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what is Artistic Jewelry?
Jewelry has always been considered as a form of art throughout the art history. Today, jewelry is seen in major museums along with other works of art. For instance, in History of Art Museum of Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien), jewels are displayed besides paintings and sculpture. However, the names of major jewelers have not been as indelible as those of painters and sculptors. This issue has been the result of not only several cultural, social, and even political reasons, but also the special situation of jewelry. On the other hand, certain jewels were created since the outset of the 20th Century by people who were not professional jewelers, but major painters and sculptors. Men of art such as Picasso, Dali, Manrique and others viewed jewelry as a wearable work of art and, like painting and sculpture, considered it as a certain form of artistic presentation. Such works of art are referred to as artistic jewelry, created by an artist. Such type of artists were professional jewelers and did not created many works in the field of jewelry and were not even quite familiar with jewelry making techniques. Instead, they saw jewelry as an art presentation medium. Their works were made in limited edition or as a single piece. Furthermore, these works of art followed different production process and purposes, and were targeted to give a message, challenge the one who wears the jewelry, and were in a way, the statement of the artist. Such works were the opposite of mass jewelry production and were more focused on their uniqueness. This way, they confront commercial design through creating conceptual works and the message of such works. They considered jewelry as a piece of art.
I plan to introduce and analyze these artistic jewels for a while on a weekly basis. Therefore, net week I will briefly review their history.
Banafsheh Hemmati