Jewelery by artists from Picasso to Jeff Koons @ Musée des Arts Décoratifs
From Alexander Calder to Jeff Koons and ranging from Max Ernst, Pablo Picasso and Niki de Saint Phalle to César, Takis and Louise Bourgeois, a host of modern and contemporary artists have taken a close interest in jewellery. Diane Venet, who has collected artist’s jewellery for more than thirty years, is sharing her passion for these miniature artworks that often echo the artist’s formal language. Her collection of some 230 pieces, complemented by exceptional loans from galleries, collectors and the artists’ families, chronologically and thematically illustrates the work of 150 French and foreign artists. From March 7 to July 8, 2018, Diane Venet’s jewellery collection will be showcased in an exhibition designed by interior architect Antoine Plazanet and graphic designers ÉricandMarie.
Diane Venet, wife of the Bernar Venet, remembers the origin of her ground breaking collection: “My passion for artists’ jewellery began one day when Bernar playfully bent a thin silver band around my left ring finger to make me a wedding ring… But this touchingly spontaneous gesture had another effect on me, that of prompting me to discover the too little known world of these unique objets d’art, priceless for their rarity and the symbolic meaning that is often the genesis of their creation”.
Orlan, Broche Tête de fou, 2010
The exhibition begins with avant-garde artists who have explored the realm of the “Portrait”. Picasso, fascinated by the sculptural potential of two-dimensional materials, explored this theme with great economy of means, while Derain translated his admiration for Benin in his “bijoutées” bronze heads.
The provocative ideas of the Surrealists are evoked in the “Dream and Fantasy” section, with Man Ray’s perforated mask, the jewellery of Salvador Dalí, and the dreamlike universes of Jean Cocteau and Léonor Fini. – Musée des Arts Décoratifs
Musée des Arts Décoratifs
107, rue de Rivoli, Paris
Opening hours:
• Tuesdays to Sundays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• From March 22, 2018, it is open until 9 p.m. on Thursdays (Temporary Exhibitions only).
• Closed on Mondays.
