside artworks from the Norton’s collection.
The exhibit comes from the private collection of French-born Diane Venet, a lifelong art enthusiast who knew many of these artists personally. A number of pieces were created expressly for her, including one by Pop artist Robert Indiana, who created his iconic “love” ring for her in gold.
Also made for her is a glass pendant (For Diane) by Colorado minimalist sculptor DeWain Valentine and a 2009 Frank Stella overly large, bow-tie necklace, Untitled, made from steel and gold paint.
Many of the artist-designed jewelry pieces were not made for commercial purposes, but created as expressions or tokens of love or friendship, and thus even more valued by the owner.
Venet began her collecting career almost by chance, although she came from a family of collectors. Arriving in New York City in the early 1980s, Venet was unable to get a work visa to continue her work as a journalist. In France she worked as a radio and television journalist and co-hosted a weekly culture program, Samedi Soir (Saturday Night).
She began to work with her husband, sculptor Bernar Venet, and organized exhibitions around the world, meeting many artists, including Stella and Robert Rauschenberg, both of whom gave her a unique piece of jewelry, and who would later become friends.
She bought her first piece of jewelry from Joan Sonnabend, a New York and Boston art dealer, and has been collecting ever since for the past 40 years. Among her favorites were two she was wearing at the Norton Museum preview — an oversized, amaranth wood and gold ring, The Zervodexos, created by Greek sculptor Sophia Vari, who was married to Colombian artist Fernando Botero.
Around Venet’s neck was a large silver necklace created by French artist Faust Cardinali.
“I am so honored that the Norton Museum has invited me to share these special pieces with a larger public,” says Venet, who came in from Paris for the opening.
She is very attached to her collection, saying: “I will never sell; it’s an endless love story.”
The exhibit opens with the engagement ring and love story between her and her husband, Bernar, who sculpted a massive silver cylindrical ring made from a silver stick for her, symbolizing their love together. The two married in 1985.
Accompany visitors through the exhibition is an original soundtrack, Sweet Vanitas, created by Venet’s friend, the Italian artist and composer Sheila Concari. It uses spoken word techniques, including excerpts of Venet’s reflections on her collection, and varying sounds designed to complement the visual components of the exhibit.
“Diane Venet’s collection is second to none,” says Ghislain d’Humières, the Norton’s CEO. “The necklaces, rings, brooches, earrings, headpieces, and more that she has collected feature incredible details rendered in interesting materials by some of the most famous artists of our time.”
This is the first time that pieces from Venet’s collection are on exhibit alongside companion artworks by many of the same artists.
The 189 pieces of jewelry are juxtaposed alongside related paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from the Norton’s collection, including Picasso oil paintings and Roy Lichtenstein lithographs creating a visual dialogue between the jewelry and the other art forms.
“We realize that jewelry is not a separate category, but part of the larger art-making process,” says J. Rachel Gustafson, chief curatorial operations and research officer at the Norton. “With this exhibit, we realize there is no more dividing line between jewelry and the fine arts.”
The exhibit is organized into seven sections including, Avant Garde and Surrealism; Abstraction; Pop Art and Nouveau Realisme; Minimalism and Conceptualism; Kinetic Art; Nature and the Body; and Contemporary Works.
A number of the installations are interactive.
Visitors can place their hands under a plexiglass display and see what it is like to wear a Warhol watch or in another, to envision how an “outfit” of jewelry looks.
Included in the exhibition are jewelry by Rashid Johnson, Yayoi Kusama, Man Ray, Kiki Smith, Georges Braque, Louise Nevelson, Max Ernst and others. While many of the jewelry items are made from hammered metals and precious stones, others are made from found objects and other unconventional materials.
The jewelry pieces on display are a balance between fine art and popular culture, allowing visitors to view works by artists they may know, and to view them in a new context.
Also on display are charms by Picasso and Braque, whimsical headpieces by Claude Lalanne and Ray, surreal brooches by Dorothea Tanning and Dalí, and abstract pieces by Nevelson and Arnaldo Pomodoro.
Other highlights of the exhibit include Ray’s Optic Topic (1974), a face mask modeled after a driving mask fabricated in 18-karat gold, purchased by Venet as a gift for her husband; a chunky gold ring designed by Yoko Ono resembling a vinyl record with “Imagine Peace” engraved on it for her husband, John Lennon; and a 1967 gold and enamel geometric necklace by Meret Oppenheim, titled, Tête de poète (Poet’s Head).
Also of interest in the pop culture section are a pair of massive gold elongated spiral earrings made by Ray and worn by Catherine Deneuve in the 1967 film Belle du Jour.
A 23-karat gold pendant designed by Picasso, Le Grand Faune (1973), and two brooches are paired with two of his 1950s earthenware pieces with painted faces and his 1956 painting L’Atelier, connecting themes across media.
Andy Warhol’s color lithograph, Vesuvius 365 (1985), is mounted next to Venet’s black steel Warhol watch.
In the kinetic section is Two Lines with Spirals, a necklace by kinetic artist Georges Rickey, whose sculpture, Two Open Rectangles, Excentric, Variation VI, sits in the museum’s outdoor sculpture garden.
After viewing, it is apparent that these jewelry pieces in and of themselves are each a work of art, with the same characteristics as the artists’ other works, even making a statement or challenging the viewer’s perceptions, set apart by their wearability and no longer relegated to second-class status.
Gustafson grappled with the idea of categorizing the jewelry pieces when the show was conceived. People looked at her askance when she mentioned “artist jewelry.”
“We have to unpack our biases,” she says, “and look at why we value it less.”
She notes that an artist (think Nevelson) may even use the same materials (assemblages) to create his or her work and jewelry.
“So, what’s the difference if it’s on a body or on a pedestal?” says Gustafson, who admits to being surprised to learn how many artists also made jewelry.
Her favorite pieces in the show are the kinetic pieces, especially the 1968 gold kinetic bracelet cuff (Balls on Both Sides of a Cylinder) made by Belgian sculptor Pol Bury, composed of small half-spheres that undulate so the viewer can feel their movement.
“Kinetic artists engage with the idea of perception and movement,” she says. “I love the idea of an artist who can translate the kinetic motion to a piece of wearable jewelry.”
“There’s something special about these pieces,” she says.
It just may be enough to challenge people’s perceptions and usher in a new era where “artist-jewelry” is celebrated as an essential and integral part of fine art.
If You Go
Artists’ Jewelry: From Cubism to Pop, the Diane Venet Collection runs through Oct. 5 at the Norton Museum of Art, 1450 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach.
Hours: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm; Friday, 10 am to 10 pm, Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm. Closed Tuesdays. Admission: $18 adults, $15 seniors, students, $5, children 12 and under, free.
Call 561-832-5196 or visit www.norton.org.