In what ways did the greats of the 20th century try their hand at jewelry? Here are their creations, from Fontana to Dalí, Picasso to Man Ray

It is not a subject known to everyone, but many of the great artists of the 20th century (whether painters, sculptors, photographers) tried their hand at jewelry making, producing extraordinary masterpieces in gold and precious stones and contributing to the contamination between the arts in goldsmithing as well. Through Sept. 8, 2019, the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche in Urbino is hosting an exhibition entitled Scultura Aurea and curated by Paola Stroppiana, which presents some of the creations of many of the greats of the 20th century. Several of these works are works characterized by the typical elements of the sculptures, paintings or photographs of the artists who created them, while others represent sui generis research worthy of recognition. Let us see some examples of them below.

1. Alexander Calder, Flower head piece
Flower head piece is a tiara by American Alexander Calder (Lawnton, 1898 - New York, 1976), known for his kinetic art sculptures that occupy rooms suspended from the ceiling. Typical of his imagery is the use of forms taken from the plant world: in this case the protagonist of the jewel-sculpture is a flower, which nevertheless takes a form not very frequent in Calder’s sculptural works, with the petals arranged to form a stylized corolla.

Alexander Calder, Flower head piece (1940; hammered brass, metal base, 25.4 x 15 cm, one piece; London, Louisa Guinness Gallery)

2. Salvador Dalí, La persistencia del sonido
For Salvador Dalí (Figueres, 1904 - 1989), the ear was a symbol of harmony and unity, and his earrings (their name, in Italian, is “the persistence of sound”) resemble the shape of two telephone handsets: this design, the artist himself wrote, “reminds us of the rapidity of modern communication, the hope and danger of sudden changes of thought.”) Telephones, after all, are often present in the Spanish artist’s work: just think of the very famous lobster-phone.

Salvador Dalí, La persistencia del sonido (1949; earrings, 18-karat gold, rubies, emeralds, diamonds, 4.4 x 1.9 cm; London, Didier and Martine Haspeslagh, Didier Ltd)

3. Giorgio De Chirico, Horse with knight in Phrygian cap .
Giorgio De Chirico’s (Volos, 1888 - Rome, 1978) brooch is an exact reproduction, in jewelry form, of one of his sculptures depicting a knight with a Phrygian cap riding his horse. This was a theme that De Chirico tackled and replicated several times throughout his career: the Phrygian cap is also present in other paintings as a symbol of freedom (it was the cap worn by freedmen in antiquity and was later the symbolic headgear of French revolutionaries).

Giorgio De Chirico, Horse with knight wearing Phrygian cap (ca. 1950; brooch, 18-karat gold, 6.8 x 4.5 cm; London, Didier and Martine Haspeslagh, Didier Ltd)

4. Gino Severini, Brooch
Gino Severini (Cortona, 1883 - Paris, 1966), one of the most representative artists of Futurism, experienced a conspicuous decline in his production after the 1930s, which came to an almost complete halt after the war. This brooch, however, is one of the extreme works of his production and seems almost a summa, translated into jewelry, of the characteristics of his futurist art, to which he had returned precisely after World War II after experiencing a fairly long classicist interlude: his brooch is thus a combination of dynamism, speed, and shapes in transformation.

Gino Severini, Brooch (early 1960s; white gold, yellow gold, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, diamonds, 6 x 3.5 cm, one piece; London, Didier and Martine Haspeslagh, Didier Ltd)

5. Georges Braque, Helena
Georges Braque (Argenteuil, 1882 - Paris, 1963) created a series of jewelry inspired by characters from mythology: in this case we have Helena, a brooch that takes the form of a stylized female face similar to those found in so many paintings by the French artist, one of the greatest exponents of Cubism.

Georges Braque, Helena (1963; brooch, 18-karat gold, turquoise, enamels, diamonds, 6.2 x 4.8 cm; London, Didier and Martine Haspeslagh, Didier Ltd)

6. Gio Pomodoro, Necklace
Of the artists of the twentieth century, Gio’ Pomodoro (Orciano di Pesaro, 1930 - Milan, 2002) was among the most active in the field of goldsmithing: his jewelry represents an important part of his production, and it was precisely with jewelry that he participated at a very young age of twenty-six in the 1956 Venice Biennale. His works in gold and precious stones from the 1960s reflect his research on forms in tension, which can also be seen in part in the ripples that characterize the elements of this highly original necklace, one of the highest products of his goldsmithing.

Giò Pomodoro, Necklace (1964; pure gold, red gold, white gold, emeralds, rubies, 19 x 14 cm, one piece; Seravezza, Collection B. Pomodoro)

7. Arnaldo Pomodoro, Brooch
Like his brother-in-law Gio’, Arnaldo Pomodoro (Morciano di Romagna, 1926) also conducted various research in the field of jewelry art. This is a strand that appears in his production as early as the 1940s and that the artist has never abandoned. Usually his jewelry reflects his sculptural research, as in the case of this brooch characterized by the geometric breaks that reveal the internal mechanisms of the work.

Arnaldo Pomodoro, Brooch (1964; rose gold, geode, rubies, diamonds, 7 x 7.2 cm, one piece; London, Didier and Martine Haspeslagh, Didier Ltd)

8. Lucio Fontana, Spatial Concept.
The egg is a recurring element in the art of Lucio Fontana (Rosario, 1899 - Comabbio, 1968) and is particularly prominent in the series End of God: the egg, which for the Italian-Argentine artist represents the beginning of a new life after the end of another phase, also appears in this Spatial Concept of his from the 1960s (Fontana had also given the jewelry the same title he envisioned for his most famous works such as cuts and holes).

Lucio Fontana, Spatial Concept (1962-1967; bracelet, 18-karat gold, height 8.5 cm; London, Didier and Martine Haspeslagh, Didier Ltd)

9. Giorgio Facchini, Kinetic Movements .
Giorgio Facchini (Fano, 1947) is perhaps the only artist presented here for whom goldsmithing is the privileged terrain: more than a jeweler, however, he is a “sculptor of jewelry,” since his creations present strongly sculptural lines that draw inspiration from the most up-to-date research in Italian and international sculpture. His “wearable sculptures” are moving forms with strong, sharp lines.

Giorgio Facchini, Kinetic Movements (1969; bracelet in white gold, 18 karat, red gold, silver, rubies, one piece; Collection of the artist, ph. credit Michele Sereni)

10. Umberto Mastroianni, Meteora
Umberto Mastroianni (Fontana Liri, 1910 - Marino, 1998) also transported to the field of jewelry the insights he developed in the field of sculpture. This Meteora, a pendant, is one of his most appreciated creations and is part of the “astral” phase of his production: in fact, starting in the 1970s Mastroianni began to be inspired by the elements of the cosmos.

Umberto Mastroianni, Meteora (1970; necklace, yellow gold, white gold, executed by Diderico Gherardi, pendant diameter 10 cm, torque diameter 12.8 cm, one piece; London, Didier and Martine Haspeslagh, Didier Ltd)

11. Man Ray, Optic Topic
Man Ray (Philadelphia, 1890 - Paris, 1976) developed his Optic Topic in 1972 together with Italian jeweler Gian Carlo Montebello: the work began as a pair of sunglasses that instead of having lenses had a pitted surface, then the artist decided to transform it into a mask. “This mask,” he had written in 1975 in a letter to Montebello, “must not be used for any practical function, but must simply be worn or held in the hand. The title? Optic topic.” Curiously, the title (which in Italian would sound like “optic topic”) is composed of two words that are anagrams of each other.

Man Ray, Optic Topic (1972; silver gilt, 18 x 9.7 cm; London, Didier and Martine Haspeslagh, Didier Ltd)

12. Pablo Picasso, Visage de faune .
The Visage de fa une appears in several works by Pablo Picasso (Malaga, 1881 - Mougins, 1973), mostly in ceramics, but here it is the protagonist of a gold medallion. The first realization having as its theme the face of a faun dates from 1955 and communicates to us all the interest in mythology that recurs in much of the production of the great Cubist painter and sculptor.

Pablo Picasso, Visage de faune (1973; medallion, 23-karat gold, 5.5 cm; London, Didier and Martine Haspeslagh, Didier Ltd)

13. Niki de Saint Phalle, Assemblage necklace .
This necklace by Niki de Saint Phalle (Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1930 - San Diego, 2002) was produced in various editions from 1974 to 2015. It is a typical assemblage by the French artist, repurposing in jewelry form one of the colorful characters that crowd her imagery.

Niki de Saint Phalle, Assemblage necklace (1974/2015; 18-karat yellow gold, 13 x 8 cm; London, Louisa Guinness Gallery)

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