La Leipsig

On Sunday 18 March 2012 Marjan Unger gave a lecture in the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich.  The big auditorium was a who is who of the Art Jewellers world. Together we listened to Marjan’s  very thoughtfull lecture: Freedom has its limitations. Jewellery now, seen from a Dutch perspective. For me this was one of the highlight of the events during Schmuck 2012.
Her lecture was one part an extension of her thesis from 2010: “Jewellery in context, a multidisciplinary framework of the consideration of the jewel”.  Second part of the lecture was about the changes in the world around us and what it had for consequences in the jewellery world. She ended addressing specifically the makers in the audience motivating them to participate in todays exiting changes.

The lecture has been printed and is available through the Neue Sammelungs website. I can recommend it to anyone interested in contemporary jewellery to give it a good read:
Freedom has its limitations. Jewellery now, seen from a Dutch perspective.  (link to the lecture is on the bottom of the page)

As the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam reopens in 2013, the Unger jewelry collection donated on obtaining her PhD, will be on permanent display.  The collection contains Dutch jewelry with an emphasis on 1930 to 1970. She used it for her book  ‘DutchJewellery in the 20th Century’, that served as the starting point for her doctoral research.

The complete review about my trip to Munich is published on Art Jewelry Forum.

Previous post about Schmuck: Jewellery in Munich

The jury of the Herbert Hofmann Award 2012

The catalog of the exhibition.

Every year in march are makers, wearers and onlookers of jewellery gathered in Munich, Germany, to see and talk about studio-jewellery in all its aspects. How did this happen?

It all started with the first special jewellery show “Schmuck” in 1959, initialized by Herbert Hoffmann. It was and still is, part of the Internationale Handwerksmesse (trade fair), an annual sales exhibition in Munich.  The fair in 2012 existed of 6 big halls where around 900 businesses representing more than 60 trades are displaying their innovative products.
Hal A1 is dedicated to Handcraft & Design, showing woodwork, bavarian clothing, glasswork and more beside independent jewellery designers. This hal A1 is also were the jewellery exhibition “Schmuck” is located.
Since 1973 the Herbert Hofmann Award is given to work in this exhibition.
The work that is awarded is weight on “innovativeness, originality of conception, outstanding execution, and ornamental effect”, according to the catalogue.
This year prizes where awarded to Alexander Blank, Despo Sophocleous and Tore Svensson.

In conjunction with “Schmuck” there is, since 1979, also Talente. Here young artists till 35 year can send in work to be juried into the exhibition. Quote from the Fair site: “TALENTE is an international competition for young craftsmen and women in design and technology. This special show reflects the ideas of young people in the context of an experimental approach to materials and craft techniques. The best entries are awarded the highly sought-after TALENTE prize”  This year Talente 2012 winner is Märta Mattsson.
Montserrat Lacomba from Mar de color rosa was also there and you can see some more pictures on her site.

Märta Mattsson. Broche from the "fossils" serie. Zikade, zerstossener Pyrit, Azurit und Kupfererz, Kunststoff, silver

Galleries in Munich town soon saw the opportunity of the people already gathered around this prestigeous prize and made sure they offered gallery openings with new work. So the Schmuck exhibition became the name giver of the whole event of showing and talking about contemporary jewellery in Munich. It is also know as “Jewellery in Munich”
It attracts many jewellery afficionados as I am one. This extensive jewellery gallery list gives you an idea of all that happens in town: Jewellery exhibition list.

As it was my first time going to Schmuck 2012 I joined the organized trip from Art Jewelry Forum to being led around in the city of Munich. This was an excellent choice because of the opportunities to visit for example studio’s of artists, the Academy of Fine Arts and several galleries with a tour.
In next posts I will focus more on what I actually have been doing and the galleries I was able to visit.

Next post:
A lecture from Marjan Unger during “Schmuck 2012″: Freedom has its limitations.

[Nomenclature according to Wikipedia about Schmuck]